Difference between revisions of "Fifty-year journey in time"
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Fifty-year journey in time INSIDE THE TARDIS. THE WORLDS OF DOCTOR WHO. | Fifty-year journey in time INSIDE THE TARDIS. THE WORLDS OF DOCTOR WHO. | ||
| − | A CULTURAL HISTORY. By James Chapman. Tauris. 372pp. | + | A CULTURAL HISTORY. By James Chapman. Tauris. 372pp. $34. |
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| − | $34. | ||
BEHIND THE SOFA. CELEBRITY MEMORIES OF DR WHO. | BEHIND THE SOFA. CELEBRITY MEMORIES OF DR WHO. | ||
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The show has been called the world's longest-running television science fiction series. November 23 marks 50 years since the BBC aired the first episode, An Unearthly Child, written by Australian author Anthony Coburn. It was Coburn's idea for the Tardis to resemble a police box after seeing one on Wimbledon Common. | The show has been called the world's longest-running television science fiction series. November 23 marks 50 years since the BBC aired the first episode, An Unearthly Child, written by Australian author Anthony Coburn. It was Coburn's idea for the Tardis to resemble a police box after seeing one on Wimbledon Common. | ||
| − | November 23, 1963, was, however, the day after President Kennedy's assassination. Initial audience reaction was thus muted and the first episode had to be repeated. One critic called the new program a mix of H. G. | + | November 23, 1963, was, however, the day after President Kennedy's assassination. Initial audience reaction was thus muted and the first episode had to be repeated. One critic called the new program a mix of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and a space-age Old Curiosity Shop. |
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| − | Wells' The Time Machine and a space-age Old Curiosity Shop. | ||
Certainly the first Doctor Who, William Hartnell, resembled a Dickensian figure. The arrival of the daleks in February 1964 led to viewing figures rising over 10 million per episode. | Certainly the first Doctor Who, William Hartnell, resembled a Dickensian figure. The arrival of the daleks in February 1964 led to viewing figures rising over 10 million per episode. | ||
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A lavish coffee table book from the BBC, Marcus Hearn's The Vault, provides a cornucopia of Doctor Who history and memorabilia, including unpublished material from the BBC archive and private collectors. Hearn takes the reader on a well-informed textual journey from 1963 to 2013, supplemented by numerous colour and black-and-white illustrations of costumes, set designs, letters and scripts, as well as characters and scenes from the series James Goss and Steve Tribe have extensive Doctor Who lineage in writing and fandom, which they put to good use in The Doctor - His Lives and Times. Goss and Tribe assiduously follow the Doctor Who trail, but it is their behind-the-scenes coverage, through numerous short interviews, termed "brief encounters", with writers, actors and support crew, that gives it a fresh appeal. Look out for world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the 1966 episodes of The War Machines, Neil Gaiman on The Tomb of the Cybermen and Bernard Cribbins on the daleks. | A lavish coffee table book from the BBC, Marcus Hearn's The Vault, provides a cornucopia of Doctor Who history and memorabilia, including unpublished material from the BBC archive and private collectors. Hearn takes the reader on a well-informed textual journey from 1963 to 2013, supplemented by numerous colour and black-and-white illustrations of costumes, set designs, letters and scripts, as well as characters and scenes from the series James Goss and Steve Tribe have extensive Doctor Who lineage in writing and fandom, which they put to good use in The Doctor - His Lives and Times. Goss and Tribe assiduously follow the Doctor Who trail, but it is their behind-the-scenes coverage, through numerous short interviews, termed "brief encounters", with writers, actors and support crew, that gives it a fresh appeal. Look out for world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the 1966 episodes of The War Machines, Neil Gaiman on The Tomb of the Cybermen and Bernard Cribbins on the daleks. | ||
| − | James Chapman says since the 2006 edition of Inside the Tardis, "the field of Doctor Who scholarship has expanded almost as fast as the universe itself". Hills' New Dimensions of Doctor Who and Kevin S. | + | James Chapman says since the 2006 edition of Inside the Tardis, "the field of Doctor Who scholarship has expanded almost as fast as the universe itself". Hills' New Dimensions of Doctor Who and Kevin S. Decker's Who is Who? The Philosophy of Doctor Who attest to that scholarship, although some of the essays included in New Dimensions wander into some arcane corridors of academic scholarship. Hills, professor of Film and TV Studies at Aberystwyth University, brings together 11 contributors most of whom are academics at British universities, teaching cultural and media studies. |
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| − | Decker's Who is Who? The Philosophy of Doctor Who attest to that scholarship, although some of the essays included in New Dimensions wander into some arcane corridors of academic scholarship. Hills, professor of Film and TV Studies at Aberystwyth University, brings together 11 contributors most of whom are academics at British universities, teaching cultural and media studies. | ||
One of the problems is that the authors fall between writing for an academic reward system, with consequent disciplinary insularity, and a popular readership. Thus, Ross Garner, In Remembering Sarah Jane, produces a piece replete with phrases, such as, "the world of a television program can be considered as an intradiegetic allusion that opens up space for nostalgia to enter into reading positions" and that "the embodied presence" of Elisabeth Sladen, as Sarah Jane, gave the fans, "ontological security". | One of the problems is that the authors fall between writing for an academic reward system, with consequent disciplinary insularity, and a popular readership. Thus, Ross Garner, In Remembering Sarah Jane, produces a piece replete with phrases, such as, "the world of a television program can be considered as an intradiegetic allusion that opens up space for nostalgia to enter into reading positions" and that "the embodied presence" of Elisabeth Sladen, as Sarah Jane, gave the fans, "ontological security". | ||
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He examines truth and knowledge, science and religion, space and time, and good and evil with appropriate references to philosophers, such as Hegel, Kant and Heidegger. He also dips into novels, comic strips and audio recordings, as he discusses regeneration and how quantum theory affects our understanding of time travel. One thing is certain, time will never stand still for Doctor Who. | He examines truth and knowledge, science and religion, space and time, and good and evil with appropriate references to philosophers, such as Hegel, Kant and Heidegger. He also dips into novels, comic strips and audio recordings, as he discusses regeneration and how quantum theory affects our understanding of time travel. One thing is certain, time will never stand still for Doctor Who. | ||
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Latest revision as of 00:06, 26 February 2014
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