Doctor Who is currently the longest-running sci-fi TV show with 861 episodes (and counting), which premiered in 1963. Doctor Who is a British television show about a time traveler who is an eccentric yet compassionate individual who battles injustices throughout the universe. The mode of travel is via the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, which looks like an old blue police phone box, but is much larger and more complex on the inside. The original show ran from 1963 until 1989 and 2005 to the present, with a movie in 1996. There have been 13 “doctors” who have portrayed the hero, with the first female doctor introduced in 2018.

It is interesting to note that there are currently 97 missing episodes, which were deliberately destroyed to clear space for programs broadcast in color. At the time, the BBC had no policy for archiving programs. There are many missing television shows in all categories before the early 1990s.