Time and relative dissertations in space

Description

Time and relative dissertations in space takes the reader on a rich and varied study of one of the greatest television programmes of all time: Doctor Who.

This book is the first study of Doctor Who to explore the Doctor’s adventures in all their manifestations: on television, audio, in print and beyond. Although focusing on the original series (1963-89), the collection recognises that Doctor Who is a cultural phenomenon that has been ‘told’ in many ways through a myriad of texts.

Combining essays from academics as well as practitioners who have contributed to the ongoing narrative of Doctor Who, the collection encourages debate with contrasting opinions on the strengths (and weaknesses) of the programme, offering a multi-perspective view of Doctor Who and the reasons for its endurance.

Part I: An earthly programme: origins and directions

1. How to pilot a TARDIS: audiences, science fiction and the fantastic in Doctor Who – David Butler

2. The child as addressee, viewer and consumer in mid-1960s Doctor Who – Jonathan Bignell

3. ‘Now how is that wolf able to impersonate a grandmother?’ History, pseudo-history and genre in Doctor Who – Daniel O’Mahony

4. Bargains of necessity? Doctor Who, Culloden and fictionalising history at the BBC in the 1960s – Matthew Kilburn

Part II: The subtext of death: narratives, themes and structures

5. The empire of the senses: narrative form and point-of-view in Doctor Who – Tat Wood

6. The ideology of anachronism: television, history and the nature of time – Alec Charles

7. Mythic identity in Doctor Who – David Rafer

8. The human factor: Daleks, the ‘evil human’ and Faustian legend in Doctor Who – Fiona Moore and Alan Stevens

Part III: The seeds of television production: making Doctor Who

9. The Filipino army’s advance on Reykjavik: world-building in studio D and its legacy – Ian Potter

10. ‘Who done it’: discourses of authorship during the John Nathan-Turner era – Dave Rolinson

11. Between prosaic functionalism and sublime experimentation: Doctor Who and musical sound design – Kevin J. Donnelly

12. The music of machines: ‘special sound’ as music in Doctor Who – Louis Niebur

Part IV: The parting of the critics: value judgements and canon formations

13. The talons of Robert Holmes – Andy Murray

14. Why is ‘City of Death’ the best Doctor Who story? – Alan McKee

15. Canonicity matters: defining the Doctor Who canon – Lance Parkin

16. Broader and deeper: the lineage and impact of the Timewyrm series – Dale Smith

17. Televisuality without television? The Big Finish audios and discourses of ‘tele-centric’ Doctor Who – Matt Hills

Afterword: My adventures – Paul Magrs

David Butler is Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester

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