New Series of Doctor Who

The new series of Doctor Who has started on BBC1 with Freema Aygeman in the role that is effectivley the Rose role. It is interesting to note that the actress is black which is a new venture for the Doctor.

I wonder if this was a conscious decision by the beeb to appeal to a larger audience, namely ethnic minorites and such like. I assume that the character of Martha is going to be as strong headed and indepedently minded as Rose as the series progresses to show to the female audiences that the women in the programme are portrayed in a flattering and contemporary light in comparison to the rather feeble female characters during Doctor Who before the revamp.

Iv'e now discovered a very good popular criticism website on Doctor Who. The person who writes it knows a lot on the subject and reports a vast amount of information on news and developments in the Whoverse. The archive of articles is also useful due to the fact it can give a perspective of events and news from the time, which is really helpful.

Russel T. Davies

A starting point for reasearch into the revamping of the Doctor Who franchise would be Russel T. Davies. He engineered the new Doctor Who as the head scriptwriter and executive producer. I would hope to email him and get his perspective on the reasons for the renewed intereset that the BBC had in the programme, whether it be due to failing ratings or a lack of faith in the originality or ingenuity of BBC One.

If anyone knows Russel personally i would be much obliged to meet him.

BFI Library

The class field trip to the BFI library was immensely helpful in discovering secondary critcal and academic research. The books I found were:

- BFI TV Classics, Doctor Who
- Kim Newman

- Inside The Tardis. The World of Doctor Who
- James Chapman

- Back to the Vortex
- J. Shaun Lyon

- Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek
- John Tulloch, Henry Jenkins

- Doctor Who, The Legend: 40 Years of Time Travel
- Justin Richards

Now I am looking into either buying or borrowing these books and will have to read them before too long. What I am hoping to gain from these is a knowledge of the history of the television programme and why the BBC thought that the time was right to produce a revival of it. Perhaps they saw the distinct lack of British SF on televsion or they thought they lacked a distinctive saturday prime-time family oreintated programme.

Interesting Books

I've been searching for books that deal with archetypal characters within the SF genre and their specific appeal. The two most interesting/promising ones I've found are Jungian Reflections Within the Cinema: Psychological Analysis of Sci-fi and Fantasy Archetypes by James F. Ianncino and The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell.

I've yet to find a book describing the appeal of SF as a subgenre in television or any analyisis of its target audience. The appeal of Doctor Who and the subsequent spin off (Torchwood) and rip off (Primeval) obviously means that the broadcasting institutions feel there is potential to expand upon/muscle into the appeal of the longest running SF television programme in the world.

British Science Fiction Television

Yesterday I decided my critical research project would be on TV Drama and more specifically on British science fiction television. This will mainly comprise of an analysis of Doctor Who and its recent resurgence along with the new programmmes that have been created due to its astounding sucess e.g. Torchwood and Primeval.

I picked Doctor Who because of its wide, family orientated appeal and because of its apparant uniqueness on British television.

more to come...

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