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- Volume 6, Issue 2, 2018
Journal of Popular Television, The - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2018
Volume 6, Issue 2, 2018
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Knowledge, power and the ethics illusion: Explaining diverse viewer interpretations of the politics in classic era Doctor Who
Authors: Vanessa de Kauwe and Lindy A. OrthiaAbstractWhat is the dominant political ideology of Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present)? Scholars and viewers have variously claimed the programme represents political positions ranging from far right to far left, or have denied it is political at all. In this article we offer a structural analysis that partially explains this diversity of response. Analysing three classic era Doctor Who serials with different political flavours, all of which feature political regime change as a narrative element, we identify two narrative devices that function to obscure any political ideologies present. The first, which we call the ‘science-beats-tyranny’ template, foregrounds the problem of a tyrannical regime rather than exploring any political alternatives to it. It circumvents the need for political debate by deposing the tyrant with a scientific fix. The second, which we call the ‘ethics illusion’, uses heuristic logic to effect the appearance of an ethical plot resolution, while skipping over the political details of the new regime replacing the tyrant. We argue that these devices create ambiguity about a serial’s political commitments and also direct viewer attention to generic rhetoric about freedom from tyranny, rather than any more specific political ideology.
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How is popular television ‘political’?: From the texts of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who to brand/fan politics
By Matt HillsAbstractTaking the Steven Moffat era (2010–17) of Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) as my case study, in this article I contrast ‘ontological constructivism’ with ‘moderate intentionalism’, considering how Doctor Who’s politics can be analysed either as textually ‘objective’ or as a matter of post-structuralist and diverse (fan) audience interpretation. Rather than refereeing between these two positions, however, I argue that each in fact misses an aspect of Who’s brand/fan politics, i.e. the neo-liberal discourses and practices of contemporary branding that tend to delimit fan reflexivity/activism. Consequently, I argue for an approach to Doctor Who’s politics, and that of popular TV more generally, that recognizes its multi-levelled meanings ranging from momentary in-text references and political allusions through to story-level allegories, format-level patterns and paratextual brand activities. Such an approach recognizes that a showrunner such as Moffat can attract audience ‘praiseworthiness or blameworthiness’ within popular TV’s ‘legitimation’, and that there can be very contradictory audience interpretations of Moffat’s work as ‘misogynist’ or ‘feminist’, thus pushing polysemy past state politics and into cultural politics. But by ultimately focusing on how brands and fan labour, or ‘brandom’, naturalize neo-liberalism as a form of ‘common-sense’, I argue that we need to go beyond debates around popular TV’s political textuality to address the neo-liberal attitudes of brand management and fan activism. This is not merely to replay old arguments of post-structuralism versus ideology critique, since popular TV’s brand-based neo-liberalization can reflexively contain, and indeed welcome, a diversity of textual-political moments including themes of anti-capitalism, versions of feminist meaning-making and satires of democracy.
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That awkward ‘Moment’: Doctor Who and weapons of mass destruction
More LessAbstractDrawing on the ideas of Jonathan Schell with reference to the proliferation of nuclear weapons as articulated in The Fate of the Earth (1982) and The Abolition (1984), this article will explore the representations of weapons of mass destruction alluded to in the Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) episode ‘The Day of the Doctor’ (2013). It is argued that, whereas violations of the long-standing moratorium against changing history first articulated in the 1960s have been couched in apologetic terms, the comparative lack of a similar apologia in the case of the ‘forbidden weapons’ reflects changing attitudes towards the moral absolutism encapsulated by Schell’s thesis, itself largely a product of the current febrile state of discourse over the future of warfare.
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‘Don’t make me go back’: Post-feminist retreatism in Doctor Who
Authors: Alyssa Franke and Danny NicolAbstractIn post-2005 Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) the female companion has become a seminal figure. This article shows how closely the narratives of the companions track contemporary notions of post-feminism. In particular, companions’ departures from the programme have much in common with post-feminism’s master-theme of retreatism, whereby women retreat from their public lives to find fulfilment in marriage, home and family. The article argues that when companions leave the TARDIS, what happens next ought to embody the sense of empowerment, purpose and agency that they have gained through their adventures, whereas too often the programme’s authors have given companions ‘happy endings’ based on finding husbands and settling down.
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Plugging into the Papal Mainframe: The political role of the Church in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who
By Andrew CromeAbstractThis article examines the presentation of the organized Church in British science fiction show Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present), its implications for debates on the place of religion on British television and the political roles the series imagines for the Church. From 2010, the Church was shown to survive as an important political force into the fifty-first century, having evolved into a paramilitary body. Over subsequent series, splinter groups were portrayed as dangerous militarized sectarians, until the Church’s final appearance as a galactic peace-keeping force with theological trappings in 2013. This article argues that Doctor Who presents a variety of images of the Church reflecting both hopes and fears about its role in the public sphere: from radicalized apocalyptic cults to a stabilizing force, demonstrating an imaginative interpretation of ideas found in contemporary political theology. In an era in which the volume of directly religious programming continues to decline, this article argues that theological reflection can be found, albeit unintentionally, within popular drama.
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‘The Beast Below’: Doctor Who and the popular negotiation of constitutional values
More LessAbstractThe Doctor’s adventures frequently see him explore worlds with problems that are not dissimilar to those facing contemporary society. As a result, Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) often provides and invites political critique. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to how the programme provides and invites legal discussion, even though the law is rarely absent from the Doctor’s adventures. This article seeks to close this gap by examining the constitutional law message contained within the 2010 episode ‘The Beast Below’. In this episode, the Doctor and Amy Pond must solve a dilemma which involves secretive and state-sponsored torture; this evokes broader constitutional law debates around the roles of law and politics in securing and enforcing human rights. By showing the limits of the Doctor’s interventions, the episode casts doubt on the appropriateness of the judiciary in establishing the scope of human rights. It endorses a political model of constitutionalism directing that citizens must play an active role in the contestation of executive power, so that constitutional constraints are ultimately negotiated and articulated by the public rather than by elites. By offering this reading, it is hoped that Doctor Who, and science fiction television more widely, can be appreciated as a constitutional text and a forum for constitutional discussion.
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Doctor Who and the politics of casting
By Lorna JowettAbstractThis article argues that while long-running science fiction series Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) has started to address a lack of diversity in its casting, there are still significant imbalances. Characters appearing in single episodes are more likely to be colourblind cast than recurring and major characters, particularly the title character. This is problematic for the BBC as a public service broadcaster but is also indicative of larger inequalities in the television industry. Examining various examples of actors cast in Doctor Who, including Pearl Mackie who plays companion Bill Potts, the article argues that while steady progress is being made – in the series and in the industry – colourblind casting often comes into tension with commercial interests and more risk-averse decision-making.
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Worlds turned back to front: The politics of the mirror universe in Doctor Who and Star Trek
Authors: Aidan Byrne and Mark JonesAbstractThis article takes two prominent science fiction TV series’ uses of the ‘mirror universe’ trope and argues that their differing treatments of the individual and his or her relationship to authority and the social order reflect cultural, social and political conditions derived from their specifically American and British historical, political and social contexts. The mirror universes device allows the programmes’ creators to explicitly identify undesirable modes of social organisation – an imperialist version of Star Trek’s (original run 1966–69) Federation and a totalitarian republic in Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) – while inviting audiences to interrogate the social orders presented as normative in the previously established fictional prime universes. Star Trek’s ‘Mirror, Mirror’ (1967) incorporates a moral dilemma that is left unresolved by the end of the episode, leaving the audience to question the hidden operations and assumptions of the apparently benign Federation: in Doctor Who’s ‘Inferno’ (1970), pragmatic solutions to social and political problems are informed by Cold War Britain’s reluctance to adopt totalizing political positions that override the rights and responsibilities of individuals. Both shows ultimately demonstrate, through the dramatization of totalitarian social orders, that while a political philosophy is a welcome thing, individual conceptions of justice and fairness are the only guarantors of a stable society.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Bethan Jones and Beth JohnsonAbstractThe X-Files, TV Milestones Series, Theresa L. Geller (2016) Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 132 pp., ISBN: 9780814339428, p/bk, $19.99
Contemporary British Television Crime Drama: Cops on the Box, Ruth McElroy (ed.) (2017) London and New York: Routledge, 210 pp., ISBN: 9781472454935, h/bk, £110
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