Abstract

Paul Booth travels beyond fan studies’ conventional focus on ‘fan tourism’, where fans journey to a location familiar from the diegesis of a media text. By contrast, in this chapter, he examines the tourism of commodified fan experiences that aims to commercially discipline what it means to be a fan. Following an analysis of how this process operates through The Doctor Who Experience, Booth draws on scholarship regarding the contemporary ‘experience economy’ to argue for four categories of consumer experience: entertainment, education, escapist, and aesthetic. He then takes us on a tour of four further Who-themed exhibitions and interactive events – a Madame Tussauds exhibition; the Worlds Collide escape room; Time Fracture’s COVID-delayed immersive theatre experience; and the Edge of Time VR game – placing them in relation to these categories of experience. Through this era’s proliferation into the experience economy, Booth argues that visitors are positioned as ‘trying on’ a highly commercialized and pre-structured version of new series’ Doctor Who fandom.

Full Text

Published Version

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.