Doctor Who – new dawn explores the latest cultural moment in this long-running BBC TV series: the casting of a female lead. Analysing showrunner Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s era means considering contemporary Doctor Who as an inclusive, regendered brand. Featuring original interview material with cast members, this edited collection also includes an in-depth discussion with Segun Akinola, composer of the iconic theme tune’s current version.
The book critically address the series’ representations of diversity, as well as fan responses to the thirteenth Doctor via the likes of memes, cosplay and even translation into Spanish as a grammatically gendered language. In addition, concluding essays look at how this moment of Who has been merchandised, especially via the ‘experience economy’, and how official/unofficial reactions to UK lockdown helped the show to further re-emphasise its public-service potential.
Table of Content
Introduction: new dawn, new moment – Brigid Cherry, Matt Hills and Andrew O’Day
Part I: Creating Thirteen
1 Variations on a theme: temporal and cultural diversity in Segun Akinola’s music for Doctor Who – David Butler
2 ‘She is wise and unafraid’: writing the first female Doctor and a diverse universe for her to protect – Rosanne Welch
3 Shooting stars: modes of TV spectacle in the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who – Dene October
4 About time: addressing intersectionality in the casting and performance of Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker era Doctor Who– Christopher Hogg
Part II: Diversifying Doctor Who
5 Casual queerness and desire lines in Doctor Who– Lorna Jowett
6 Postracial amnesia: Doctor Who in the Brexit era – Susana Loza
7 All in the ‘fam’: interrogating kinship networks with the thirteenth Doctor – Hannah Hamad
Part III: Fan responses
8 Doctor Whumour: internet meme culture, Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who and fan mockery – Brigid Cherry
9 Braces, culottes and coloured stripes: constructing and characterizing Doctor Who’s Thirteen in fashion design and cosplay – Nicolle Lamerichs
10 Regendering and the chaos of translation: fan practices and reception of the female Doctor in Spanish fandom – Saida Herrero
Part IV: Beyond the text
11 By any other name: gender and Doctor Who Barbie dolls, adventure dolls and 1:6 scale figures– Victoria L. Godwin
12 Outside the box in the Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker era: Doctor Who’s experience economy and tourism – Paul Booth
13 The thirteenth Doctor during UK lockdown: paratexts of hope and care – Matt Hills
Index
About the author
Andrew O’Day has recently completed a Ph.D. thesis on television science fiction at Royal Holloway, University of LondonMore ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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