Conference notes- “A Celebration of Fifty Years of Doctor Who,” 2013

First of all I would like to thank all of the organisers of the conference in Chicago yesterday, specially Paul Booth. Thanks also to all of the panelists and to all of the audience. It was a great moment, and very informative.

Notes made in anticipation of my participation in the conference “A Celebration of Fifty Years of Doctor Who” in the panels on Fandom and the Longevity of the series.
Naturally not everything I wrote down was said, as it was a panel, and fluid, but I thought some of my insights worth saving.

Fandom
It was the fall of 1984 when I first became aware of Doctor Who fandom. I saw an advertisement for the inaugural meeting of a Doctor Who club in Edmonton. We met in the back room of a stained glass studio, and watched the episode “Pyramid of Mars”. The club was affiliated with the Doctor Who Information Network, and I joined both.
It was a revelatory experience! People coming together to enjoy Doctor Who! There was a whole world of fan magazines, books and toys- and, sigh- conventions where you could meet those we saw on our tvs! It was a network of inter-related things which fuelled interest in the show.
Fandom has evolved a great deal since the mid-1980s.
With the cancellation of the series in 1989, fans had to create an even more sophisticated resource network to fill the void. The fans not only facilitated the viewing of old episodes- trading VHS tapes, but created their own adventures on video and in books. The internet has allowed fans to communicate and to disseminate their fan-fic. Doctor Who fans created a new universe to replace the one that had been controlled by the BBC.
While other science fiction series have strong fan bases, and indeed, like Star Trek, through the years following cancellation built up similar worlds using the series as a starting point, Doctor Who stands out as special.
These Doctor Who fans were the source of its rebirth. Russell T Davies, Stephen Moffatt and Paul Cornell, among some, were a part of its fan base, and participated within its community during the “wilderness” years. Davies was able to put Doctor Who back on the air, satisfy its following, more or less, and attract new viewers.
In simplistic terms, the old fans kept the flame, brought it back, and are able to exert a major influence on its performance and production.

[During the fandom panel, the discussion was turned specifically to our own experiences of fandom, and we were asked to talk about the oddest experience in fandom. I had none to offer. I feel like I must have missed out on the best/worst of the fan experience. While I did meet some very odd people, I didn’t have anything bad happen, or seriously funny. Man, what a sheltered life!]

Doctor Who’s Longevity
[I had first signed up for this panel with the title New vs Old so my thoughts are more geared to comparison]
It is a hard comparion to make new versus old Doctor Who. I like both old and new, but for different reasons.
So let’s start with the original series, which I started watching in the mid 1970s, when TVOntario broadcast it every Saturday night.
A lot of the appeal for old who comes from the fact that it was a ‘childhood’ favourite. But it differs from many series I watched as a child because I still watch it.
I bought the DVD for the first season of the Hardy Boys, a series of similar vintage which I used to watch. While I could still appreciate that Shaun Cassidy was cute, the show itself was lame. Doctor Who stood the test of time.
Nostalgia for the ‘Childhood’ Doctor Who moments play a role, as does a more general nostalgia for the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Doctor Who is a product of its time, and the modern eye picks out easily the dated costumes, the contemporary references, and the unsophisticated technology like rotary dial telephones.
As a historian, of course, these dated references are great, and are viewed with historical context- giving the stories an added complexity.
As you can imagine the time travel aspect is also a draw. The BBC has always been good at getting down the historical details. And because this is science fiction, I don’t get nearly as critical or upset when they get something wrong, like I do when I watch ordinary historical dramas. The presence of aliens helps suspend my disbelief.
Sure the special effects were rather cheap, even in their day, and the melting of Styrofoam doors with ‘lasers’ is a bit much, but the stories were generally well written, fast paced and carried over several half hour episodes. Your attention was kept, and you were often made to think.
New who is a lot like the old, keeping the faith with the old series- using familiar foes, etc., but it is also different. The stories are shorter, more contained, the production budget is more the special effects are more believable.
The writing is good, and I think there is more of a respect for the concept and its viewers.
So far the choice of stories, writers, and cast have been quite good. The character of the Doctor has been allowed to be more complex. He can be good, bad, sad, funny or in love, and often in the same episodes.
I have not always liked his companions in new Who, but then I cheered when they killed off Adric in the old series.
Long appeal:
-British stubbornness
-timeliness- relevant stories
-nostalgia- in terms of watching old episodes
-old Doctor Who- special effects part of appeal
-time travel- flexibility and imagination
-historical element
-sense of humour

CFP: Out and About in Time and Space: Travelling Time on Television

Call for Papers
Out and About in Time and Space: Traveling Time on Television
Time travel as a plot device has been used frequently in television for a variety of reasons. It offers the storyteller the opportunity to show alternate realities, use historical characters in new and interesting ways, and create ethical or moral dilemmas for the hero of the story. For many series, time travel acts as the primary mover of action; others use time travel in individual episodes, but don’t rely on it for the series’ theme. This project seeks to present the history and uses of time travel in television, and consequently time travellers. The deadline for chapter proposals will be the 30th of September.
The editors will entertain proposals which deal with time travel thematically, and also on specific television series, or specials, which employ time travel in their storylines. The editors have compiled a list of series, which could be the subject of a chapter, These include, but are not limited to, Time Tunnel, Sliders, Quantum Leap, Doctor Who, Voyageurs, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Star Trek (singularly by series or as a whole), Continuum, Being Erica, Babylon 5, and Primeval. Do not feel constrained by this list. The aim of this project is to present a wide and varied look at time travel in television, and we welcome differing analyses of this topic.
The final article/chapter should be around 20-25 pages (Double spaced, Times New Roman 12)
Important dates: Proposals due 30 September 2013; papers 31 July 2014; final edit 15 January 2015. Note that we have discussed the project with a publisher and have every confidence that a contract will be extended.

Editors: Dr Sherry Ginn & Dr Gillian Leitch
Proposals should be sent to gilliandoctor@gmail.com

Doctor Who Survey Presentation, PCA 2013

What of Doctor Who?

Presentation at the 2013 PCA/ACA Conference, Science Fiction Fantasy Area

Gillian I Leitch

I decided to do a survey of Doctor Who fans in order to better understand their connection to the series, its characters, other fans, and perhaps to better understand its popularity.

In 1995 John Tulloch and Henry Jenkins published their studies on Doctor Who and Star Trek Fans entitled “Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek” [London, Routledge, 1995: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Audiences-Watching-Fictions/dp/0415061415%5D Their focus was principally on the reactions of fans to specific episodes of Doctor Who: “Monsters of Peladon,” “City of Death,” and “Kinda.”  The bulk of their interviews took place in Australia and the UK in 1982. Already Doctor Who had a long lived broadcast life, and was still enjoying the thrill of new episodes, although there are references to the later period, after its cancellation in 1989.

A more recent look at fans and their relationship to Doctor Who by Andrew O’Day in “Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays in Themes, Characters, History and Fandom, 1963-2012” [edited by Gillian I Leitch, McFarland, 2013: http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Time-Space-Explorations/dp/0786465492/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364503586&sr=1-1&keywords=doctor+who+in+time+and+space] deals with British fans of the original series, mostly through interviews, their relationships as fans of the series, with the series, with other fans, and how they consumed Doctor Who.  SHAMELESS PLUG! How Doctor Who was broadcast, replayed, and shared, informed the relationships the fans had with the series.

 

I will begin this presentation by describing my methodology.  I published/ distributed my survey online through my blog www.gilliandr.wordpress.com [http://gilliandr.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/doctor-who-survey-2012/ ], Twitter, and Facebook.  I also emailed it out to as many as possible, hoping to elicit responses from a wide variety of sources. My questions were grouped mostly around the ideas of firsts and favourites, with room left for comments.  I wanted qualitative and quantitative data.  I also did a lot of research online, looking for more comments and fan surveys to round out the information I was presenting.  Not all questions were expected to receive answers, but there was room for comments which often explained the absences.

My first conclusion from the responses I received was that Doctor Who fans don’t like surveys. At first I took this lack of response as a personal critique, but after researching fan sites and other surveys, I realized that actually I did quite well.  One site had posted a survey in 2011, but after a while added a not stating that the deadline posted was being extended as only two responses had been received.  That survey is still open. 

Doctor Who fans are not a homogenous group, but there are some divisions which can be made.  The first comes from the country of origin.  Of the 20 responses I received where residence was stated, 13 were from the United States and 4 from Canada. I am assuming the rest also come from these two countries as well. 

I could go into the cultural differences between the two countries, but rather than explain  this, I will take it as a given, I will instead explain the different broadcast histories of Doctor Who which contributes to the differences between the two fan groups- particularly when they became fans, and the opportunities they had to watch the series to cement this relationship. It helps explain which episodes that they watched, and which characters and actors they were attracted to.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had purchased and broadcast Doctor Who in the 1960s- Hartnell and Troughton episodes, but it wasn’t a huge success, and at the time the CBC produced its own slate of programming.  While it did purchase material from the BBC, particularly Coronation Street (which it still broadcasts), it did not rely on them for their main content.

In 1975 TV Ontario, an educational channel which broadcasts only in Ontario (currently 38.8% of the Canadian population). Coincidentally, it was aired on Saturday evenings, a similar time to the British broadcast.  They broadcast the episodes in the original half hour format, and followed it with a short “educational” analysis, first by Dr Jim Dator, then author Judith Merrill. [Ed Conroy, “That Time When the Doctor Educated Ontario,” www.blogto.com/city/2012/09/that_time_when_doctor_who_educated_ontario/ (24/03/2013)] TVO aired the series until 1990, when the national cable network YTV (geared to children’s television programming) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YTV_(TV_channel)] purchased the rights to broadcast.  They did so for a few years.

The rest of Canada got their fixt of Doctor Who the same way and time as American viewers, on PBS. In the late 1970s early 1980s individual PBS stations purchased episodes of Doctor Who as part of local programming.  They dictated air times and format. Some showed the half hour episodes complete with cliffhangers, others broadcast them in their entire story arc.  Canadians accessed PBS through cable.

In 2005, faced with a hockey strike and no programming, the CBC entered into a partnership with the BBC to finance and broadcast Doctor Who to great ratings.  The US SciFi (now Syfy) Channel purchased it a few months later. The strike ended and the next season was aired, but not in the same way, with the same support.  The Christmas Specials did not air at Christmas, and “Voyage of the Damned” never aired. The CBC ended this relationship four years later, and the series moved to Space Channel.  The series is now aired on the same day in both countries, with an hour difference in the US’ favour.

So now it comes to the fans, and the survey.  There is a marked difference of what was the first episode  they remember watching- the Canadians all list the original series as their first, and also are more likely to list the older doctors as their favourite (although this is mixed- see further).

In general though, those who list older episodes as either their first or favourite episodes prefer Jon Pertwee as their favourite Doctor.  There exists a bit of a divide between those who started watching Doctor Who in its newest incarnation and those who started watching during its original run.  Fans of the original series have watched most, if not all of the original series.  Fans who began to watch during the new series have not necessarily watched the old series. This is despite the availability of these episodes on DVD and Netflix.  In fact, fans of the old series don’t dwell on their memories of the old series, but are more likely to purchase those DVDs or to watch them again on Netflix or other streaming services.

Another question I asked in the survey was whether or not they watched other science fiction series.  In this I received multiple answers.  Star Trek was the most popular answer- and in this I include all versions of Star Trek, although the original was the most mentioned. Battlestar Galactica was second.  I assumed the respondents meant the new series and not the one from the 1970s, but they did not specify. Firefly was third, followed by Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5.  Only two respondents stated that they weren’t heavily into Science Fiction television, and each qualified this with a science fiction series that they did watch.

Oddly enough, only a few mentioned that they watched other British science fiction: Torchwood, Being Human, Primeval and Red Dwarf.  Clearly there is a lack of Anglophilia among Doctor Who fans.  They are not necessarily watching it because it is British.

As to what attracted fans to the series in the first place- most express a connection with the characters, mostly the Doctor, and the humour. And while some were not immediately captivated, they did come around to watching.

As to the choice of favourite episodes, the new series wins hands down.  The divide is not present here.  “Blink,” “the Girl in the Fireplace” and “Journey’s End” were the most favoured of episodes. And likewise, David Tennant was the most popular Doctor. The fans of the older series often stated more than one choice, and this is how Pertwee was the most popular of the older Doctors. This is also reflected in other surveys found online. Tom Baker was neither universally loved or hated, despite being the longest running doctor, and the doctor that most of the older Doctor Who fans saw first.

Christopher Eccleston was the least liked, followed by Colin Baker and Peter Davison.

As to the choice of companion, things get more complicated.  Yes there were more options available- over 40 different companions over the run of the series but there was little variation in the two lists of favourite/ least favourite.

Donna was the most favoured of companions in the survey.  She was chosen mostly because of the humour and chemistry she had with the Doctor. She is followed by Amy, then Rose. 

Rose was the least favourite companion, followed by Martha and then Amy.  Rose was not liked because of her personality- whiney, and the romantic relationship she had with the Doctor. Martha was considered hard to understand, especially as she had an unrequited love with the Doctor.  Adric got only one vote.  This is hard to understand, remembering the utter joy expressed by fans when his character was killed off in the early 1980s. 

I then asked about favourite episodes- here not all respondents answered, as many were unfamiliar with the older Doctors.

Top Hartnell: Space Museum

Top Troughton: War Games; Tomb of the Cybermen

Top Pertwee: Terror of the Autons; Green Death

Top Tom Baker: City of Death; Deadly Assassin

Top Davison: Caves of Androzani

Top Colin Baker: Two Doctors

Top McCoy: Silver Nemesis; Survival

Top Eccleston: Empty Child; Doctor Dances

Top Tennant: Girl in the Fireplace, Unicorn and the Wasp

Top Smith: Vincent and the Doctor; The Girl Who Waited; Eleventh Hour

 This is clearly a work in progress, and asks many more questions than I have answers for right now.

After such amazing questions and discussions I have decided to keep the survey open, and hopefully there will be more input about Doctor Who and its fans through the survey, and correspondence with me, to enable more solid conclusions to be reached about fans and their likes and dislikes, and where they began to be fans, watching, consuming Doctor Who. 

Ruthless Self-Promotion, 2012

My publishers kindly sent me the cover to the book that I am editing, so that I can promote it at a Dr Who conference later this month in Toronto.  But I am now in love with it, because, well- obvious.  Will be at http://www.doctorwhosociety.com/Regeneration/Home.html on the 17th of November with 4 of my authors: Maura Grady, Aaron Gulyas, Racheline Maltese and Sherry Ginn.  It will be great.

So here is the cover:

The book will be published in the new year.  When I have a specific date, rest assured I will promote it.

Dr Who Scarf is done!!!!

So here is the Doctor Who-ish scarf I have now finished for the PCA conference in San Antonio later this month.  Our annual raffle for the scholarship fund will be on movie night, Saturday the 23rd of April.

Dr Who-ish scarf progress March 6th

So here it is- the scarf in production still, but a whole lot longer than when I last posted a picture.  There is still wool left, so it will be even longer than this, and I intend to put in a bit of a fringe on the ends.  So there you go.  If you want to win this scarf you have to buy a raffle ticket for movie night at the SFF section of the Popular Culture Association Conference this year at San Antonio.  All funds go to a scholarship program for students.

Television, or, there is always someone taking the joy out of life, 1927

Montreal Daily Star

4 January 1927, age 4

TELEVISION, OR, THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE TAKING THE JOY OUT OF LIFE

Dad and Mother may now keep an eye on the front living room in comfort, and follow daughter and her beaus anywhere.

“With this wonderful new invention, people are permitted to see what is going on in other rooms whether dark or not, also what is going on in any part of the city or country.”

 

Call for Papers: Doctor Who in Time and Space

Call for papers

 Doctor Who in Time and Space

 To be edited by Dr. Gillian I. Leitch, CDCI

 A scholarly treatment of the BBC series Doctor Who is currently under consideration for publication by McFarland Publishers.  This book, tentatively entitled Doctor Who in Time and Space, will be a collection of articles. It’s general objective is to fill the dearth of literature about this longest running science fiction television series, by providing analysis of the content and phenomenon of Doctor Who, both the old series (1963-1989) and the new series (2005-present), as well as its associated cultural products, such as book tie-ins and audio plays.

 The book will be divided into four main themes:

 1.  History/ Legacy

            Article topics could include: history of the series on British television; broadcasting Who in the United States, Canada and Australia; Doctor Who movies; spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures; cancellation. . . .

 2.  Characters/ Characteristics

            Article topics could include: enemies and foes (Daleks, Cybermen, the Master etc.); individual Doctors; Companions, race, gender, identity, role; UNIT and representations of the military; the TARDIS; the Doctor’s ethics. . .

 3.  Production

            Article topics could include: the Producers (John Nathan Turner, Russell Davies); technology; production values; content; adapting the shows for the DVD market. . .

 4.  Fandom

            Article topics could include: fan clubs; fan fiction; fan communities, conventions…

 This list is meant merely as a guideline.  All relevant topics related to Doctor Who will be considered.

 Deadline for formal proposals is September 1^st, 2010.  Please email me at gilliandoctor@gmail.com with your proposals and any questions you may have concerning the project.