Dooley

The Mechanist’s Infirmary

Dann Lewis, Deakin University |   The Mechanist inserted the needle, injecting a coppery liquid into Dirk’s vein. Dirk’s fingers had been blown off, his thigh pierced by the razor wire hooked on a piece of hanging sheet metal. The incendiary shell, cobbled together with scrap, flint and oil, had almost decimated Dirk— he should…

Clara

Time Monsters and Space Museums: Doctor Who and Education

Tom Steward, Independent Scholar |   When Doctor Who first aired in 1963, the BBC’s principal design focus for the series was education (Chapman, 2006; Haining, 1990). Much of pilot episode ‘An Unearthly Child’ takes place inside secondary school classrooms and features montages of lessons. Prior to broadcast, two publicity stills of the Doctor’s original companions, schoolteachers…

Tom Baker as the Doctor

Doctor Who and the early modern world

 Dr Marcus K Harmes, University of Southern Queensland | Early modern England, dated by historians as the period from c.1500 to 1700, permeates British television.  The glittering and dramatic set pieces of Tudor, Elizabethan and Stuart history have long provided the dramatic substance of films and historical novels and, since the middle of the twentieth…

Showrunner

Running the asylum? Doctor Who’s ascended fan-showrunners

 Leora Hadas, University of Nottingham |   In the autobiographical “The Writer’s Tale”, former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies entitled the chapter chronicling his experiences with online fandom with a single word: “Bastards” (Davies & Cook 2008). This is particularly ironic considering that Davies himself was once an ardent member of Doctor Who fandom,…

The 51st Century Guy

  Sophia Davidson Gluyas, Independent Scholar | THE DOCTOR: … I can dance! ROSE: Actually, I thought Jack might like this dance. THE DOCTOR: I’m sure he would Rose, I’m absolutely certain, but who with?[i] (Doctor Who, 2005) Captain Jack Harkness danced onto our screens in 2005 and was the gale of fresh bisexual air…