Donald Baverstock Donald Baverstock was the Controller of BBC Television who ordered Sydney Newman to create the Saturday tea time show that became " Doctor Who " . Much is known about Baverstock ' s involvement with the creation of " Doctor Who " because of the sheer volume of memos and minutes that were archived . Newman once summed up Baverstock ' s attitude towards " Doctor Who " as being " very keen " but " worried about money " . ( REF : " The First Doctor Handbook " ) History with " Doctor Who " . Baverstock was actively engaged in the creation of the programme . He had several well - documented meetings and written exchanges with Sydney Newman , Donald Wilson and Verity Lambert throughout his tenure as BBC One Controller , and had a profound impact on the finances , production resources , scheduling and even the content of early " Doctor Who " . Money man . Ultimately , Baverstock was " Doctor Who " s commissioning executive , the person who decided the final budgets for the programme and whether it would even get aired . He had to be satisfied that things were progressing satisfactorily . At first green lighting only a four episode commitment , he extended it to thirteen on the strength of what eventually became known as " The Pilot Episode " . He almost immediately reversed his decision , however , after he started looking at the numbers harder . Within days of giving the go - ahead to the 13 - week commitment , he fired off a memo to Donald Wilson that nearly cancelled " Doctor Who " before it had remounted " An Unearthly Child " . He claimed to have been deceived about the cost per episode and flatly said that he could not justify the apparent " true " expenses of Serial A . This forced a week - long " crisis " in which all manner of BBC executives , along with Verity Lambert and Donald Wilson seriously re - examined the financial assumptions of the show . Baverstock re - instated his 13 - week commitment after Lambert and Wilson demonstrated that they could produce the show at a lower cost . The major sacrifice was that " Doctor Who " was not able to avail themselves of the BBC Visual Effects department on a regular basis . This forced visual effects to be sub - contracted . Thus Baverstock was somewhat directly responsible for the Dalek s and other significant props being created by Shawcraft Models rather than the BBC itself . Having now satisfied Baverstock as to the seriousness of their financial intent , Wilson and Lambert successfully pressed for extensions to their commission . Wilson received a thirteen - week extension on 22 November 1963 , in which Baverstock signalled that he ' d probably give an " additional " thirteen weeks in early 1964 . In the event , though — and almost certainly influenced by the December success of " The Daleks " , he extended " Doctor Who " again on 31 December 1963 , and yet again in February 1964 . By April , he was ready to renegotiate contracts with the regulars and move into a second production block . Baverstock ordered that Lambert could not give the regulars a rise in their new contract without going through him , personally . Jacqueline Hill , William Russell and William Hartnell all refused Lambert ' s initial offer of a new contract at the same rate , largely because Baverstock refused to reveal his own commitment to the programme ' s renewal . Consequently , she could not tell her stars how long their services would be required . For all they knew , they were being ask to agree to work for a few more weeks , at the same pay as before , in order to bring the series to a swift conclusion . With Lambert unable to secure her artists ' services , Baverstock became directly involved in proceedings . Briefly , he tied the whole future of " Doctor Who " to whether the artists would re - sign on meagre rises . However , he quickly sensed that he would likely be perceived as having a conflict of interest , and sent Lambert to another BBC executive for negotiation assistance . They agreed to Hartnell ' s demands and came to a successful conclusion with the other two , whereupon Baverstock finally gave a long term commitment to " Doctor Who " that would last for a firm six months — almost up to the end of season 2 . Other challenges . Though his defence of the budget was clearly a significant event , he used his office in other ways that affected the early production of " Doctor Who " . Hiring and firing . Obviously , Baverstock ' s most important staffing decision as it related to " Doctor Who " was in bringing Sydney Newman over to the BBC , and in allowing Newman a relatively free hand to recreate the production wing of the BBC . It was Newman who then had the more direct impact on the staffing of " Doctor Who " . However , Baverstock ' s oversight of " Doctor Who " did in at least one case result in the hiring of a particular actor . Because Baverstock decided to intervene in the salary negotiations for those regulars returning after the end of the first production block — that is , Hartnell , Hill and Russell — Lambert ' s plans for the replacement of Carole Ann Ford were flummoxed . Lambert had originally wanted to hire Pamela Franklin for the role of Jenny , and then have Jenny leave with the Doctor at the end of the " The Dalek Invasion of Earth " . Indeed , Lambert had actually sent contracts to Franklin ' s agents on 17 August 1964 . However , on 19 August , Baverstock ordered her not to do this and intimated for a few days that " Doctor Who " might not continue past the end of " Dalek Invasion " . He even went so far as to suggest that the entire cast might have to be changed — the first time that anyone at the BBC had suggested that the show might somehow survive the departure of William Hartnell . The part of Jenny was swiftly re - written to be that of a secondary guest , Franklin dropped out of the running , and the new companion was deferred to the next serial . In essence , Baverstock ' s tough negotiating stance had directly led to the invention of a new regular character . In a real sense , Maureen O ' Brien owed the possibility that she would be cast as a regular to Baverstock . Scheduling and facilities management . As Controller of BBC One , Baverstock also made decisions that affected the transmission details of the programme . One key determination was episode length — a particularly contentious issue that divided members of his staff for a few months . After much internal discussion over the course of several months , he had to weigh in personally . On 5 July 1963 , he decreed that " Doctor Who " episodes would be 25 minutes long , as they would remain until 1989 . Baverstock was also personally responsible for the punishing but prolific recording schedule that made Hartnell the hardest - working of all the actors who played the Doctor . Although Sydney Newman had lobbied for a longer break between production block s , Baverstock himself was the one who established that there be only four weeks between seasons in those early years of " Doctor Who " . He was also ultimately in charge of rationalising the use of production facilities . Thus , he was a key figure in the long - running dispute over whether the show could move from what Donald Wilson and later Verity Lambert considered the wholly inappropriate Lime Grove Studio D . In June 1963 , he denied a request to move " Doctor Who " s specialised recording equipment to Riverside Studios so that his own pet project , , could enjoy the superior facility . He was involved in several other meetings with various BBC executives and department heads about the headaches caused by Lime Grove ' s inadequate facilities . Throughout his tenure as Controller , " Doctor Who " largely remained at Lime Grove — though it did record at Television Centre on rare occasion . Content . Baverstock was demonstrably interested in the quality of the drama itself . On or about 20 May 1963 he personally signed off on the format document prepared by Newman , Donald Wilson and C . E . Webber , saying that series was " looking great " . Later , when extending the commission of the series on 31 December 1963 , he advised Donald Wilson to make sure that the internal logic of episodes was improved . He found it problematic that the Doctor and Susan seemed smart while they were in the TARDIS , but then rather dull when they left the Ship and began to explore . He strongly felt that both the TARDIS team and the people that they met would overall behave differently than had been portrayed in " An Unearthly Child " and the early episodes of " The Daleks " . People from the past , he reasoned , should exhibit " lost simple knowledge " , while those from the future should have " credible skills and capacities that can be conceived likely in the future " . Publicity . He and Donald Wilson clashed after Baverstock withdrew a commitment for " Unearthly " to be featured on the cover of " Radio Times " in November 1963 . ( DWMS Summer 1994 ) After the BBC . When Hugh Greene , Director - General of the BBC , decided to make Baverstock switch places with his BBC2 counterpart in early 1965 , Baverstock saw it as a demotion and resigned from the BBC . In accordance with half of Greene ' s original plan , he was replaced by Michael Peacock . He then went on to Yorkshire Television where he helped to create , amongst other programmes , , the soap opera that would long employ " Doctor Who " actors from Frazer Hines to Jenna - Louise Coleman . Fictional portrayals . A caricature of him , called " Mr Borusa " , was played by Mark Gatiss in " The Pitch of Fear " , a broad fictionalisation of Newman ' s pitch meeting for " Doctor Who " . He was played by Mark Eden in " An Adventure in Space and Time " .