This essay will attempt to illustrate the role of science-fiction serial Doctor Who in British culture, comparing the classic series (aired from 1963 to 1989) with the new one (airing from 2005) by analysing the “birth” of Doctor Who in 20th century and its “regeneration” in 21st. Far from being just a filler in Saturday evening show schedule, Doctor Who became a cult not only in Britain but in the whole world, emerging as a model for all the sci-fi series to come. Throughout the years, the “Whoniverse” expanded, and beside the canonical tv series, numerous spin-offs, comics, novels, radio programs and adaptations for the stage started to show up. To bring some order in this whole “wibbly wobbly timey wimey” scenario, many Doctor Who fans and scholars worked on detailed analysis of the series (such as “Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first century”, by “fan-academic” Matt Hills and “TARDISbound” by Professor of Art History Pier D. Britton).
Since the late 1970s, BBC as well began to produce documentaries to show the “behind the scenes” of the series and provide some clarification, and in 2004 BBC archives were opened and their documents published online, thus making original sources about “the genesis of Doctor Who” available.
The docu-drama “An adventure in space and time”, written by Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss in 2013 to celebrate the series’ 50th anniversary, recalls its story from its creation to the success of the first seasons starring William Hartnell and his replacement by Patrick Troughton in 1966.
Donald Wilson, head of BBC Serial Dramas, had shown interest in science fiction since march 1962, when he charged two members of the BBC Survey Group, Donald Bull and Alice Frick, ...
... middle of paper ...
... 2013. “Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Time Lord’s World Records”. Guinness World Records. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/11/doctor-who- 50th-anniversary-the-time-lord’s-world-records-53100/
O’Day, A. 2012. “Event Tv: Fan Consumption of Televised Doctor Who in Britain (1963- Present)”. In Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy : Doctor Who in Time and Space : Essays on Themes, Characters, History and Fandom, 1963-2012, ed. Gillian I. Leitch, Donald E. Palumbo, C.W. Sullivan, pp 7-24. US: McFarland
Webber, C. E. 1963. “Concept Notes for New SF Drama”. BBC Archive. http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/doctorwho/6402.shtml
Webber, C.E., Sydney Newman. 1963. “Background Notes for ‘Dr. Who’”. BBC Archive. http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/doctorwho/6403.shtml
“Verity Lambert Tribute” 2007. Sfx. http://www.sfx.co.uk/2007/11/26/verity_lambert_tribute/
With the arrival of the TV repair man we get more sense of the sci-fi
"Remarks made during 'Quiz Show and the Future of Television'." Annenberg Washington Program. http://www.annenberg.nwu.edu/pubs/quiz/remarks.htm (3/11/97).
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of the character Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. He was a Scottish writer and physician, he wrote many things in his life. Doyle did not just write detective mysteries he also fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. Even though he wrote many other thing he is mostly well known for writing all of the canon Sherlock stories. Doyle himself had a career in the medical field there he meet many influential people to base his characters from. A letter was found where he wrote to one of his colleagues whose name was Joseph Bell that the most important traits of his character Sherlock was mostly based on him. Bell himself had the career title of forensic
Nelson, R. (2009). Modernism and Postmodernism in Television Drama. In: Creeber, G Televisions: An Introduction to Studying Televsion. 2nd ed. London: British Film Institute . p.90.
Tibbetts, John C. The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.
Who would have thought you could grow attached to someone you disliked in the first place? Actors of British Sci-Fi drama series “Doctor Who” have that effect on their fans and never have I thought ever that Matt Smith would have that effect on me after seeing him leave the show on Christmas day. Matthew Robert Smith is a British actor best known for his role as the eccentric Eleventh Doctor in the series and though fans of the show doubted him because of his age and lack of experience and exposure, Whovians had learned to love him after he showed and proved to the world that he epitomized The Doctor.
Booth, Paul, and Peter Kelly. “The Changing Faces of Doctor Who Fandom: New Fans, New Technologies, Old Practices?” Participations Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 10.1 (2013): 56–72. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
The manner in which humans find entertainment in art such as, books or movies often correlate to the degree to which they relate to the art form. The acclaim for a The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series of short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Victorian era and the motion picture Sherlock Holmes from America in the 21st Century reflect the standing morals and society of the time periods. Both the novel and movie are a product of the current society, world and values of their time.
Have you ever been watching a TV show and find yourself relating it to your life in some way? You might relate it to some problem that is going on in your life or some issue going on around your society. All of the sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically one day when I was watching the TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Almost seven series in, I started to realize similarities between Grey’s Anatomy and topics we have been learning about in class. I noticed ideas and concepts that related to sociology. From norms and agents to theories and structures, the series Grey’s Anatomy is a great analysis of sociology.
In 1887, Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but only in 1891, in A Scandal in Bohemia that Holmes’ stories became very famous, and eventually, Holmes’ adventures got adapted for film. Lately, in 2010 BBC made a series called “Sherlock”, and the first episode is called “A Study in Pink” referring to the first book where Sherlock Holmes was introduced. The TV adaptation is significantly more effective in showing the relationship between Holmes and Watson with changes made to the plot and characters.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) is yet another essential novel, that marked and defined the genre science fiction. Set in an expedition to a plateau in South America, the reporter Edward Malone tells his journey along with the hot-headed and eccentric Professor George Edward Challenger. What differentiates the protagonists from Doyle’s, what was soon to be known as Challenger Tales, his Sherlock Holmes series, is not only the ambiguity in attitude, as Sherlock Holmes is considered self-controlled and analytical, whereas Challenger portrays the stellar opposite, but also the way both novels are being narrated. Whereas former novel series has Sherlock’s assistant Dr. Watson as the narrator of the protagonists adventures, The Lost
Over a century ago, when Bernard Shaw wrote The Doctor’s Dilemma in 1906, England’s health care was terrifyingly primitive. If one had the misfortune of falling ill during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, essentially, one had the choice of two treatment options. The sufferer could either turn to the local druggist to purchase an expensive patent medicine, of which the ingredients largely comprised of opiates or alcohol and were consequently addictive; or, the patient could visit the equally costly doctor and receive a diagnosis which often led to a treatment involving sharp knives, bleeding, and the prescribing of more addictive drugs. Both treatment options and professions claimed they could cure anything and everything, and save a man from his impending last rites. Bernard Shaw apparently found these claims as quacked as his contemporary audiences as his comedy, The Doctor’s Dilemma, bestows an ironic portrayal of the attempts of the period’s medical professionals’ to play God. This biblical irony which Shaw so wittily scribed could not have been depicted more clearly than through Ken MacDonald’s set design. In particular, MacDonald’s design renditions of Christian symbolism became further pronounced when combined with director Morris Panych’s blocking choices and Shaw’s text.
Science fiction as a genre has often had its stories steeped in allegory and metaphor. From the 1960s Star Trek to James Cameron’s Avatar, sci-fi narratives seeking to impart some greater meaning to their audience have been met with wild success, despite varying degrees of subtlety. In his novel Embassytown, author China Miéville takes this tradition and puts it to the side in lieu of running with it. A self-proclaimed “geek," Miéville has held a lifelong interest in the genres of science fiction and fantasy; an interest reflected in his works, with many of them bearing the genres of “weird fiction” or “New Weird”. While many of his highly acclaimed novels do have the marks of his politics, the award-winning Embassytown among them, in this
Originally published in Cinema Journal 40, No. 3, Spring 2001, Jason Mittell’s “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” conceives of television genre as a cultural category rather than merely a textual component. In the decade since the original publishing of the article, television has evolved out of the multi-channel era and into the post-network era. In this new television landscape, genres are no longer a fixed entity1, and there is great academic potential in the in the study of television genres. The text, Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader, aims to explore and analyze genre in the current television landscape, and the Mittell article, republished in the book, serves as an entry point to such scholarship.
Sherlock Holmes, a name most people would know if they were to hear it, has come to greatly influence the modern world of mysteries. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had no idea a character he started to write about for the first time in 1887 would still be carried alive by other TV and movie producers in 2014. Doyle also never new that Holmes would become such a popular character or result in a name mostly everybody would know. Even if there was a person who did not know who or what Sherlock Holmes was, they are certain to have at least heard his name before. “Doyle turned his principal character into a household word” (Haining 7). Doyle started a legacy that lives on forever. Sherlock Holmes personality and looks may change with every generation he is in, but his main characteristics remain the same. Sherlock Holmes’ style of deduction, great sense of observation and strange personality in Arthur Doyle’s stories influenced how TV and movie producers would portray Holmes in their version of Doyle’s mysteries in shows such as Elementary and Sherlock.