Peregrinations, Ruminations, and Regenerations: A Critical Approach to Doctor Who examines the famous BBC science fiction show as a cultural artifact in dialogue with other science fiction, with politics and religion, and with the culture at large, both in terms of how it reflects and comments upon that culture and in terms of the audience and the peculiarities of its response. This book enables researchers in film and media to make historical, industrial, aesthetic, and ideological connections between and among Doctor Who and other shows and historical events since its inception in 1963. This volume is a new entry in a relatively new area. As the young fans of Doctor Who have matured, and as many have become scholars, they are returning to the show to consider it from a scholarly perspective. It is also of use in the media studies classroom to address directly the issues presented by the longest running science fiction show in the history of the medium. Peregrinations, Ruminations, and Regenerations considers not only cultural ramifications and connections, but audience studies as well.
Philosophers look at the deeper issues raised by the adventures of Doctor Who, the main character in the long-running science fiction TV series of the same name. Original.
The Doctor may have regenerated on many occasions, but so too has Doctor Who. Moving with the times, the show has evolved across fifty years...New Dimensions of Doctor Who explores contemporary developments in Doctor Who's music, design and representations of technology, as well as issues of showrunner authority and star authorship. Putting these new dimensions in context means thinking about changes in the TV industry such as the rise of branding and transmedia storytelling. Along with its faster narrative pace, and producer/fan interaction via Twitter, 'new Who' also has a new home at Roath Lock Studios, Cardiff Bay. Studying the 'Doctor Who Experience' in its Cardiff setting, and considering audience nostalgia alongside anniversary celebrations, this book explores how current Doctor Who relates to real-world spaces and times. New Directions of Doctor Who is the scholarly equivalent of a multi-Doctor story, bringing together the authors of Triumph of a Time Lord and TARDISbound, as well as the editors of Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, Impossible Worlds, Impossible Things, Torchwood Declassified and Doctor Who, The Eleventh Hour. It also features contributions from experts on TV brands, bioethics, transmedia and cultural icons. As 'new Who' creates ongoing mysteries and poses exciting questions, this collection demonstrates the vitality of Doctor Who studies.
Doctor Who has always contained a rich current of religious themes and ideas. In its very first episode it asked how humans rationalize the seemingly supernatural, as two snooping schoolteachers refused to accept that the TARDIS was real. More recently it has toyed with the mystery of Doctor's real name, perhaps an echo of ancient religions and rituals in which knowledge of the secret name of a god, angel or demon was thought to grant a mortal power over the entity. But why does Doctor Who intersect with religion so often, and what do such instances tell us about the society that produces the show and the viewers who engage with it? The writers of Religion and Doctor Who: Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith attempt to answer these questions through an in-depth analysis of the various treatments of religion throughout every era of the show's history. While the majority of chapters focus on the television show Doctor Who, the authors also look at audios, novels, and the response of fandom. Their analyses--all written in an accessible but academically thorough style--reveal that examining religion in a long-running series such as Doctor Who can contribute to a number of key debates within faith communities and religious history. Most importantly, it provides another way of looking at why Doctor Who continues to inspire, to engage, and to excite generations of passionate fans, whatever their position on faith. The contributors are drawn from the UK, the USA, and Australia, and their approaches are similarly diverse. Chapters have been written by film scholars and sociologists; theologians and historians; rhetoricians, philosophers and anthropologists. Some write from the perspective of a particular faith or belief; others write from the perspective of no religious belief. All, however, demonstrate a solid knowledge of and affection for the brilliance of Doctor Who.
Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who – unpredictable, embattled, mercurial - has raised many fresh issues for followers of the Time Lord. In this book, the first to address the Capaldi era in depth, international experts on the show explore Capaldi's portrayal of the Doctor, and Steven Moffat's role as show writer and executive producer. They evaluate the effect of Capaldi's older age on the series' pace and themes; his Scottishness and representations of Scotland in Doctor Who's history, and the roles of the Doctor's female companions, particularly Clara Oswald as played by Jenna Coleman. The politics of war are addressed, as is the development of the alien-fighting military organisation UNIT in the show, as well as controversial portrayals of the afterlife and of immortality. There's discussion of promotional discourses, the imagining of the Twelfth Doctor in fan fiction and fan art, fan responses to the re-gendering of the Master as female, and of Christmas television and the uncanny. For fans, scholars and students alike, this book is a fitting tribute to and assessment of Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who.
This book argues that Doctor Who, the world’s longest-running science fiction series often considered to be about distant planets and monsters, is in reality just as much about Britain and Britishness. Danny Nicol explores how the show, through science fiction allegory and metaphor, constructs national identity in an era in which identities are precarious, ambivalent, transient and elusive. It argues that Doctor Who’s projection of Britishness is not merely descriptive but normative—putting forward a vision of what the British ought to be. The book interrogates the substance of Doctor Who’s Britishness in terms of individualism, entrepreneurship, public service, class, gender, race and sexuality. It analyses the show’s response to the pressures on British identity wrought by devolution and separatist currents in Scotland and Wales, globalisation, foreign policy adventures and the unrelenting rise of the transnational corporation.
In a richly developed fictional universe, Doctor Who, a wandering survivor of a once-powerful alien civilization, possesses powers beyond human comprehension. He can bend the fabric of time and space with his TARDIS, alter the destiny of worlds, and drive entire species into extinction. The good doctor’s eleven “regenerations” and fifty years’ worth of adventures make him the longest-lived hero in science-fiction television. In The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues, Jason Barr and Camille D. G. Mustachio present several essays that use language as an entry point into the character and his universe. Ranging from the original to the rebooted television series—through the adventures of the first eleven Doctors—these essays explore how written and spoken language have been used to define the Doctor’s ever-changing identities, shape his relationships with his many companions, and give him power over his enemies—even the implacable Daleks. Individual essays focus on fairy tales, myths, medical-travel narratives, nursery rhymes, and, of course, Shakespeare. Contributors consider how the Doctor’s companions speak with him through graffiti, how the Doctor himself uses postmodern linguistics to communicate with alien species, and how language both unites and divides fans of classic Who and new Who as they try to converse with each other. Broad in scope, innovative in approach, and informed by a deep affection for the program, TheLanguage of Doctor Who will appeal to scholars of science fiction, television, and language, as well as to fans looking for a new perspective on their favorite Time Lord.
Watching Doctor Who explores fandom's changing attitudes towards Doctor Who. Why do fans love an episode one year but deride it a decade later? How do fans' values of Doctor Who change over time? As a show with an over fifty-year history, Doctor Who helps us understand the changing nature of notions of 'value' and 'quality' in popular television. The authors interrogate the way Doctor Who fans and audiences re-interpret the value of particular episodes, Doctors, companions, and eras of Who. With a foreword by Paul Cornell.
This book explores popular culture representations of gender, offering a rich and accessible discussion of masculinities and femininities in 21st-century popular media. It brings together contributors from various European countries to investigate the workings of gender in contemporary pop culture products in a brave, original, and rigorous way. This volume is both an academic proposal and an exercise of commitment to a serious analysis of some of the media that influence us most in our everyday lives. Representation matters, and the position we take as viewers or consumers during reception matters even more.
Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television series in the world and is regularly watched by millions of people across the globe. While its scores of fans adore the show with cult-like devotion, the fan-contributors to this book argue that there is an uncharted dimension to Doctor Who. Bringing together diverse perspectives on race and its representation in Doctor Who, this anthology offers new understandings of the cultural significance of race in the programme – how the show’s representations of racial diversity, colonialism, nationalism and racism affect our daily lives and change the way we relate to each other.
"Grounded in the field of adult education, this international compilation offers a range of critical perspectives on popular culture as a form of pedagogy. Its fundamental premise is that adults learn in multiple ways, including through their consumption of fiction. As scholars have asserted for decades, people are not passive consumers of media; rather, we (re)make our own meanings as we accept, resist, and challenge cultural representations. At a time when attention often turns to new media, the contributors to this collection continue to find “old” forms of popular culture important and worthy of study. Television and movies – the emphases in this book – reflect aspects of consumers’ lives, and can be powerful vehicles for helping adults see, experience, and inhabit the world in new and different ways. This volume moves beyond conceptually oriented scholarship, taking a decidedly research-oriented focus. It offers examples of textual and discursive analyses of television shows and films that portray varied contexts of adult learning, and suggests how participants can be brought into adult education research in this area. In so doing, it provides compelling evidence about the complexity, politics, and multidimensionality of adult teaching and learning. Using a range of television shows and movies as exemplars, chapters relate popular culture to globalization, identity, health and health care, and education. The book will be of great use to instructors, students, and researchers located in adult education, cultural studies, women’s and gender studies, cultural sociology, and other fields who are looking for innovative ways to explore social life as experienced and imagined."
Following on from the ground-breaking collection Fashion Cultures, this second anthology, Fashion Cultures Revisited, contains 26 newly commissioned chapters exploring fashion culture from the start of the new millennium to the present day. The book is divided into six parts, each discussing different aspects of fashion culture: Shopping, spaces and globalisation Changing imagery, changing media Altered landscapes, new modes of production Icons and their legacies Contestation, compliance, feminisms Making masculinities Fashion Cultures Revisited explores every facet of contemporary fashion culture and the associated spheres of photography, magazines and television, and shopping .Consequently it is an ideal companion to those interested in fashion studies, cultural studies, art, film, fashion history, sociology and gender studies.
