Waris Hussein, the first Doctor Who director, explained why he feels the programme appeals to outsiders.

On The Whoniverse Show, host Tia Kofi asked the director what aspect of today’s Doctor Who does he think is truest to the original vision in 1963.

“Doctor Who is a person in search for himself. There’s a kind of isolation involved. Doctor Who [fandom] is composed of people who find some kind of relevance because they are on their own and this is a kind of consolation to them to watch somebody there who is also isolated. It’s about isolated people in need of companionship.”

A comparison was drawn to Hussein, a gay South Asian director, working alongside the first female BBC producer Verity Lambert and Canadian BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman together as outsiders.

“I had to prove myself. I regarded Verity and Sydney and myself, she being a female producer, the first in drama that I could think of. Sydney being a Canadian, me being a South Asian. Three musketeers ‒ outsiders. But we had to get together to do something and face the odds.”

“…and I speak as a sort of secret outsider myself.”

Hussein hid his gay identity from the public and the majority of the BBC establishment because homosexual acts were criminalized under British law in 1963.

It was mentioned in the podcast that Hussein is writing an autobiography. There is no word yet on a publisher or a date of publication.

“My biography starts actually with the second chance I had to do Doctor Who because the first time would have been a disaster for which I would have been fired if Sydney Newman hadn’t had faith in me. And the second chance is what you saw. So the initial episode of Doctor Who went out and it became a hit. That’s the beginning of my career and that I owe everything to. Thank you, Doctor Who.”

The first episode of Doctor Who, eventually titled An Unearthly Child, had to be entirely reshot because, when BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman and producer Verity Lambert reviewed the tape, they considered it unfit for broadcast due to technical flaws and what they deemed to be misjudged characterizations.

The director was joined on The Whoniverse Show by Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan in the first Doctor Who series. The two will reunite at the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles in February 2027. Perhaps there will be further details of Hussein’s autobiography by then.