Brian Cox isn't the first to explore the science of Doctor Who
Judith Merril, with fellow author Michael Moorcock (REX)
We too enjoyed Brian Cox's lecture on how everything you've seen in Doctor Who might really work - time travel, alien contact, Einstein-Rosen bridges, sonic screwdrivers, the Eye of Harmony, oh just keep waving your hands and we'll believe anything - but he's not the first boffin to explore the complex science of the Whoverse. That honour belongs to the American science fiction author Judith Merril, who popped up during the Seventies and Eighties at the end of Doctor Who episodes, dressed like a member of the Jedi Order and calling herself the UnDoctor. Merril would interview scientists and thinkers on the topics raised in the episode, or just offer her own haunting philosophical observations, not always perhaps ideally fitted to the show's audience. 'The great leap into space,' she commented drily at the end of one episode. 'Well, I know it's not very fashionable to say this nowadays, but that still really turns me on.' Beat that, Cox.
