The BBC TV series Doctor Who celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013; this book analyses how promotion, commemorative merchandise and 3D cinema screenings worked paratextually to construct a 'popular media event' while sometimes uneasily integrating public service values and consumerist logics.
The BBC TV series Doctor Who celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013; this book analyses how promotion, commemorative merchandise and 3D cinema screenings worked paratextually to construct a 'popular media event' while sometimes uneasily integrating public service values and consumerist logics.
The BBC TV series Doctor Who celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013; this book analyses how promotion, commemorative merchandise and 3D cinema screenings worked paratextually to construct a 'popular media event' while sometimes uneasily integrating public service values and consumerist logics.
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.
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.
When the BBC's Sherlock debuted in summer 2010--and appeared in the U.S. on PBS a few months later--no one knew it would become an international phenomenon. The series has since gathered a diverse and enthusiastic fandom. Like their hero, Sherlock fans scrutinize clues about the show's deeper meaning, as well as happenings off screen. They postulate theories and readings of the characters and their relationships. They have tweeted with "The Powers That Be," mobilized to filming locations via #Setlock, and become advocates for LGBTQIA communities. Sherlock's digital communities have changed the way that fans and series creators interact in person and online, as each publicly takes "ownership" of beloved television characters who represent far more than entertainment to fans.
Reading Contemporary Serial Television Universes provides a new framework—the metaphor of the narrative ecosystem—for the analysis of serial television narratives. Contributors use this metaphor to address the ever-expanding and evolving structure of narratives far beyond their usual spatial and temporal borders, in general and in reference to specific series. Other scholarly approaches consider each narrative as composed of modular elements, which combine to create a bigger picture. The narrative ecosystem approach, on the other hand, argues that each portion of the narrative world contains all of the main elements that characterize the world as a whole, such as narrative tensions, production structures, creative dynamics and functions. The volume details the implications of the narrative ecosystem for narrative theory and the study of seriality, audiences and fandoms, production, and the analysis of the products themselves.
Theme parks break attendance numbers with the promise of “stepping inside” a film’s world. Pop-up “experiences” are a regular part of promotional cycles. All this is accepted in the contemporary media environment—but why? What is the appeal of film tourism, and what can its rise tell us about contemporary fandom? Fan Sites explores why and how we experience film and television-related places, and what the growth of this practice means for contemporary fandom. Through four case studies—Game of Thrones tourism in Dubrovnik, Croatia and Northern Ireland, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks in Orlando, Florida, fandom of The Prisoner in Portmeirion, Wales, and Friends events in the United Kingdom and United States—this book presents a multifaceted look at the ways place and fandom interact today. Fan Sites explores the different relationships that fans build with these places of fandom, from the exploratory knowledge-building of Game of Thrones fans on vacation, the appreciative evaluations of Harry Potter fans at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, to the frequent “homecoming” visits of Prisoner fans, who see Portmeirion as a “safe vault” and the home of their fandom. Including engaging accounts of real fans at each location, Fan Sites addresses what the rise of fan tourism and places of fandom might mean for the future of fandom and its relationship with the media industry.
Doctor Who – new dawn explores the latest cultural moment in this long-running BBC TV series: the casting of a female lead. Analysing showrunner Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s era means considering contemporary Doctor Who as an inclusive, regendered brand. Featuring original interview material with cast members, this edited collection also includes an in-depth discussion with Segun Akinola, composer of the iconic theme tune’s current version. The book critically address the series’ representations of diversity, as well as fan responses to the thirteenth Doctor via the likes of memes, cosplay and even translation into Spanish as a grammatically gendered language. In addition, concluding essays look at how this moment of Who has been merchandised, especially via the ‘experience economy’, and how official/unofficial reactions to UK lockdown helped the show to further re-emphasise its public-service potential.
Science has always been part of Doctor Who. The first episode featured scenes in a science laboratory and a science teacher, and the 2020 season's finale highlighted a scientist's key role in Time Lord history. Hundreds of scientific characters, settings, inventions, and ethical dilemmas populated the years in between. Behind the scenes, Doctor Who's original remit was to teach children about science, and in the 1960s it even had a scientific advisor. This is the first book to explore this scientific landscape from a broad spectrum of research fields: from astronomy, genetics, linguistics, computing, history, sociology and science communication through gender, media and literature studies. Contributors ask: What sort of scientist is the Doctor? How might the TARDIS translation circuit and regeneration work? Did the Doctor change sex or gender when regenerating into Jodie Whittaker? How do Doctor Who's depictions of the Moon and other planets compare to the real universe? Why was the program obsessed with energy in the 1960s and 1970s, Victorian scientists and sciences then and now, or with dinosaurs at any time? Do characters like Missy and the Rani make good scientist role models? How do Doctor Who technical manuals and public lectures shape public ideas about science?
