Doctor Who

Abstract

As a television program (and now multimedia experience) with sixty years of history, Doctor Who has reflected an ever-changing media culture. First aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on 23 November 1963, the British program is now seen in over ninety countries and held the record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama when the fiftieth anniversary special was shown in movie theaters across the world in 2013. Doctor Who depicts the adventures of a time-traveling alien known as “The Doctor” who travels across all of time and space with various companions in a blue Police Box (the TARDIS—Time and Relative Dimension in Space) that is bigger on the inside. The show has fostered a dedicated audience while also courting larger cultural acceptance. Following the program’s initial cancellation in 1989, an American TV movie co-produced with the BBC was broadcast in 1996. This movie was originally intended to be a pilot of a new series, but that series never saw the light of day. In 2005 the show came back to air with a bigger budget and a new production team based at BBC Wales. The new series linked to the stories from previous decades but took the program in fresh directions. Yet, there is a wealth of Doctor Who that goes beyond the small screen. From feature films and books to audio adventures and comics, from games and tourist destinations to fan fiction and conventions, Doctor Who is much more than just a television program. Doctor Who has also provided fodder for important scholarship in media studies, cultural studies, and fan studies, among many other disciplines. Authors have written about its cultural impact; its relationship to television history; its reflection of changing cultural norms; its representations of sex, gender, race, and class; and its larger place in media history. Doctor Who scholarship has appeared almost since the premiere of the show, but its volume has intensified since the new series premiered in 2005. Hundreds of articles, chapters, and books (not to mention websites and blogs) are currently written about the series. This article represents a cross-section of the most relevant scholarship on Doctor Who.