Making us terrified of innocent things like statues, snowmen, and Christmas since some year I'm too lazy to look up!

I remember watching Blink for the first time at a slumber party with my bestie. Neither of us could sleep anytime soon after that, especially since her bedroom had a freaking angel statue in it. We spent the whole night sending the damn thing nervous looks before she locked it in her trunk.

(Are you sure that statue didn't just move? >:D )

Nah, kidding.

Okay, first off, the Doctor isn't a scientist, and he's not a doctor, either. Well, he has an honorary doctorate and a PHD in cheesemaking, but that's neither here nor there. He's an alien species called a Time Lord, and the explanation for his different actors is that, whenever something happens that would normally kill him, instead of dying, he regenerates into a new body. (This is applicable to all Time Lords.)

The cute robot sounds like K-9, a companion of the Fourth Doctor's who made a reappearance during the Tenth Doctor's run. K-9 is just one of many companions the Doctor has had (though most of them were human females); while travelling time and space for centuries, you do get lonely.

The time travel machine is the TARDIS (stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), and though most TARDISes have a nifty thing called a Chameleon Circuit that lets them disguise themselves for something setting-appropriate, the Doctor's TARDIS stays as a blue police box for most of the time since the Chameleon Circuit is a wee bit broken. Plus he's grown fond of the blue box.

The whole thing started as an edutainment show (you know, teach history and science), but it quickly evolved into pure sci-fi goodness.

I really recommend you give it a try. New Who (Ninth Doctor and up) is on Netflix, and Classic Who is on Hulu.

First it has been running since 1963 and follows the adventures of a Renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), a time traveling space ship. The Doctor travels with Companions going on adventures through Space and Time, sometimes going on misadventures and usually saving the World, Time, Universe, and/or Reality from the likes of Cybermen (Human Brain, Cybernetic Body, usually no emotions), Daleks (Mass murdering hate filled creatures in a high tech battle suit), Other Renegade Time Lords, many other threats, and occasionally the Devil. There is also a lot of Wibbily Wobbily Timey Wimey Stuff going on.

The show runners are not afraid to deal with complex themes/messages including worlds without preset sexual orientations, genders, and roles. There is also, in my opinion, a strong anti-war message, but it does not come across as preachy.

Really though at its core it is a bunch of misadventures through time and space. Sometimes with a lead that is basically a crazy Man-Child. Though at least some of the more recent iterations are a bit heavier thematically.

Now that I realize it, it really is kind of hard to explain any beyond just go watch it. With over 50 years behind it, there are quite a lot of various intricacies and probably too many to list here. Though I think if you really want to know what Doctor Who is about, I would recommend watching The Girl in the Mirror . That episode in my opinion really does kind of capture the essence of the Doctor.