Dokter Wie was the first of the four original foreign language adaptations of Doctor Who, as agreed in the original 2017 deal with foreign broadcasters, NPO, RTVE, TVN and SVT, with CBS Corporation and BBC Studios. It was formally commissioned in September 2017 and began filming just a few months later in January. The main TARDIS team were based upon the original 1963 team, and so was the first episode, although a great many changes were made, as you’ll soon find out.
HET VREEMDE MEISJE
Season 1, Episode 1
Written by MAARTEN VAN DER DUIN
Directed by HANRO SMITSMAN
TX Date – 11 October 2018
This episode is largely the same as An Unearthly Child although Ian is now Evert, Barbara is Berendjen and Susan is Stijntje, although she has now been changed to the Dokter’s daughter, instead of granddaughter, to accommodate for Wendy van Dijk’s age, in comparison to Jade Olieberg, playing a 16-year-old character. The setting is changed from Shoreditch, London to Overschie, Rotterdam and the episode is another 20 minutes long, so naturally, there’s a bit more plot here. Firstly, the opening sees the TARDIS, which in this show is stuck as a Dutch Telefoon Box (albeit with tinted windows), lands in the junkyard with a police officer seeing it, and thinks he’s gone mad. We then cut to 5 Months Later, whereby the plot of An Unearthly Child takes place. The biggest difference here is that it’s told over two nights instead of one, with Evert and Berendjen first discussing their curiosities around Stijntje and then the second day we see them interact with her. The French Revolution book is switched to one about the life of Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn, who is established to be Berendjen’s favourite painter. Over the second day, we see the flashback classroom scenes from An Unearthly Child, throughout the day as they happen, and then after school Evert and Berendjen investigate Stijntje, which leads them finally to talking to the police officer, from the beginning, who leads them to the junkyard, which they see Stijntje walking into, just as they arrive. However, another big divergence to the plot happens here, as some of the plot from God Save the Queen is stolen, as a Raston Assassin Robot is there, and the Dokter and Stijntje are fighting it and trying to save Earth in the process. Evert and Berendjen get in the way of this and nearly mess everything up, this happens at the same time as the middle of An Unearthly Child, and when the Raston Robot is defeated, the final TARDIS scene takes place, with the Dokter explaining everything to Evert, and setting the controls to dematerialise in order to prevent the two from exposing them. While a lot of the story beats are the same as An Unearthly Child, big differences include the Dokter’s character is a lot warmer than the first doctor, probably most like the Tenth Doctor in character, also it’s a lot more action, adventure, orientated due to the inclusion of an antagonist, rather than just the creeping mystery vibe of the original, making it more like a modern-day opener to a new season of the show.
HET LANGE SPEL
Season 1, Episode 2
Written by SIMON DE WAAL
Directed by HANRO SMITSMAN
TX Date – 18 October 2018
This episode is another adaptation, like most this season, and this time it’s of the Season 31 serial, the Long Game, although the space station is changed from Satellite 5 to the Nerva Beacon, as you can expect the Ark in Space will be showing up, later on, to tie into this. Basically, it’s the same, with Evert and Berendjen getting their first taste of the future. Evert takes Bernice’s role in the story, and tries to take knowledge from the future, back to the past, as he’s a science teacher, he’s extremely curious about it all. Berendjen and Stijntje take Henrick’s role in the story and are just alongside the Dokter for the duration of the episode.
DE WATEREN VAN AMSTERDAM
Season 1, Episode 3
Written by THOMAS VAN DER REE
Directed by TIM OLIEHOEK
TX Date – 25 October 2018
The third episode is the first and only original story in this particular season and is a historical based around, Berendjen’s favourite painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It begins when Berendjen is showing the Dokter some of his work and the Dokter notices that the painting ‘Schip van de Sterren’ are working designs for a spaceship. And thus they hop back in time and find out what’s going on, and all the usual stuff happens, including Berendjen getting to meet her favourite painter of all time.
DE KWADE PLANTEN
Season 1, Episodes 4 & 5
Written by MAARTEN VAN DER DUIN
Directed by HANRO SMITSMAN
TX Date -1-8 November 2018
The mid-season two-parter is an adaptation of the Seeds of Doom, and it’s mostly, beat for beat the same, except parts of the Fourth Doctor’s role is split up with the Dokter and Evert, and part of Sarah’s role is split up with Berendjen and Stijntje, also the whole first two episodes of the original story is cut down to a 6-minute pre-title sequence. For the Kyronid costumes, NPO borrowed the BBC costumes as made for the Greenhouse Effect, a few years earlier.
HET RUIMTESTATION
Season 1, Episode 6
Written by SIMON DE WAAL
Directed by HANRO SMITSMAN
TX Date -15 November 2018
This episode is the Ark in Space, and is set 10,000 years after the events of the Long Game, and sees the Nerva Beacon, no longer a news station but now filled with sleepers after solar flares ravaged the earth. Basically, it’s the same as the Ark in Space. Evert shares the Dokter’s role in the story, with Berendjen taking Harry’s original role, and Stijntje taking Sarah’s original role, although some scenes handle this differently, such as the air duct scene whereby Evert takes the role of the Fourth Doctor and Berendjen takes the role of Sarah.
TIJD KRIJGER
Season 1, Episode 7
Written by THOMAS VAN DER REE
Directed by TIM OLIEHOEK
TX Date – 22 November 2018
The seventh episode sees an adaptation of the Time Warrior, but the main difference being that it’s set in 13th Century Holland, with all the UNIT stuff at the start being cut out. The Sontaran costumes were like the Kyronoids, reuses of the BBC’s costumes, which were created for Season 40, but it’s the new makeup used in Season 52, that this adaptation also uses.
RUIMTE SONGFESTIVAL
Season 1, Episode 8
Written by PASJA VAN DAM
Directed by TIM OLIEHOEK
TX Date – 29 November 2018
The last episode before the finale, is the latest adaptation so far, and is an adaptation of the Food of Love, and is mostly the same as the original. The biggest changes are the fact that instead of the contest being called the Intergalactic Song Contest, it’s now called Ruimte Songfestival or Space Song Festival, to use it’s translated name, although the English dub calls it the Intergalactic Song Festival. The whole setup is completely changed with the Dokter just taking everyone to watch it, for entertainment, although it’s still set on Tolia. Also, real-life Dutch Eurovision star, Edsilia Rombley, cameos as Earth’s contestant, and the only other races we see are the ones from this season so, the Raston Robots, the Jagrafess, the Nix, the Wirrn (even) and the Sontarans, although the Kryonids were not seen, they were mentioned on the scoreboard. Finally, the song that the team sings at the end of the contest is Ding-A-Dong, instead of Puppet on a String. Like with the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, Wendy van Dijk was booked to make a similar appearance to Samantha Bond, at the 2020 Contest, a couple of years later, hosted by the Netherlands. This did not come to pass due to the contest’s cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DE SLECHTE DALEKS
Season 1, Episodes 9 & 10
Written by MAARTEN VAN DER DUIN
Directed by HANRO SMITSMAN
TX Date – 6-13 December 2018
The finale introduces the Daleks to the show, reusing, again, BBC props, created for Season 47. It’s (mostly) an adaptation of Genesis of the Daleks, with it being altered to be the Dokter’s first encounter with the Daleks. It’s mostly the same, although some elements from The Daleks are used, and quite a bit of padding, especially during the middle episodes, is completely removed. The main difference is that the Daleks take more of a centre stage, carrying out some of their plan from The Daleks, instead of the more backseat role they took in Genesis. Finally, once they get back to the TARDIS, the season ends on a cliffhanger as the Dokter loses control of the TARDIS and she says that her people, the Time Lords, are bringing them to her and Stijntje’s home planet, as it cuts to end credits and thus the first season of Dokter Wie ends.
WIDWWA 