This collection of fresh essays addresses a broad range of topics in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, both old (1963–1989) and new (2005–present). The book begins with the fan: There are essays on how the show is viewed and identified with, fan interactions with each other, reactions to changes, the wilderness years when it wasn’t in production. Essays then look at the ways in which the stories are told (e.g., their timeliness, their use of time travel as a device, etc.). After discussing the stories and devices and themes, the essays turn to looking at the Doctor’s female companions and how they evolve, are used, and changed by their journey with the Doctor.

Gillian I. Leitch is an independent scholar and historical researcher and is currently co-chair of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the PCA. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Edited by Gillian I. Leitch. Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6549-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0224-0
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Table of Contents


Introduction (Gillian I. Leitch) 1

 1. Event TV: Fan Consumption of Televised Doctor Who in Britain (1963–Present) (Andrew O’Day) 7

 2. Social Spaces: British Fandom to the Present (Andrew O’Day) 25

 3. Don’t Call It a Comeback (Aaron Gulyas) 44

 4. Whose Doctor? (J.M. Frey) 64

 5. In and Out of Time: Memory and Chronology (Kieran Tranter) 82

 6. Effecting the Cause: Time Travel Narratives (Paul Booth) 97

 7. Narrative Conflict and the Portrayal of Media, Public Relations and

Marketing in the New Doctor Who (Racheline Maltese) 112

 8. Nostalgia for Empire, 1963–1974 (Maura Grady and Cassie Hemstrom) 125

 9. A Needle Through the Heart: Violence and Tragedy as a Narrative Device (Lindsay Coleman) 142

10. Everything Dies: The Message of Mortality in the Eccleston and Tennant Years (Kristine Larsen) 157

11. “Ready to outsit eternity”: Human Responses to the Apocalypse (Andrew Crome) 175

12. A Country Made from Metal? The “Britishness” of Human-Machine

Marriage in Series 31 (Kate Flynn) 195

13. “Whatever you do, don’t blink!” Gothic Horror and the Weeping Angels Trilogy (David Whitt) 213

14. Doctor Who’s Women and His Little Blue Box: Time Travel as a Heroic Journey of Self-Discovery for Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble (Antoinette F. Winstead) 227

15. Spoiled for Another Life: Sarah Jane Smith’s Adventures with and Without Doctor Who (Sherry Ginn) 242

16. Chasing Amy: The Evolution of the Doctor’s Female Companion in the New Who (Lynnette Porter) 253

Videography 269

References 277

About the Contributors 283

Index 285