tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3987219558338724232024-03-05T06:31:49.840+00:00Politics and Law of Doctor WhoDanny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-55616187380768389472022-11-23T08:16:00.007+00:002022-12-24T09:01:31.952+00:00Was "Kerblam!" a coincidence?<p>
Barry Letts once said that that <i>Doctor Who</i>’s politics reflected “ultimately … our view and [the view of] the writer who was working with us. … If you get a collection of intelligent people together, especially creative people, they will tend to be liberal/left of centre, because that is the most intelligent position to take.” </p><p>If this is the case then one would expect <i>Doctor Who </i>to track shifts in liberal/left of centre thinking. This post argues that the <i>Doctor Who</i> episode “Kerblam!” does exactly this. Its controversial political message is therefore no coincidence. </p><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRAKijl30Py5MFhchvEaYnTpxLa44xfEYQnstDWxwRj1k_DUvqduLhbx7dw_7cL6NN78qw6sxFmY5-DVwZsjz6EcUbyr3aRBUz898nzPfQJ6DmTQmUudY3uh7LhgOFAIUxqq4_SXL-LCwzSorFLtgL4Qqm-w0jghGd-e0F9MxOFcwWym053cA1gc/s1200/kerblam1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRAKijl30Py5MFhchvEaYnTpxLa44xfEYQnstDWxwRj1k_DUvqduLhbx7dw_7cL6NN78qw6sxFmY5-DVwZsjz6EcUbyr3aRBUz898nzPfQJ6DmTQmUudY3uh7LhgOFAIUxqq4_SXL-LCwzSorFLtgL4Qqm-w0jghGd-e0F9MxOFcwWym053cA1gc/s320/kerblam1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> In “Kerblam!” (2018) the Doctor and her companions seemingly confront a vast intergalactic corporation called Kerblam! At the end of the episode however the enemy turns out to be not the corporation but a terrorist fighting the corporation. The Doctor finally confronts him and articulates a startlingly pro-capitalist conclusion: </p><p><b><span> </span>CHARLIE: We can’t let the systems take control! </b></p><p><b><span> </span>DOCTOR: The systems aren’t the problem. How people use and exploit the system, that’s the problem. People like you. </b></p><p> Charlie dies and Kerblam! continues in business with only minor reforms. The Doctor’s attempt to divide “the system” from “people exploiting the system” is striking. On her reasoning capitalism is not in itself an exploitative system. Instead it is a moralistic issue – of “bad people” as opposed to “good people” running capitalism. </p><p>Yet <i>Doctor Who </i>had long been characterised by its highly critical stance on capitalism and corporate power, certainly since “The Invasion” in 1968. Nor, arguably, was “Kerblam!” a flash in the pan of the Chibnall era. Two magnates also feature in the episodes: Jack Robinson and Daniel Barton. Though both are defeated it is remarkable that neither really gets his come-uppance: indeed Robinson even returns to play the villain a second time. The message seemed to be that resistance to capitalism was futile. Why was the show suddenly so capitalism-tolerant? </p><p><b>The shifting Left </b></p><p>Let us take seriously Barry Letts’ insight that Doctor Who reflects the liberal/left of centre. During the show’s lifetime the focus of the liberal/left of centre has changed considerably. </p><p>In the decades leading up to <i>Doctor Who</i>’s birth the British Left focused on economic equality and social class. Its great internal controversy - which became particularly bitter in the 1950s - was whether progress required the replacement of capitalism or merely its mild reform. “The language of priorities is the religion of socialism” declared Aneurin Bevan: “socialism in the context of modern society means the conquest of the commanding heights of the economy”. The Labour Party establishment disagreed. Having nationalised a fifth of the economy after World War Two it decided not to go much further. It sought “consolidation” rather than “advance”, a capitalist economy but with a sizeable state sector and welfare state. The Conservative Party initially accepted the new state of affairs forging Britain’s social democratic consensus of 1945-79. The important point however is the Left focused on class and economics. </p><p>From 1979 onwards under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher the country’s ideology shifted from social democracy to neoliberalism. Under neoliberalism, government regulation and social welfare guarantees were reduced. Instead governments fostered market forces, driven by private enterprise pursuing profit marginalisation. The effect was to restore the power of economic elites (D. Harvey, <i>A Brief History of Neoliberalism,</i> OUP, 2005:19). </p><p>Politically, neoliberalism was a great success. Thatcher and her neoliberal successors won successive general elections. The power of organised labour was subdued by a combination of mass unemployment and the defeat of a crucial miners’ strike. The government helped construct the European Single Market. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc served to confirm that there was no alternative to capitalist globalisation. The Labour Party was won over, abandoning its early aim of replacing capitalism and implementing many of Thatcher’s policies (for a detailed account see S. Jenkins, <i>Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts </i>Penguin 2007). The Left having distanced itself from the hobbled working class, the working class eventually paid the Left back in kind, with the collapse of the Red Wall in the 2017 general election. </p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUYXtaweLO6Gjf-Eg5BgwMmvUnFc67VQZfcWiwhJ6_hL6mXq_jJ6zjjCBKpNwiciuXjM_gKQ0xqLtn3-Xj2abb33PjcQ3U_w2Yb2mZk2u2DIT8HnKWX6ZQ8y1f_zo-MvycvIbC2XVDEfOF4rTpQoLPN3yn86Wv7STEEgJ2sPKnzBIdMmp_t77ivsY/s509/kerblam2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUYXtaweLO6Gjf-Eg5BgwMmvUnFc67VQZfcWiwhJ6_hL6mXq_jJ6zjjCBKpNwiciuXjM_gKQ0xqLtn3-Xj2abb33PjcQ3U_w2Yb2mZk2u2DIT8HnKWX6ZQ8y1f_zo-MvycvIbC2XVDEfOF4rTpQoLPN3yn86Wv7STEEgJ2sPKnzBIdMmp_t77ivsY/s320/kerblam2.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><p></p><p>But what was the Left to put in place of class and interventionist economics? How was it to make itself distinctive from the Right in the new century? Mary Davis argues that the Left renounced class and collectivism in favour of individual self-identity. Identities such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, disability and the intersectionality between them were accorded fundamental importance. Crucially however this change in the “language of priorities” meant that class was relegated. It was a mere aspect of identity. It was no longer to be seen as the most significant determining force in how one experiences capitalist society. A surfeit of identity politics thereby serves as the antithesis of class politics. (Mary Davis, “Class Politics vs. Identity Politics”, Brave New Europe website, https://braveneweurope.com/mary-davis-class-politics-vs-identity-politics). </p><p>It is therefore no coincidence that in <i>Doctor Who</i> the softened approach to corporations and their leaders went hand-in-hand with a vigorous pursuit of identity politics. The over-emphasis on identity politics serves above all as window-dressing, hiding up a toleration of capitalism and ensuring that radical change does not happen at all. As such it represents the neoliberal colonisation of the Left itself.</p><p></p>Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-27974212705743248382021-01-17T16:34:00.006+00:002022-07-27T14:47:51.876+01:00Is the Doctor imprisoned by sexism?<p><span style="font-size: small;"><b>By Danny Nicol, University of Westminster </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">When <i>Doctor Who</i> first came to our screens we meet a rather authoritarian male alien, the Doctor, who dominates his subordinate "companion", his granddaughter Susan. In time Susan's place was taken by a succession of mainly female companions, some of whom have been labelled "screamers". In fact the companions varied in their degree of agency and whilst in "new <i>Who</i>" (2005-present) they may on average have had rather more agency than in "classic <i>Who</i>" (1963-89) nonetheless the Doctor ultimately remained dominant over the companion. This is exemplified by his erasing the memories of Donna Noble ("Journey's End" (2008)) and in the discovery that Clara Oswald was "the impossible girl...born to save [ergo, to <i>serve</i>] the Doctor" ("The Name of the Doctor" (2013)). The Doctor generally had the upper hand and the Doctor was always male.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjOZHsBtiiGm5ZKfQ_rCLk6G0yUt0YIra_9jN5nt_7xPlph50NNFuu0zmWHbBqxLULhytg6Hs2G_qWYPlJtFvibFloArDQhfUQnUwIeUKD_DYnxITJjQdP-lWhkucfWldNZiy5kEQYV4Q/s1920/714376.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjOZHsBtiiGm5ZKfQ_rCLk6G0yUt0YIra_9jN5nt_7xPlph50NNFuu0zmWHbBqxLULhytg6Hs2G_qWYPlJtFvibFloArDQhfUQnUwIeUKD_DYnxITJjQdP-lWhkucfWldNZiy5kEQYV4Q/s320/714376.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Doctor languishes in space-jail<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: small;">Finally casting a woman Doctor gave hope that this female subordination would come to an end. A female Doctor would, one assumed, have the same agency and assertiveness as her male predecessors. But the last two episodes, "The Timeless Children" (2020) and "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021) seem to show that <i>Doctor Who'</i>s opportunity to cast off sexism is being squandered.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b> "The Timeless Children" (2020)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">In "The Timeless Children" the Master forces the Doctor into the Matrix, the repository of all Time Lord knowledge. Here she must witness the truth about her own origin. The Master reveals that she is no ordinary Time Lord; she was not born on the Time Lords' planet at all. In fact she is the Timeless Child, a unique alien in this universe. As such she enjoys powers to regenerate far in excess of those of the other Time Lords. Several elements in this episode are open to the charge of constituting sexism against the Doctor.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /><i>* The very fact that the Doctor is the Timeless Child</i></b><i> </i> The notion that the Doctor is a special-by-birth, unique entity has met with fierce criticism from fans of the show, though it has a few supporters as well. What concerns us here however is solely whether the innovation is sexist. The most that can be said is that the timing of the revelation is a little suspect. After numerous male incarnations, we have to wait for a woman Doctor to be told that she is a more powerful creature than the rest of the Time Lords. In fairness, on a conscious level, the intention of the Timeless Child idea seems to be entirely the opposite: anti-sexist and anti-racist. Hence we see a series of non-white girls and boys who are supposedly early interations of the Doctor. Yet the very idea that she has special powers and a unique origin also subtly implies that the female Doctor <i>needs</i> these extras, just as she<i> needs</i> her "fam" of three companions in place of the more usual single sidekick. A woman Doctor with more agency would need no such crutch.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i><b><i>* The Doctor's passivity in the Matrix vis-a-vis the Master </i></b>The Doctor is no stranger to the Matrix. He has had several adventures within it. Most famously his exploits there in "The Deadly Assassin" (1976) were sufficiently violent to earn strong objections to the BBC from Mrs Mary Whitehouse. The Doctor's visits to the Matrix tend to be characterised by his usual hyper-activity and culminate in him defeating his opponents, yet for the present Doctor the visit is remarkable for her passivity. She hears the Master's narrative of her true story in a pained but passive fashion. Indeed the Master-Doctor performance has the air of an abusive relationship with the Master as abuser. The Doctor is not even allowed to escape from the Matrix under her own steam, rather she relies on the advice of another iteration of herself, the so-called Fugitive Doctor.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>* The Doctor outsources her courage to another character, Ko Sharmus. </b></i>The other plotline in "The Timeless Children" is that the Master has created a new breed of Cybermen who have the power to regenerate and will range across the universe, conquering at his command. The Doctor realises that she can use a device called the Death Particle to eliminate all life on the planet and with it the Master's new army. At first she intends to sacrifice herself in order to release the Death Particle, but she cannot summon up the will to do so. Fortunately another character, a grisled human resistance fighter called Ko Sharmus, offers to do so in her stead, allowing the Doctor to escape in a spare TARDIS. No real explanation is offered for the Doctor's gutlessness, yet it is a man<i> </i>who takes her place.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNcu16Csbuu1_QhWgzqbdXY5S3NQltz4ueeUiJdeQ80YLm4OJ3AmzfQjpa2I1kFPdGL46rD_gYYcM3dpfhoNgZlOZzqvb2U-O3sUa25Qf222eBtv5oRgVA3-qDeTsilTAKNS7kqWzVLE/s600/Master-Timeless-Children-600x337+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNcu16Csbuu1_QhWgzqbdXY5S3NQltz4ueeUiJdeQ80YLm4OJ3AmzfQjpa2I1kFPdGL46rD_gYYcM3dpfhoNgZlOZzqvb2U-O3sUa25Qf222eBtv5oRgVA3-qDeTsilTAKNS7kqWzVLE/s320/Master-Timeless-Children-600x337+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Master taunts the Doctor<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b> "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Several elements of "The Timeless Children" therefore give cause for concern that the show is reinforcing sexist stereotypes rather than abandoning them. What however galvanises these suspicions is the Doctor's imprisonment at the beginning of the New Year's Day special, "Revolution of the Daleks". At the end of "The Timeless Children" the Doctor is imprisoned by the alien police force the Judoon. "Revolution" opens with the Doctor still serving her sentence in the grim e-controlled prison. Once again, what is remarkable is the Doctor's passivity. She makes no attempt to spring herself from jail, which is extraordinarily un-Doctor-like given that previous Doctors faced with incarceration have, of course, made every effort to escape. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Ultimately she is rescued by old friend Captain Jack Harkness. Once again therefore a male character saves her bacon; he is given the agency which the female Doctor is denied. Thankfully thereafter the plot allows the Doctor to mastermind the thwarting of a Dalek invasion of Earth. As in "The Timeless Child" (where using the Death Particle is her own idea albeit with a hint from the Fugitive Doctor), the Doctor is not entirely devoid of agency. The show could not work if she were. Yet at the same time it seems fairly certain that the script is giving her significantly less agency than would be the case for her male predecessors. Therein lies<i> Doctor Who</i>'s resurgent sexism.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><b> <br /></b></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-54686261143344483132019-03-21T07:39:00.001+00:002019-09-08T17:03:24.394+01:00Desperately Tweaking Susan<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p> </o:p>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><b><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYyzlBUCb5yGSkIPlioGAJouuSASqfWHcMcipBWxHbBejIWER7WkJYnNqWm2P0cfYMNG8QtcDfEMpiIdDZmbBwlaWI9MO7YXj0xFotwpKkFkGCcBb8jv6OoBkkRtiu9aFTQeNeuHVAeg/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-11-24-14h34m13s94.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYyzlBUCb5yGSkIPlioGAJouuSASqfWHcMcipBWxHbBejIWER7WkJYnNqWm2P0cfYMNG8QtcDfEMpiIdDZmbBwlaWI9MO7YXj0xFotwpKkFkGCcBb8jv6OoBkkRtiu9aFTQeNeuHVAeg/s320/vlcsnap-2013-11-24-14h34m13s94.png" width="320" /></a>The first episode of <i>Doctor Who</i>, “An Unearthly Child” (1963),
is considered by many to be the finest in the programme’s long history. It introduces us to the Doctor and TARDIS
through the intermediary of the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman. Susan attends a <st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place> secondary school. Her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara
Wright, are mystified by her scientific and historical knowledge as well as by the
gaps in her knowledge. On a pretext they
try to visit her home, only to stumble into the TARDIS and be whisked away
through time and space - with scant hope of return since the TARDIS is
erratic. Before this, however, Susan
reveals that she and her grandfather are from another time and world. Tulloch and Alvarado have analysed how the episode
skilfully presents Susan as “familiar but different”. (1)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The Doctor kidnaps Susan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A popular narrative is that, in
“An Unearthly Child”, the Doctor kidnaps Ian and Barbara in order to preserve
the secret of his and Susan’s scientific advances. A close reading of the script however indicates
that his prime objective is actually to stop his granddaughter from leaving
him:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
SUSAN: I want
to stay! But they’re both kind
people. Why won’t you trust them? All you’ve got to do is ask them to promise
to keep our secret quiet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
DOCTOR: It’s
out of the question.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
SUSAN: I won’t
go, Grandfather. I won’t leave the
twentieth century. I’d rather leave the
TARDIS and you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
DOCTOR: Now
you’re being sentimental and childish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
SUSAN: No, I
mean it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
DOCTOR: Very
well. Then you must go with them. I’ll open the door.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
BARBARA: Are
you coming, Susan?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
(<i>The Doctor, instead of flipping the switch
to open the doors, dematerialises the TARDIS.)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
SUSAN: Oh no,
Grandfather! No!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoVwrSV09wdD8X54NXDsZXBBZT0ppj2EH8Mujz6LtlBIGgV7ifQTzb8rbRbvSrFiro1n2SdE2Kle11FzYaaWK_wBOfHDGmV_PJiumh_T7eQKiSS6YrlaoIMZe6sCe8kPeCyHkD6WVuiA/s1600/LWR_0101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="723" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoVwrSV09wdD8X54NXDsZXBBZT0ppj2EH8Mujz6LtlBIGgV7ifQTzb8rbRbvSrFiro1n2SdE2Kle11FzYaaWK_wBOfHDGmV_PJiumh_T7eQKiSS6YrlaoIMZe6sCe8kPeCyHkD6WVuiA/s320/LWR_0101.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
From the outset, therefore, the
story of Susan and the Doctor is one of domination. The male Doctor knows best: he decides
Susan’s future regardless of her own wishes.
This sets a pattern for the rest of her time in the TARDIS, including
her departure.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Susan’s demotion<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Given her centrality in the
opening episode and its emphasis on her other-worldliness and advanced knowledge,
one might expect Susan to emerge as a central figure in <i>Doctor Who </i>and that the show would make maximum use of her alien
attributes. In fact Susan is routinely relegated. David Butler observes that Susan has
considerable dramatic potential and appeal but that this is allowed entirely to
stagnate after “An Unearthly Child”. (2)
In fact Ian and Barbara constantly outshine her in terms of agency: </div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">“The Keys of Marinus” (1964) sees Ian and Barbara engaging
in daring adventures to find the missing keys to a computer which controls
a planet’s conscience. Susan by
contrast mainly tags along with her grandfather. </li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">“The Aztecs” (1964) centres around Barbara being
mistaken for a god. She uses this
status to try to abolish the Aztec practice of sacrifice, whilst Ian competes
in an ultra-masculine feud to the death with an Aztec military commander. By comparison Susan’s role is essentially
passive, being threatened with arranged marriage and having to be
rescued. </li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">“The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (1964) features exceptional
agency on the part of Ian and Barbara. Ian stops a Dalek bomb which is
aimed at the Earth’s core. Barbara penetrates into the heart of Dalek
headquarters in a bid to destroy their control panels. Both of them act entirely on their own
initiative. Susan by contrast
arrives at the Dalek HQ in the company of her grandfather and
newly-acquired boyfriend David Campbell, and plays a useful role only by
obeying the Doctor’s instructions to the letter.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Susan’s untapped potential<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlBPJYFbN85iThCyQawLAXxpPr9IIw86904kqr22x9Uke3SV-aAbOtZ9kpZNMntB85haUsabhNnIcUosKroMCdBYumbhlG3_xdtDnnpDa0PAz7Q7wC13FwX98YxzG0Vik9aH53RK1EwVU/s1600/W1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlBPJYFbN85iThCyQawLAXxpPr9IIw86904kqr22x9Uke3SV-aAbOtZ9kpZNMntB85haUsabhNnIcUosKroMCdBYumbhlG3_xdtDnnpDa0PAz7Q7wC13FwX98YxzG0Vik9aH53RK1EwVU/s1600/W1.jpg" /></a>Susan was therefore regularly eclipsed by the Doctor’s two human companions.
Her nadir comes in “The Reign of Terror” (1964) where she is terrified
by rats in a prison in revolutionary <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>. By contrast Susan’s finest hour comes in “The
Sensorites” (1964) where she uses telepathic power to communicate with an alien
species. Her gift for telepathy is clearly
greater than the Doctor’s. But instead
of using Susan’s telepathy to restore and rebuild her as a character, <i>Doctor Who</i> immediately undercuts her
agency, by having the Doctor veto her attempt to journey alone to the
Sensorites’ planet in order to reason with them. In the ensuing argument, as Joan Frances
Turner observes, the more Susan protests that she is no longer a child the more
aggressively her grandfather infantilises her. (3)</div>
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Susan is not even allowed to
determine her own departure: torn between new love David Campbell and concern
for her grandfather at the close of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, the decision
is made by the Doctor, who locks her out of the TARDIS and tells her that her
future lies with David. Agency is thereby
once again whipped away from her. Tellingly,
any difficulty which might arise in the marriage from Susan not being human is
entirely ignored, the programme having played down her alien nature for much of
the time. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_keIN0CmQZdgsy0xPbBiVLjVxG5XzKsU28TbRSLi0jpQQhZsndfGZhrL_tdLSb9JyT3-4eXkPq5DWG2ydeoi1DimdDJnIWOccfe_TmNJ47jQdyN5Y2RWLs288naP1C6-ah2wv9hpQKVg/s1600/ac70efd7a392bdfe7f7e14cf80b74591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_keIN0CmQZdgsy0xPbBiVLjVxG5XzKsU28TbRSLi0jpQQhZsndfGZhrL_tdLSb9JyT3-4eXkPq5DWG2ydeoi1DimdDJnIWOccfe_TmNJ47jQdyN5Y2RWLs288naP1C6-ah2wv9hpQKVg/s320/ac70efd7a392bdfe7f7e14cf80b74591.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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All in all, it is little wonder
that Carole Ann Ford who played Susan was so dissatisfied with the production
team’s unwillingness to develop Susan that she left the series. Furthermore neither Susan’s later appearance
in “The Five Doctors” (1983), the show’s twentieth anniversary special, nor her
roles in several ‘Big Finish’ audio adventures, really serves to transform the
character. </div>
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<b>The politics of Susan</b></div>
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Why did the Doctor’s
granddaughter come to be portrayed as such a wet blanket? Susan
might fit into Richard Wallace’s category of a “screamer”, on his reading the
most recognisable type of <i>Doctor Who</i>
companion and one of the least effective representations of women that the
programme has to offer. (4) A political
analysis would place Susan’s period in the TARDIS in the context of a time in
the early 1960s in which feminism was only just emerging from its 1950s
torpor. In the 1950s gender relations
were organised along patriarchal lines.
Women were still largely connected with the domestic sphere and men with
the world of work. It was only in the
1960s that social and political changes threatened these traditional roles. (5) It was during that decade that “second wave”
feminism emerged as a form of politics aiming to transform the unequal power
relations between men and women. (6)
Susan and the more feminist Barbara may be seen as representing those
two different phases, with Susan more confined to the ‘traditional’ role. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvPwUgnIUjhKQRv15jIefo8gFkWTR-YqSEo_PTridpvJtd71HKtvm-cd06Pe9vdazboszHly9RhESmTQfIc2wSxHdkxxwYRtGOk1bNe96tJSH_BAcOrW9QTZOzQ-8xT3LBH8J34SIv9U/s1600/the_doctor_susan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvPwUgnIUjhKQRv15jIefo8gFkWTR-YqSEo_PTridpvJtd71HKtvm-cd06Pe9vdazboszHly9RhESmTQfIc2wSxHdkxxwYRtGOk1bNe96tJSH_BAcOrW9QTZOzQ-8xT3LBH8J34SIv9U/s320/the_doctor_susan.jpg" width="320" /></a>Sometimes the frustrations of the
show’s treatment of Susan have spilt out into fan fiction. The present author, for example, has
concocted several adventures in which a pro-active Susan (now serving in the
post-Dalek British government alongside her husband) solves murders in time and
space along with the Doctor’s later companion Romana. As well as showcasing her telepathic skills,
Susan uses her intelligence to find <a href="https://susanandromana.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-murder-of-richter-techroyd.html" target="_blank">the killer of an intergalactic magnate</a>,
solve <a href="https://susanandromana.blogspot.com/2018/12/murder-on-uxariean-express.html" target="_blank">the case of an exploding Prime Minister on a faraway planet</a>, hunt down the perpetrator of <a href="https://susanandromana.blogspot.com/2019/08/at-bentons-hotel.html" target="_blank">the killing of the Guardian of the Solar System at a hotel run by Sergeant Benton, </a>and identify
<a href="https://susanandromana.blogspot.com/2019/03/dead-robomans-folly.html" target="_blank">a murderer in a political whodunit set in post-Dalek <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region></a>. It was not difficult to combine familiar "Susanisms" with unfamiliar derring-do. Fanfic provides scope to flag up a
programme’s shortcomings in a creative and constructive way: establishing a
non-sexist <i>Doctor Who</i> canon is, however,
a taller order.</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Echoes of Susan <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<i>Doctor Who</i>’s failure to make the most of Susan might be dismissed
as a sexist aberration of the programme’s early years, of little relevance to modern
<i>Doctor Who</i>. In fact, as Alyssa Franke and I argue on the
pages of the Journal of Popular Television, the contemporary programme undercuts
the Doctor’s more recent companions Donna Noble and Amy Pond by consigning them
to the rather Susan-ish fate of happy domesticity after their time in the
TARDIS. (7) In the last series, the
number of “Yaz-lite” episodes is cause for concern, echoing the “Susan-lite”
episodes of the past. So too is the
exclusion of the Doctor for the first time from the main emotional engagement of
the series – the evolving granddad-grandson relationship between companions Graham and Ryan – an exclusion which coincides unhappily with the advent of the
first woman Doctor. <i>Doctor Who</i>’s
disservice to Susan Foreman as a character was immense, and in so doing the show did a substantial disservice to itself. The programme’s makers need to be more vigilant that the lessons are fully learnt.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUxFU-xcEauymSurHxXhlEvXrA0AfUcRc8K2d2QTN5o2CPKOvIAw1RN-Wfrt0CH4XcnH1S26t-4CVRfH95-3S1ouqzYMWzdieKIFlteLpUhAklWu7nHe8T5DKEJbANg_6emuENlO0DkdM/s1600/Daleks+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUxFU-xcEauymSurHxXhlEvXrA0AfUcRc8K2d2QTN5o2CPKOvIAw1RN-Wfrt0CH4XcnH1S26t-4CVRfH95-3S1ouqzYMWzdieKIFlteLpUhAklWu7nHe8T5DKEJbANg_6emuENlO0DkdM/s1600/Daleks+14.JPG" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Notes<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->J Tulloch and M Alvarado, <i>Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text</i> (St Martin’s Press, 1983) pp.24-26.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(2)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->D Butler, “How to Pilot A TARDIS”, in D Butler (ed.) <i>Time and Relative Dissertations in Space </i>(Manchester
UP, 2007) p.40.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(3)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->J Turner, “I’m from the TARDIS and I’m here to help
you: Barbara Wright and the Limits of Intervention”, in D Stanish and L Myles
(eds.) <i>Chicks Unravel Time</i> (Mad
Norwegian Press, 2012) p.78.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(4)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--> R Wallace, “‘But
Doctor?’ A Feminist Perspective of <i>Doctor
Who</i>” in C Hansen (ed) <i>Ruminations,
Peregrinations and Regenerations</i> (Cambridge Scholars, 2010) p.104.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(5)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->K Milestone and A Mayer, <i>Gender and Popular Culture</i> (Polity, 2012) p.33.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(6)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->J Hollows, <i>Feminism
and Popular Culture</i> (Manchester UP, 2000) p.3.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">(7)</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -18pt;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">A Franke and D Nicol, “‘Don’t Make Me Go Back’:
Post-feminist retreatism in </span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Doctor Who</i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">”
</span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Journal of Popular Television</i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Vol. 6
No. 2 pp.197-233.</span></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-13542562443609176262019-02-25T17:16:00.003+00:002019-02-26T09:07:53.766+00:00Was Doctor Who too political?<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><b> </b></o:p><b>By Danny Nicol,</b></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b><b><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></b></div>
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In a famous article in 2004 Alan
McKee asked whether classic era <i>Doctor
Who</i> (1963-89) had been political.
He argued that one should analyse fans’ views of whether they saw the programme
as political. He discovered that they
did not see it as such, at least not in the sense of state-level politics (“Is <i>Doctor Who</i> Political", <i>European Journal of Cutural Studies</i>
vii/2 (2004: 201-217). By contrast in
2018 there were complaints of <i>Doctor Who </i>being
too political, indeed “too preachy”. </div>
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This post argues that this may
have been the case, but only in the sense that episodes with a highly political
content were rather unwisely bunched together instead of being more adroitly “diluted”
by “less political” stories. Furthermore
it could also be contended in the programme’s defence that the issues which
featured in these highly-political episodes were, for the most part, very familiar
to those who follow the show.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizS2AAL2sNlVw4Sm75BCkWsZs6b4xDNW_KfYzpbnXR6ECyAG1iGYHL3mCCfDLEl6uNB4_sFgXpApJa3hH9K2HAO9pzPFGXre86gdbfcu-UdXstgS5N9pUPved2PzmgkOhWz3uxAFLcqY4/s1600/NINTCHDBPICT0004394840932.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizS2AAL2sNlVw4Sm75BCkWsZs6b4xDNW_KfYzpbnXR6ECyAG1iGYHL3mCCfDLEl6uNB4_sFgXpApJa3hH9K2HAO9pzPFGXre86gdbfcu-UdXstgS5N9pUPved2PzmgkOhWz3uxAFLcqY4/s320/NINTCHDBPICT0004394840932.jpg" width="320" /></a>The opening episode, “The Woman
Who Fell to Earth” (2018), tackles the Doctor’s regeneration into the first
woman Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), as well as introducing the new companions – Yaz
Khan (Mandip Gill), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) and Graham O’Brien (Bradley
Walsh). Whilst the Doctor’s gender change was something new, the possibility had
already been flagged up by the earlier transformation of arch-enemy the Master
into Missy. Nor is diversity of
companions anything new: although Yaz is the Doctor’s first Asian companion, Ryan
is the Doctor’s fourth black one; and the experiment of an older companion in
Graham had already been made with Wilf Mott’s (Bernard Cribben’s) one-off role
as companion in “The End of Time” (2010).</div>
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<br /></div>
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In their first adventure in outer
space, “The Ghost Monument” (2018), the Doctor and her companions become
embroiled in a cut-throat competition between two humanoids each determined to
win a race. The episode becomes an
allegory against over-competitiveness, the lesson being that individuals are
stronger when they work together. This message is nothing new. Indeed it was the theme of the very last
serial of classic-era <i>Doctor Who</i>,
“Survival” (1989), which enlisted British comedians Gareth Hale and Norman Pace
as shopkeepers to underscore the story’s normative stance that too much
competition is a ruinous thing.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6U_ZWgk6x_3zd94R8GU6Oyl8rdVUwlItvZ4YNlkplk_IoGx63wzjmouMh3nKg07IJwPzSQNZREjp1Z6Z6_LjXRiw0sLHlYeXrJ-mbThyphenhyphenFBIjXx44G1Vnpi0jull9QpP-l1g-_OD_O0c/s1600/Rosa-Parks-Doctor-Who.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="634" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6U_ZWgk6x_3zd94R8GU6Oyl8rdVUwlItvZ4YNlkplk_IoGx63wzjmouMh3nKg07IJwPzSQNZREjp1Z6Z6_LjXRiw0sLHlYeXrJ-mbThyphenhyphenFBIjXx44G1Vnpi0jull9QpP-l1g-_OD_O0c/s320/Rosa-Parks-Doctor-Who.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The team then journey to 1950s <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state> for “<st1:place w:st="on">Rosa</st1:place>”
(2018), in which an alien time meddler tries to disrupt history so that the
famous Rosa Parks bus incident does not occur.
Anti-racism is a well-worn theme of <i>Doctor
Who</i> and the story is somewhat reminiscent of “Remembrance of the Daleks”
(1988) where the Doctor has to fight a group of British racists who are
none-too-subtly in league with the Daleks.
The similarity of “Arachnids in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>” (2018) to the classic-era story
“The Green Death” (1973) was widely noted.
Both have the theme of corporate irresponsibility towards the
environment - and human life. </div>
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<br /></div>
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“Kerblam!” (2018) envisages an
Amazon in outer space. It continues <i>Doctor Who</i>’s well-worn anti-corporate
theme, since Kerblam! is evidently not a nice place to work. Yet the tale also seems to criticise
“extremist” methods of achieving egalitarian ends. This again is nothing new: the same message
was apparent in “The Monster of Peladon” in 1974. “Demons of the <st1:place w:st="on">Punjab</st1:place>”
(2018), set at the time of the India-Parkistan partition, condemns religious
intolerance yet also dwells on the limits of time-travellers’ legitimate
interference in the course of history. Both
these themes are central in “The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Eve” (1966)
which concerns conflict between Catholics and Protestants.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirK_0mgiSBRDZCAjb0iAeZu8zM4AEe74ZA6c_M2Ba_7iPJFh5XwiubcPHaeBCTf3d2QmpI7Kqb1LTTYdl5jk6AajisZvuKfDUTrnpLJ33V2p2Ava7xq4S2TPCd4PKDAiIaXLSf0ym2tk0/s1600/DW11114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirK_0mgiSBRDZCAjb0iAeZu8zM4AEe74ZA6c_M2Ba_7iPJFh5XwiubcPHaeBCTf3d2QmpI7Kqb1LTTYdl5jk6AajisZvuKfDUTrnpLJ33V2p2Ava7xq4S2TPCd4PKDAiIaXLSf0ym2tk0/s320/DW11114.jpg" width="320" /></a>Towards the latter half of the
series there were several episodes with less overtly-articulated political
themes. “The Tsuranga Conundrum” (2018)
involves gender-swapping, with the Doctor and Yaz being the all-action heroes
whilst Graham and Ryan serve as birthing partners for a pregnant man. “The Witchfinder” (2018) also takes up the
theme of gender discrimination but the message is softened by being comfortably
removed to the seventeenth century. “It
Takes You Away” (2018) is a morality tale about mortality and grief with
perhaps the least overt political content of the series. The series finale, “The Battle of Ranskoor Av
Kolos” (2018), concerns faith and doubt – arguably more religious than
political. The New Year special,
“Resolution” (2019), takes up a pervasive theme of the series: that family is
not about DNA or sharing a surname but is about how one treats those one holds
dear. Indeed by the end of the adventure
the Doctor refers to her companions as “extended fam”.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The episodes with the most overt
political content, therefore, ended up being substantially bunched
together. Herein lay the production
team’s only real mistake. Jane
Esperson, a writer for <i>Battlestar
Galactica</i>, has commented that the thicker the metaphor and the more
distractions there are for the viewer, the more the writer of a science fiction
programme can “get away with” by way of political messages. Crucially, therefore, writing political
science fiction involves an element of skill, in order to “get away with
it”. To be sure, “political” <i>Doctor Who</i> is something to celebrate: it
allows the programme’s writers to create dystopias and flag up what is worrisome
within our country. It enables them to
draw attention to the gap between the nation as it is and the nation as it
ought to be. It permits them to
circumvent - at least to an extent - the BBC’s political conservatism. But political messages need to be spread elegantly
like caviar not smothered on like marmalade.
A degree of subtlety is required so that viewers enjoy the politics of <i>Doctor Who</i> rather than feel that the
show is ramming its politics down their throats.</div>
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Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-3908557704069284052018-10-16T08:58:00.000+01:002018-10-29T18:08:14.103+00:00When you're in space the whole cosmos is BritishBy Danny Nicol<br />
University of Westminster<br />
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlS7v3_sBT_c-NBiQ-ugPgxl9raCkHXWOx3Jp66PhCg4xwyWe5qiWFdsZ5YVauUemdfMze9PewQlQTyvIwqRvjQo2MPllBS-WzTgvy7Z3ZGzfPWoPRCIDAV3lNRrLeXpteMuNVykCQoGo/s1600/Yasmin-Ryan-Mandip-Gill-Tosin-Cole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlS7v3_sBT_c-NBiQ-ugPgxl9raCkHXWOx3Jp66PhCg4xwyWe5qiWFdsZ5YVauUemdfMze9PewQlQTyvIwqRvjQo2MPllBS-WzTgvy7Z3ZGzfPWoPRCIDAV3lNRrLeXpteMuNVykCQoGo/s320/Yasmin-Ryan-Mandip-Gill-Tosin-Cole.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Representing Britishness: new companions Ryan and Yasmin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The new series of <i>Doctor Who</i> is notable for its
inclusivity. Much attention has rightly
focused on the long-overdue casting of a woman to play the Doctor and Jodie
Whittaker’s predictably superb performance.
Diversity in the show has also benefitted from the introduction in ‘The
Woman Who Fell to Earth’ (2018) of the Doctor’s first Asian companion (Yaz),
first middle-aged companion (Graham) and fourth Black companion (Ryan). Yaz’s
and Ryan’s recruitment into the TARDIS contributes to a sense of celebration of
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>
as a multi-racial country. Ryan (presently a warehouse worker) and Graham (former bus driver) join the brief list of the Doctor's unequivocally working class companions. Graham’s
efforts to secure an emotional relationship with Ryan as grandson are not merely
touching but also reflect how ‘complicated families’ are now part of life in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> and
beyond. Furthermore Graham’s expressions
of feelings for Ryan also erode notions of the ‘stiff upper lip’ Brit and of
natural gender difference in the articulation of emotions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Doctor Who</i>’s cultivation of a different sort of inclusivity may
have attracted less attention. It
concerns the show’s ambitions to reflect <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> as a geographical whole. The
Doctor speaks in a <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> (northern
English) accent. The opening episode is
set in Sheffield, in <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place>. Two of the companions - Ryan and Yaz - speak in Sheffield
accents whilst Graham has a cockney, <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
accent. So<i> three</i> of the four TARDIS crew speak in <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place>
accents and <i>none </i>uses RP – Received
Pronunciation – the standard form of British pronunciation of English based on
a southern English accent and traditionally heavily promoted by the British
Broadcasting Corporation in earlier decades to the exclusion of regional
accents. This ‘critical mass’ of northern accents is remarkable, especially
given the conflict with the production team which Christopher Eccleston engendered
by using a northern accent to play the ninth Doctor. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpXVafka_mhEYdT2pa4duv9JcowweTgtwGOZPu2SqnSXJEGcHnpTal5B_gmqABAOvX-yUbQF9R8s_wi7EHZ9MvhTJupKO2Y3Aw6_pQE0tH3nnVALNq7d9WR3_pDZwG7Gl_XX7y3PIJr8U/s1600/doctor-who-trailer-season-11-jodie-whittaker.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="1024" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpXVafka_mhEYdT2pa4duv9JcowweTgtwGOZPu2SqnSXJEGcHnpTal5B_gmqABAOvX-yUbQF9R8s_wi7EHZ9MvhTJupKO2Y3Aw6_pQE0tH3nnVALNq7d9WR3_pDZwG7Gl_XX7y3PIJr8U/s320/doctor-who-trailer-season-11-jodie-whittaker.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern Powerhouse: the Doctor excited to commence <br />
her career in manufacturing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
No less remarkable was using Sheffield
as a setting, enabling the use of several minor characters also with <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> accents.
The show’s ‘London-heavy’ tradition was only marginally eroded by
staging the last series ostensibly at a university in <st1:city w:st="on">Bristol</st1:city>
in the south west of the country. The Bristol setting was compromised through the scant use of actors with <st1:city w:st="on">Bristol</st1:city> accents let alone Bristol landmarks. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Bristol got a raw deal as an 'anywhere-but-London' token setting. The shift to <st1:place w:st="on">Sheffield</st1:place>
was more genuine and it is to be hoped that it becomes a base for
more than one adventure. Furthermore the
Doctor’s manufacture of a sonic screwdriver from <st1:place w:st="on">Sheffield</st1:place>
steel gently connotes optimism about the North’s industrial future, forming a
contrast to Brit-grit films about the city such as <i>The Full Monty</i> (1997) which do not see beyond the post-industrial.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But the changes go further. Since 1963 <i>Doctor Who</i> has introduced us to an array of non-Earth
humanoids. Part of the vast 'willing
suspension of disbelief' which <i>Doctor Who</i>
requires of its viewers is that the universe is full of species who look just
like us. These non-human humanoids overwhelmingly spoke in RP accents, especially in classic-series <i>Doctor Who</i>. This was often the case
even where the characters were working class, such as the Peladonian miners in ‘The
Monster of Peladon’ (1974). Possibly RP provided
a kind of neutrality, an umbrella under which alien voices could be imagined. This tradition has now been eroded in ‘The
Ghost Monument’ (2018):</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
GRAHAM: ‘Scuse me! We are human
beings! Show a bit of solidarity!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
EPZO: <i>(in a Northern
English accent)</i> I’m Muxteran, she’s Albarian.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
ANGSTROM: <i>(in a Northern Irish accent)</i> Never even heard of Moomanbeans!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Time will tell if aliens with an
array of British accents becomes another <i>Doctor
Who</i> fixture for viewers to accept.
In the meantime it serves to emphasise, like so much else, <i>Doctor Who</i>’s mission of representing the whole <st1:country-region w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:country-region>
and emphasising its rich diversity - even in outer space.<br />
<br />Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-45882678905117807012018-08-03T14:03:00.000+01:002018-08-03T15:04:46.557+01:00Thatcher and the Tharils: a political interpretation of "Warriors' Gate" <b>By Danny Nicol</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b>University of Westminster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ucOJI22VqInEo7lVNNm7LHxbSVbJ4hOCVOV0besh419Nl2-08zPYiIRrwOVQ15OI4LXx26PfkAidMpljEKgtRbp9gqkDPTWVUbPnYiy9tjDSvlrBbYzPZuOZ9LutPkMLZUN9AK-L9QM/s1600/gate_2500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ucOJI22VqInEo7lVNNm7LHxbSVbJ4hOCVOV0besh419Nl2-08zPYiIRrwOVQ15OI4LXx26PfkAidMpljEKgtRbp9gqkDPTWVUbPnYiy9tjDSvlrBbYzPZuOZ9LutPkMLZUN9AK-L9QM/s320/gate_2500.jpg" width="320" /></a>“Warriors’ Gate”, a four-part <i>Doctor Who</i> adventure broadcast in 1981,
is one of the Doctor’s most surreal escapades.
Influenced by <i>I Ching</i>
philosophy and Couteau’s <i>La Belle et La
Bête</i> (1946), brilliantly directed and set for the most part in a white
void, it has been described as “beautiful, violent and ultimately inexplicable”
(Mark Campbell, <i>Doctor Who</i>,
Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2000, p.64).
In a detailed analysis of the serial in his book <i>The Humanism of Doctor Who</i> (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012, 224-230),
David Layton argues that “Warriors’ Gate” is about Taoist-Buddist philosophy
with an emphasis in particular on the notion of <i>ethical non-action</i> – the choice to go along with the tide of events. Ethical non-action is based on the idea that
one may only determine the right action when one has the right facts. By contrast, according to <st1:place w:st="on">Layton</st1:place>, the serial condemns destructive and
dangerous activity driven merely by the perceived need to do something. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><b>A Whoniverse of interpretations</b></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:city w:st="on">Layton</st1:city>’s is a perfectly viable interpretation
of “Warriors' Gate”, yet his reading tends to depoliticise the adventure. The story was broadcast at a particularly
dramatic time in British politics and a credible political interpretation of
the serial is also readily apparent. There
is no reason why a political reading should not co-exist with a philosophical
one. After all, as Rebecca Williams has
observed, the idea of a singular homogenous and stable interpretation of <i>Doctor Who</i> which establishes an
officially constituted reading formation cannot be sustained (“Desiring the
Doctor: Identity, Gender and Genre in Online Fandom”, in <i>British Science Fiction Television: Critical Essays, </i>eds. J. Leggott and T. Hochscherf (Jefferson: McFarland 2011), 167-177, 177.) Nor can authorial intention be the only guide to
interpretation. As Matthew Jones has
argued, the concerns that underpin recent British history have emerged in <i>Doctor Who</i> regardless of whether the
production team intended to invoke particular socio-political anxieties. (“Army
of Ghosts: Sight, Knowledge and the Invisible Terrorist in <i>Doctor Who</i>”, in <i>Impossible
Things, Impossible Worlds: Cultural Perspectives on Doctor Who, Torchwood and
the Sarah Jane Adventures</i>, eds. Ross Garner, Melissa Beattie and Una
McCormick, (<st1:city w:st="on">Newcastle-upon-Tyne</st1:city>, <st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place> Scholars
Publishing, 2010), 45-61, 52.). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphRdU2yWVmufpiQYZ3ZRSHY33NIFqfJhU3F2NDKZNq6DbiURZ8GvcHK-oi7nBwNABHvhQQL526Lb7bKu8udfYDLtr7qPy5mkNb3XaJNfJ2SQQ3lp7P8jprfiIO8okZAjr5YCbYAkHNXA/s1600/gate2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="700" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphRdU2yWVmufpiQYZ3ZRSHY33NIFqfJhU3F2NDKZNq6DbiURZ8GvcHK-oi7nBwNABHvhQQL526Lb7bKu8udfYDLtr7qPy5mkNb3XaJNfJ2SQQ3lp7P8jprfiIO8okZAjr5YCbYAkHNXA/s320/gate2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Rorvic menaces the Doctor and Romana</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In very condensed form, the plot
of “Warriors’ Gate” is that the TARDIS along with a large privateer spaceship
are pulled into a white void which straddles two universes. Aside from the two ships the only object in
the void is an ancient gateway. The privateer craft - staffed by a humanoid
crew – is a freighter transporting members of a slave race, the Tharils. These Tharils are a valuable commodity since
they are “time-sensitive” and are used to guide spaceships through the “time
winds”. Exploring through the gateway the
Doctor discovers that the Tharils were once a dominant race, enslaving others,
but were ultimately overthrown and are now themselves enslaved. It also becomes apparent that space and time
are contracting within the void, but the Doctor is advised by the Tharil leader,
Biroc, that the best course of action is to ‘do nothing’. The captain, the energetic Rorvik, compels his
unenergetic crew to use the backthrust of his ship in order to try to escape
the void. The blast destroys ship and
crew, but the Tharils, being time-sensitive, manage to escape, as does the
TARDIS. At the end of the adventure the Doctor's companion Romana leaves in order to help the Tharils, <a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.com/2017/08/hedonistic-departures-from-tardis.html" target="_blank">a departure which I have commended in an earlier post.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The serial was broadcast in 1981,
two years into Margaret Thatcher’s period as Prime Minister. Her premiership marked a revolution in
British politics which ultimately led the country in a more capitalist
direction. Privatisation was one of the
central tenets of the Thatcher years, as was the general promotion of private
enterprise. Deregulation meant less
emphasis on an ethical state (reflected in the serial’s slave trading) and more
emphasis on liberating the energies of the entrepreneur (which finds expression
in the busy Rorvik). Yet Rorvik’s
subordinates are performed as lazy and apathetic, suggesting that the new more
aggressive form of capitalism, however energising for those in the upper
echelons, would not meet the needs of those lower down the social scale.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Biroc the Lionheart<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Just as one may read the
spaceship’s demotivated crew as representing the British workforce so too there
are indicators in favour of reading the Tharils as something as a metaphor for
the British. Significantly Biroc himself
prompts the comparison between Tharils and ourselves by telling the Doctor and
companions that he is “a shadow of my past and of your future”. The Tharils are lion-like, and the lion is an
animal associated with the English. King
Richard I, famed for his wars in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>,
was known as ‘Richard the Lionheart’ and lions remain on the Royal Standard and
a symbol of the national football team. The
enslaving, Empire-building Tharils hark back to the imperial era in which the
English, and subsequently the British, were involved in the slave trade. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaSvACSH-iH_8sQuPqphbswddK0gnxLs3IHQPVMq-cxtZPHcc990I_i0L26U1oJq4UCeZ-mG-yq1TPleiTf9Io1LPGx-e7HmDuv3zH4yo5oMUAkHInwWyhzpl2pdnK7yofqKxN8rLNTyc/s1600/warrior%2527s+gate+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaSvACSH-iH_8sQuPqphbswddK0gnxLs3IHQPVMq-cxtZPHcc990I_i0L26U1oJq4UCeZ-mG-yq1TPleiTf9Io1LPGx-e7HmDuv3zH4yo5oMUAkHInwWyhzpl2pdnK7yofqKxN8rLNTyc/s320/warrior%2527s+gate+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under Biroc's guidance the Doctor and Romana 'do nothing'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As Graham Sleight observes, the
sophistication of “Warriors’ Gate” is that unlike other slave races in <i>Doctor Who</i> such as the Ood, the Tharils
can be both slave and enslaver. (<i>The Doctor’s Monsters</i>, <st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place>: IB Tauris, 2012 139-143, 142). The idea that the British (the Tharils) are
subsequently enslaved may seem far-fetched, and of course the metaphor of
science fiction and dystopian fiction often exaggerates. Yet the idea of the British as victims of
colonisation chimes with socialist texts of the time. In particular in the same year as “Warriors’
Gate” the leading left-wing Labour politician Tony Benn published <i>Arguments For Democracy</i> (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1981: 3-17) in which he characterised <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> as a colony. Benn argued that British democracy has declined
and that the country faced a national liberation struggle as “the last colony
in the <st1:place w:st="on">British Empire</st1:place>”. He argued that Britain was under the
influence of economic imperialism from the growth of private monopoly, that the
country subordinated itself to the USA in foreign and defence policy, and that
it had formally surrendered national sovereignty and parliamentary democracy to
the European Economic Community (now European Union) making it a colony of an
embryonic Western European federal state.
These were the views of many on the Labour Left at the time, before they
were toned down in response to the Thatcherite tsunami. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Doing nothing as response to Thatcherism<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Finally the plot emphasises that
the way to resist oppression is “to do nothing”. If the new hard-line capitalism be seen as
the source of oppression then this may seem absurd. Yet one should beware the benefit of
hindsight. At the time, many political
figures saw Thatcherism as a blip. The
Conservative Cabinet was split between “drys” who supported the Prime
Minister’s new ideology and “wets” who favoured a return to more consensual policies. Many assumed the wets would triumph. Indeed many mainstream politicians thought
that Thatcherism would be a temporary aberration. Middle-of-the-road Labour figures such as Roy
Hattersley and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Peter</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Shore</st1:placename></st1:place> gave lectures on how
the country would soon recommence its journey along the road to social
equality. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately, like Rorvic, Thatcher
was indeed undone by her hyperactivity and hubris. Her insistence on a regressive means of
financing local government, known as the Poll Tax, guaranteed her political
demise. Yet as Simon Jenkins has shown in <i>Thatcher and Sons</i> (<st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>: Penguin, 2007) her ideology outlived
her. Rechristened neoliberalism, it was enforced
and expanded by Conservative, Coalition and New Labour governments alike. A political interpretation of “Warriors’ Gate”
provides a reminder that in Thatcherism’s early years this course of
events was not seen as inevitable or even likely. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-5971523182147326742018-05-09T08:48:00.000+01:002018-05-09T08:48:15.994+01:00When the Doctor got too big for his boots<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><b><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A well-known feature of <i>Doctor Who</i> is the Doctor’s ability to
change his/her physical appearance (and, to an extent, character) through
regeneration. This has proven an invaluable
device for refreshing the programme with new lead actors. The 2017 <i>Doctor
Who</i> Christmas special “Twice Upon A Time” took advantage of regeneration to
imagine an encounter between the twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and the first
Doctor (originally William Hartnell, here David Bradley) and to explore the
tensions between them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73ThiY6pMNFKh9UMa_4BhdDd1EUDs6r0qGfQxp112wTaS2pm6yJJze5ZcsKAMugAkYf9KwDAIXQrDCkd0qCwi3pdnr4OLmYRjS3GaMldk_osYYsbYRchz2CQF6Hrm5QEYX51xydHES4Y/s1600/Doctor-Who-Two-Doctors.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="980" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73ThiY6pMNFKh9UMa_4BhdDd1EUDs6r0qGfQxp112wTaS2pm6yJJze5ZcsKAMugAkYf9KwDAIXQrDCkd0qCwi3pdnr4OLmYRjS3GaMldk_osYYsbYRchz2CQF6Hrm5QEYX51xydHES4Y/s400/Doctor-Who-Two-Doctors.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Doctor....and the Doctor.<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I am not here referring to the
rather overdone drolleries about the first Doctor’s sexism (something which was
not actually so very apparent in the years when William Hartnell played the
Doctor). Rather, the first Doctor and
twelfth Doctor have a series of disagreements which resonate with other
political interpretations of <i>Doctor Who</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">The first involves <i>the protection of Earth</i>.
When an alien entity materialises, the first Doctor tells it that
Earth is a level five civilisation.
The twelfth Doctor chips in: “And it is protected!” The first Doctor is taken aback: “It’s
what? Protected by whom?”</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">The second involves <i>whether the Doctor is “the Doctor of war”</i>. The alien later declares to the first
Doctor that he is known by all in the Chamber of the Dead, since he is the
Doctor of war. Indignant, the first
Doctor denies being the Doctor of war.
He later misunderstands the title as meaning that the Doctor saves
lives during wars.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">The third involves <i>the twelfth Doctor’s (and other recent Doctors’) habit of bragging</i>. When the twelfth Doctor threatens the
alien, the first Doctor retorts: “Why are you advertising your
intentions? Can’t you stop boasting
for a moment? Who the hell do you
think you are?”</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The tale of two Doctors<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The differences between the first
Doctor and the twelfth Doctor thereby emerge as a pervasive theme in “Twice
Upon A Time”. The Doctor’s contemporary
sense of self-importance and his military dimension certainly seem to form a
contrast to the show’s early years, where the eccentric gentleman would gad
hither and thither, meddling sporadically with no grand mission. Yet these differences cannot entirely be
ascribed to politics. To an extent they
are due to the sheer flow of time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdy2tDdnB-W3LNinITnXe59i5bP4adyAsMxcH5cVnVS9wmfkCiXjlXivpJn0rXav685mXpwIfYJmWYLwXoq7Q-_TIKebiY2j201tsCzjiGboaO8-Yd0y6Vkl2sCQGORQZhOOVsekHAA4/s1600/Dalek_Invasion_of_Earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="365" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdy2tDdnB-W3LNinITnXe59i5bP4adyAsMxcH5cVnVS9wmfkCiXjlXivpJn0rXav685mXpwIfYJmWYLwXoq7Q-_TIKebiY2j201tsCzjiGboaO8-Yd0y6Vkl2sCQGORQZhOOVsekHAA4/s320/Dalek_Invasion_of_Earth.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Doctor commences his role<br />as defender of Earth</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In this regard it would be misleading
to draw too bright a line between the two Doctors. When it comes to the Doctor’s roles as protector
of Earth and Doctor of war, the seeds were actually sown during the first Doctor’s
era. In “The Daleks” (1964-5) the Doctor
unequivocally acts as a war leader, helping the Thals against the Daleks – who
end up being exterminated. In <i>Doctor Who – A British Alien?</i> (2018) I
argue that the Doctor’s war is difficult to justify, since the Daleks (whose
genocidal ways we do not know at this early stage) express their desire to
eliminate all Thals only after the war has begun. Furthermore in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”
(1964) whilst the Doctor does not quite articulate a role as defender of Earth
he nonetheless states that he must prevent the Daleks’ plans to pilot the Earth
right out of its orbit since that would “upset the entire constellation”. This was a significant development in the <i>Doctor Who</i> formula. Prior to this, the Doctor and his entourage
would often leave the TARDIS to see if they had landed on contemporary Earth so
as to return the Doctor’s original companions Ian and Barbara back home. They would somehow get separated from the
TARDIS and the adventure would revolve entirely around the effort to return to
the ship. “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” gives
the Doctor a more heroic mission. The foundations of the Doctor’s roles as
Doctor of war and defender of Earth are therefore readily apparent in the first
Doctor’s era. As time wore on there were more such adventures. The instances of the various Doctors’
Earth-saving and military-style meddling simply mounted up and attained
critical mass, so that the titles of “defender of Earth” and “Doctor of war”
were no longer fanciful – and the Doctors had something to boast about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The tale of two eras<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
By the same token, completely to
exclude a political dimension is not entirely convincing either. In the 1960s when William Hartnell played the
first Doctor, British foreign policy was comparatively peaceful. In particular, whilst expressing support for
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region>
campaign, the 1964-70 Labour government kept British forces out of it. The 1960s were also a time of decolonisation
as the transformation from Empire to Commonwealth continued. Against this backdrop <i>Doctor Who</i> could conceivably have developed to place more emphasis
on the Doctor fostering co-existence and on care for the Other as well as the
human/humanoid. Alas, this did not quite
happen. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
By contrast, however, post-2005
new-<i>Who</i> was broadcast in a very different
climate. In the wake of the 9/11
terrorism, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> under the
Labour government of Tony Blair joined the Americans in invading <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> and later joined the invasion of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>. Interventions in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Libya</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Syria</st1:place>
also ensued. This more aggressive stance
vis-à-vis the rest of the world was reflected in <i>Doctor Who</i> in a critical fashion.
Undeniably the importance of the Doctor’s military and defence role has
increased in post-2005 <i>Doctor Who</i>,
reaching its logical conclusion in “A Good Man Goes to War” (2011) where the
very word “Doctor” is accorded a new meaning of “mighty warrior”. This stance is amplified by the twelfth
Doctor’s opening series in 2014 where the pervasive theme was whether the
Doctor was “a good man” or “a blood-soaked general”. The programme increasingly dwells on the idea
of the Doctor having fashioned a military and defence role, and does so in a
very explicit way. It also tries on
occasion to soften this assessment with talk of him being “kind”, or being just
“an idiot with a box” who “helps out”. Suffice
to say that sometimes the Doctor metaphorically critiques <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s role
in the world. Yet at other times he
himself serves as a metaphor for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s role in the world. Through him, contemporary politics is exposed
on screen for pitiless appraisal. </div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-8527191426118091522018-03-27T09:26:00.001+01:002018-03-27T15:08:54.618+01:00A Whoniverse of Welsh womenBy Danny Nicol<br />
University of Westminster<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Acting in<i> Doctor Who</i> used to be fraught with danger. Concern over being typecast deterred some actors from accepting roles (e.g. Peter Jeffrey declined to play the second Doctor) or shortened the duration of their stint in the programme (e.g. Anneke Wills' Polly made an earlier exit than the production team desired). Nowadays the culture has quite changed and the threat has receded, as evidenced by some of the plum roles in which former <i>Doctor Who </i>actors have subsequently excelled.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGToBWs6Nmly2rFtX-2UwLvmsrzYF3OWQ8KTrcnAZYntj_REob2mT4DuWbnBWP6RZjQTTP2PP345ZajgtEypdoU3qHOpFYGYVvYxEV-SGCWvvE4dEaZ41dLBxYlgaaavfgxS2kumosmoA/s1600/maxresdefault+%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGToBWs6Nmly2rFtX-2UwLvmsrzYF3OWQ8KTrcnAZYntj_REob2mT4DuWbnBWP6RZjQTTP2PP345ZajgtEypdoU3qHOpFYGYVvYxEV-SGCWvvE4dEaZ41dLBxYlgaaavfgxS2kumosmoA/s400/maxresdefault+%25284%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenny in action, accompanied by the Doctor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this regard two crime dramas may slip under the radar, being primarily aimed at a Welsh audience. Catrin Stewart, who played Jenny Flint, Victorian maid and wife of the reptilian Madame Vastra, in <i>Doctor Who</i>, played policewoman Gina in S4C's<i> Bang </i>last year<i> </i>(S4C being the public service Welsh language broadcaster). Eve Myles - Gwen Cooper in <em>Torchwood</em> and <em>Doctor Who</em> - is presently playing Faith, a solicitor, in S4C's <i>Keeping Faith</i>. What is remarkable about these two programmes is how easily they can be read as more feminist than <i>Doctor Who</i> itself. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Catrin Stewart's Welshness would not be obvious to <i>Doctor Who </i>viewers given Jenny's impeccable Cockney accent. Yet she is indeed Welsh, and<i> Bang </i>was a bilingual series, with part of the dialogue in English and part in Welsh. Given her Welshness it is regrettable that <i>Doctor Who</i> did not allow Stewart to use her Welsh accent as Jenny. After all by contrast with the Welsh, Londoners and London are not exactly under-represented in <i>Doctor Who.</i> Eve Myles' <i>Keeping Faith</i> is bilingual in a different way, with viewers able to choose between watching a version entirely in English and a version entirely in Welsh. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWlpp_9qNISODclj4zCXJDVPuTURdm7v5uryy0yJsE1kCeOlqQoCT7XQx-msBe8o4_3kwgriChI-GSa61cn0xxiaWTC63JWmV6YvuM2P-Gn0PZoSzh2Gi6R9-rnYVNGTpCH9KnK0HWgWQ/s1600/Torchwood-eve-myles-722298_1920_1279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWlpp_9qNISODclj4zCXJDVPuTURdm7v5uryy0yJsE1kCeOlqQoCT7XQx-msBe8o4_3kwgriChI-GSa61cn0xxiaWTC63JWmV6YvuM2P-Gn0PZoSzh2Gi6R9-rnYVNGTpCH9KnK0HWgWQ/s320/Torchwood-eve-myles-722298_1920_1279.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gwen and Captain Jack investigate</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the <i>Who</i>niverse neither Jenny nor Gwen were allowed to entirely fulfill their potential. In "The Crimson Horror" (2013), possibly Jenny's finest hour, she rescues the Doctor in an intrepid investigation on her own, culminating in an Emma Peel style action sequence, but her performance is undercut by being forcibly kissed by the Doctor - <a href="http://whovianfeminism.tumblr.com/post/49791572923/the-doctor-takes-this-moment-of-recovery-to-grab#tumblr_notes" target="_blank">a sexual assault which Alyssa Franke rightly criticises in her Whovian Feminism blog</a>. As for Gwen, in <i>Torchwood</i> she comes to assume the role of second-in-command of Torchwood Cardiff next to Captain Jack Harkness, yet not even for a short period do we see her lead the organisation. Lorna Jowett praises Gwen for producing many critiques of Jack, but notes that when she needs more depth her family tends to get wheeled out (Lorna Jowett, <i>Dancing with the Doctor,</i> London: IB Tauris, 2017: 26, 52).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps one should be grateful for small mercies. "Classic" <i>Doctor Who</i> (1963-89) did not exactly distinguish itself in its depiction of Welsh women. In "The Green Death" (1973), an adventure set in Wales, Welsh women are far from prominent. A character called Nancy actually makes the fungi-health-cake which kills the story's giant maggots, but Nancy is marginalised. Indeed the most memorable woman in the serial (other than English companion Jo Grant) is the Doctor's comic impersonation of a cleaning lady. In "Delta and the Bannermen" (1987) - which also has a Welsh setting - Welsh character Ray (Rachel) is relegated to being the tale's spurned love-interest. The most high-up Welsh woman in classic <i>Who</i> was probably Megan Jones, head of the nationalised energy company in "Fury from the Deep" (1968), though her main contribution is to let the Doctor get on with it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwAER37lWfvPWUBHw-JiBQzWIK17EXp9DRCiBmnh_IadaxHfxJdV39rLxTKwtwAs70D17rUCiDiXwC-uQRBunwcrFKdDgJEk9dpZAWUeqmaBChMbZjzvb4Aq7flFngJzIW7oFFkyNMxY/s1600/Bang_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwAER37lWfvPWUBHw-JiBQzWIK17EXp9DRCiBmnh_IadaxHfxJdV39rLxTKwtwAs70D17rUCiDiXwC-uQRBunwcrFKdDgJEk9dpZAWUeqmaBChMbZjzvb4Aq7flFngJzIW7oFFkyNMxY/s320/Bang_4.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Always a worry:<br />
Gina and her brother</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
By contrast with <i>Doctor Who</i> new and old, Catrin Stewart's and Eve Myles' characters in their Welsh crime dramas strike a more feminist note. <i>Bang</i> is a series about a brother-sister relationship. The programme persistently contrasts Gina (Stewart) with her ne'er-do-well brother. She is clever than him, more competent, with a keener sense of public duty. He by contrast falls (albeit from the best of intentions) into criminal ways and ends up acquiring a gun, hence the show's title, leading to mayhem. <i>Keeping Faith </i>concerns a marriage in which Faith's (Myles') husband vanishes. This leaves Faith having to juggle investigating his disappearance with keeping their struggling law firm afloat, and looking after their three children. She makes mistakes and is herself suspected by the police of doing away with him, yet her strength of character shines out. What unites <i>Bang</i> and <i>Keeping Faith </i>is the pervasive theme of the women outshining the men. This rather contrasts with<i> Doctor Who </i>where, as Lorna Jowett points out, women characters are too often defined by their relationships with men (Lorna Jowett, "The Girls Who Waited? Female Companions and Gender in<i> Doctor Who</i>" <i>Critical Studies in Television </i>9:1, 77-94)</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-5UgHtMgPLBzBydeIOWT85FaSCv_Y0AgJ2v8J6AUhq05Od77K3mN0C3J5XgT618qadlVdUU-grPFBzPuT6vuQlxWLGG3TOQ2mGNzNgjfeCG3D8LjmC8o0Pl8fwFJ-lhfk6N1MJq-ow0/s1600/636811638_1280x960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-5UgHtMgPLBzBydeIOWT85FaSCv_Y0AgJ2v8J6AUhq05Od77K3mN0C3J5XgT618qadlVdUU-grPFBzPuT6vuQlxWLGG3TOQ2mGNzNgjfeCG3D8LjmC8o0Pl8fwFJ-lhfk6N1MJq-ow0/s320/636811638_1280x960.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Faith encounters a rather inadequate client</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet it ought to be the other way round. <i>Doctor Who</i>, after all, is the science fiction programme. As such it has special dispensation to depart from the real world into the realms of the speculative, the imaginative, the uncanny. It should be able to imagine and fashion relationships which depart far from the "dominant man, subordinate woman" template of the show's 1970s era. As Jodie Whittaker takes command of the unruly console as thirteenth Doctor, the programme has much ground to make up. </div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-8784150059995155342018-01-30T08:00:00.000+00:002018-01-30T08:00:15.332+00:00Chips and the Doctor<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>University of Westminster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Making, serving and eating chips
(fries or French fries in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place>)
is something which recurs in <i>Doctor Who</i>. An important dish in <st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place> (not least as part of the
famous fish and chips), chips have been used in the post-2005 programme
to project the closeness between the reassuringly familiar and the
humdrum. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_h1NXj5rbXXJJ_wkXGM948FW3_Uy3HRoG0vye2kNp7jMIC_3zqJ33OhXAqKKfGGec4RJ4Y5SRPcVrdxeKO3hvm_SjSKIRAvFfNWT3G_-rZovfj8Ic7UkW2Q724xPoRnY8nBUE3O8YRo/s1600/4343da4009442c3ca833114030c2ba5f--doctor-who-rose-tyler-chips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_h1NXj5rbXXJJ_wkXGM948FW3_Uy3HRoG0vye2kNp7jMIC_3zqJ33OhXAqKKfGGec4RJ4Y5SRPcVrdxeKO3hvm_SjSKIRAvFfNWT3G_-rZovfj8Ic7UkW2Q724xPoRnY8nBUE3O8YRo/s1600/4343da4009442c3ca833114030c2ba5f--doctor-who-rose-tyler-chips.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chips have their downside</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Thus in “The End of the World”
(2005), the Doctor and companion Rose Tyler witness the final moments of the
planet Earth. The TARDIS then transports
them back to contemporary <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>,
as the Doctor grimly reflects on his own dead world and on being the last of
his kind. Rose’s response to this trauma
is: “I want chips!” “Me too!” adds the Doctor.
Chips are therefore something cheering: the familiar after the
unnerving. Two years later in “The Sound
of Drums” (2007), chips again represent a clinging-to-the -familiar when
companion Martha Jones buys them for the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness, the
trio having returned to Britain only to find it is being governed by despotic Prime
Minister Harold Saxon, in reality the Doctor’s arch-enemy the Master, who is
hunting them down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRx5GMz0KqEi6-6Y0K4cAhTc3oa8w-9EghQzi-hxPVreIcBa3bGnUny8GXSNvGzZT7azkB9R41eQOJLjpnDfseUpQ_4PTFATVK6KgwUPI3Piy5fRwxeU8a2d86_cuQfoJgBrE6BSvF9tc/s1600/3F4966D600000578-4415114-image-a-82_1492291633023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="634" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRx5GMz0KqEi6-6Y0K4cAhTc3oa8w-9EghQzi-hxPVreIcBa3bGnUny8GXSNvGzZT7azkB9R41eQOJLjpnDfseUpQ_4PTFATVK6KgwUPI3Piy5fRwxeU8a2d86_cuQfoJgBrE6BSvF9tc/s320/3F4966D600000578-4415114-image-a-82_1492291633023.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Potts winks at her love interest whilst serving her<br />a generous portion of chips</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A decade later in “The Pilot”
(2017), chips serve to make banal something previously rare in <i>Doctor Who</i>: a romance between two
women. New companion Bill Potts, a black
lesbian, tells the Doctor a yarn in which she favoured an attractive woman with
extra chips when working in the university canteen, unintentionally fattening
her: “Beauty or chips. I like
chips. So does she, so that’s OK”. The Doctor questions whether she really came
to university to serve chips and promptly offers himself as her personal
tutor. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet the reassuringly-familiar can
blur into the dull. In “The Parting of
the Ways” (2005), the Doctor deliberately separates himself from Rose to save
her from the Daleks, sending her back to present-day <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>.
Her mum Jackie and friend Mickey take her to a chicken-and-chip shop to
have chips. Rose mentions eating chips
as part of the routine of the mundane life, contrasting that to the better way
of living shown by the Doctor where “you make a stand and say no”. Here, therefore, eating chips is not cheering
but depressing. As Ken Chen observes,
the scene provides the misery of banality contrasted with the escapism of adventures
with the Doctor (K. Chen, “The Lovely Smallness of <i>Doctor Who</i>” 2008-01 <i>Film
International</i> 52). Again, in “The
Doctor Falls” (2017), Bill Potts’ girlfriend Heather, having saved Bill’s life
by turning her into a water-based being, offers Bill a choice:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
“I can make
you human again…I can put you back home, you can make chips, and live your
life; or, you can come with me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bill seemingly opts for life in
her new form with Heather, rejecting the reassurance of her previous existence in
favour of adventure. It is worth noting that the two <i>Doctor Who</i> companions particularly associated with chips - Rose Tyler and Bill Potts - are (alongside 1960s companion Ben Jackson) the Doctor's only working class companions in the Doctor's largely middle class cohort of TARDIS fellow-travellers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWyVyE_MuiRRWBGGMTcJo7hkP1mBjOLW9e-yTtFtzssDPHBK4_xsYYOjwxGkcbv6XcZZh90IAwCBIwGAFXYCohYseGX2jaNSlFdMpg8oUlWCnmXf9Oty5rp5MOxpxVlleYofeaTGllcsc/s1600/RoseChips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="995" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWyVyE_MuiRRWBGGMTcJo7hkP1mBjOLW9e-yTtFtzssDPHBK4_xsYYOjwxGkcbv6XcZZh90IAwCBIwGAFXYCohYseGX2jaNSlFdMpg8oUlWCnmXf9Oty5rp5MOxpxVlleYofeaTGllcsc/s320/RoseChips.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Companion Rose Tyler shows her fondness for chips</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
One instance of <i>Doctor Who</i>’s use of chips disrupts the
simple spectrum of the comforting and the familiar shading into the
humdrum. In “School Reunion” (2006)
chips are deployed in something of a metaphor for privatisation. Set in a secondary school, chips loom large
in the school dinners served by Rose Tyler.
The Doctor, posing as a teacher, complains that the chips are “a
bit…different” whereas Rose thinks they’re gorgeous. Most of the teachers (who are alien
Krillitane posing as humans) attach importance to the children eating the
chips. It becomes apparent that there is
something odd about the oil in which the chips are cooked. It is Krillitane oil, which boosts the
children’s intelligence, enabling the alien Krillitane to use them as a giant
computer. The idea of unwholesome school
dinners and the ulterior motives of those who arrange them corresponds to
concerns over the contracting-out of school dinners and the way in which they
contain too much processed food, leading to programmes like <i>Jamie’s School Dinners</i> (2005). Yet “School Reunion” fashions a science
fiction mirror image of the British problem in which poor nutrition <i>adversely </i>affects school
performance. Obesity, including
childhood obesity, remains a major problem in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>. Even when it comes to chips, therefore, <i>Doctor Who </i>does not evade the political. </div>
<br />
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #882222; color: seashell; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/announcement-lecture-in-london-on.html" style="color: #ddbb99; text-decoration: none;">Announcement: lecture in London on Doctor Who's politics and law: all welcome</a></h3>
<div class="post-header" style="background-color: #882222; color: seashell; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">
<div class="post-header-line-1">
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8982489465767025524" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #882222; color: seashell; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY73oK_qgFOacfow2Dzc6BZfvZQYkWdlwbk5LlkeZGTjJIB247-B0dhTZCNQYY_lrIII3kKOhDOPrjqAMQvnCGZKtrgsCXUbJS8pNw0-l-FIn02fgJ13BeXHFhow0vcpbQ4wZu4vATuA0/s1600/r0_0_620_349_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #ddbb99; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY73oK_qgFOacfow2Dzc6BZfvZQYkWdlwbk5LlkeZGTjJIB247-B0dhTZCNQYY_lrIII3kKOhDOPrjqAMQvnCGZKtrgsCXUbJS8pNw0-l-FIn02fgJ13BeXHFhow0vcpbQ4wZu4vATuA0/s320/r0_0_620_349_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(102, 0, 0); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a>Professor Danny Nicol will be delivering a lecture on the themes of his new book <i>Doctor Who - A British Alien?</i> on Tuesday 6 March 2018, 5.30pm-6.30pm at the University of Westminster, Regents Street, London. All welcome. Obtain your ticket via the link below.<br /><br />The lecture will explore the political dimensions of <i>Doctor Who</i>, the world's longest-running science fiction television series, arguing that the programme is just as much about Britain and Britishness as it is about distant planets and monsters. The lecture interrogates the substance of <i>Doctor Who</i>'s Britishness in terms of individualism, globalisation, foreign policy adventures and the unrelenting rise of the transnational corporation.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ssh-professorial-lecture-doctor-who-a-british-alien-tickets-41943051797" style="color: #ddbb99; text-decoration: none;">https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ssh-professorial-lecture-doctor-who-a-british-alien-tickets-41943051797</a></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-89824894657670255242018-01-28T07:28:00.001+00:002018-01-28T07:28:05.927+00:00Announcement: lecture in London on Doctor Who's politics and law: all welcome<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY73oK_qgFOacfow2Dzc6BZfvZQYkWdlwbk5LlkeZGTjJIB247-B0dhTZCNQYY_lrIII3kKOhDOPrjqAMQvnCGZKtrgsCXUbJS8pNw0-l-FIn02fgJ13BeXHFhow0vcpbQ4wZu4vATuA0/s1600/r0_0_620_349_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY73oK_qgFOacfow2Dzc6BZfvZQYkWdlwbk5LlkeZGTjJIB247-B0dhTZCNQYY_lrIII3kKOhDOPrjqAMQvnCGZKtrgsCXUbJS8pNw0-l-FIn02fgJ13BeXHFhow0vcpbQ4wZu4vATuA0/s320/r0_0_620_349_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" width="320" /></a>Professor Danny Nicol will be delivering a lecture on the themes of his new book <i>Doctor Who - A British Alien?</i> on Tuesday 6 March 2018, 5.30pm-6.30pm at the University of Westminster, Regents Street, London. All welcome. Obtain your ticket via the link below.<br />
<br />
The lecture will explore the political dimensions of <i>Doctor Who</i>, the world's longest-running science fiction television series, arguing that the programme is just as much about Britain and Britishness as it is about distant planets and monsters. The lecture interrogates the substance of <i>Doctor Who</i>'s Britishness in terms of individualism, globalisation, foreign policy adventures and the unrelenting rise of the transnational corporation.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ssh-professorial-lecture-doctor-who-a-british-alien-tickets-41943051797">https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ssh-professorial-lecture-doctor-who-a-british-alien-tickets-41943051797</a><br />
<br />Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-23990079677973145642017-11-26T08:30:00.000+00:002017-11-27T20:17:46.202+00:00It's grim up Doctor Who's North<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Danny Nicol</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Doctor Who</i> is not just science fiction: it is also a television
programme which seeks to represent the British nation. In this regard, in November 2017 the British
Broadcasting Corporation announced that it would arrange big-screen viewings of
the <i>Doctor Who</i> Christmas special in
advance of Christmas Day. These would be
held exclusively in towns in the North of England: Hartlepool, <st1:city w:st="on">Hull</st1:city>,
<st1:city w:st="on">Newcastle-upon-Tyne</st1:city>, Middlesbrough, Salford, <st1:city w:st="on">Durham</st1:city> and <st1:place w:st="on">Bradford</st1:place>,
tickets to be allocated by ballot, with some preference being accorded to local
people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkG4iRP6GIfaqsepTgxDYtUsBhLPrPTHT5xy3y23BcIYtJKPyqcT6GRlxOY3gTVclvdXMTC3Lq5USlNuo5TUm0wneDqr50-9n55gfJ0pN4999KevvwkGbwdJwXp7hNhED32S2raLd4Lc/s1600/5332_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="600" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkG4iRP6GIfaqsepTgxDYtUsBhLPrPTHT5xy3y23BcIYtJKPyqcT6GRlxOY3gTVclvdXMTC3Lq5USlNuo5TUm0wneDqr50-9n55gfJ0pN4999KevvwkGbwdJwXp7hNhED32S2raLd4Lc/s320/5332_600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clara and the Doctor follow the no-nonsense Mrs Gillyflower<br />
in Yorkshire-set "The Crimson Horror" (2013)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The concession to Northern
England reflects the fact that the North is neglected compared to <st1:place w:st="on">Southern England</st1:place>.
This in turn was reflected in the majority of voters in most Northern
towns registering their dissatisfaction by voting “Leave” in the EU referendum
of 2016. This was seen as a cry of
community outrage against disparities of wealth and power. There is endless talk by government of building “economic
powerhouses” in the North, but not much seems to materialise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet the “concession” of an early
viewing of the Christmas special seems rather tokenistic. It is, after all, a lottery: only a small
proportion of local <i>Doctor Who</i> fans
will benefit. Moreover the prize is
double-edged, forfeiting the traditional element of surprise on Christmas Day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There are surely more substantial
ways of making <i>Doctor Who</i> more
inclusive in terms of its representation of <st1:place w:st="on">Northern
England</st1:place>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/casting-jodie-whittaker-lots-of-planets.html" target="_blank">One, as argued in the blog before, would be to have the new Doctor play the role in her own accent.</a> Jodie Whittaker hails from Skelmanthorpe in <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place>, in the North of England, and has already played
several prestigious roles in her own accent.
It is to be hoped that, like Christopher Eccleston, she plays the Doctor
with a Northern accent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxDKQO3FWDWiiSqb2FuhzSWg0Uez5Mkhk9E94io-gsmTWs6ftdfF_404hwydLEgtlABGN5qve5AXecAGLssFzx5ET7KTQwrdWZaijteZMLH3IoJBWkMpc1EAsLE_e9w-3fgp_jqnhR4s/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-12-26-12h23m21s63.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="720" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxDKQO3FWDWiiSqb2FuhzSWg0Uez5Mkhk9E94io-gsmTWs6ftdfF_404hwydLEgtlABGN5qve5AXecAGLssFzx5ET7KTQwrdWZaijteZMLH3IoJBWkMpc1EAsLE_e9w-3fgp_jqnhR4s/s320/vlcsnap-2013-12-26-12h23m21s63.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas jollities: tensions at the Yuletide table for<br />
Clara and family</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Another way would be to have
Northern companions, but to take their Northernness seriously by locating their
back-stories far more markedly in the North.
The failure to do so is seen in Clara Oswald’s (Jenna Coleman’s) tenure
of the role of companion. Clara came
from Blackpool, yet worked as nanny then teacher exclusively in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>.
Even when she invites her family to a rather strained Christmas dinner in “The Time of the
Doctor” (2013), this proves a peripheral element of the story, detached from a
Northern setting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSsHgfNVIVUP2vc-VLqdv5HMc3vkJXVcMiV5KVFweDWb0UYu-Do_upICiZUV1qH_90vYkME4V2svbdOzoDODRpMbHnWz5RSb412MepCU1EKdjCk0NYgAw8h58oMH4kFCp1BwpLnH2Drxc/s1600/mark+of+the+rani+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="374" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSsHgfNVIVUP2vc-VLqdv5HMc3vkJXVcMiV5KVFweDWb0UYu-Do_upICiZUV1qH_90vYkME4V2svbdOzoDODRpMbHnWz5RSb412MepCU1EKdjCk0NYgAw8h58oMH4kFCp1BwpLnH2Drxc/s320/mark+of+the+rani+5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three Time Lords in the North East: the Rani, <br />
the Master and the Doctor in "The Mark of the Rani" (1985)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A third way would be to set more <i>Doctor Who</i> adventures in the North. So far only two <i>Doctor Who</i> stories have been set in the North of England in the
show’s long history. “The Mark of the
Rani” (1985) was set in North East England, with its actors failing rather lamentably
with the region’s difficult accent (The film <i>I, Daniel Blake </i>(2016), set in <st1:city w:st="on">Newcastle</st1:city>, made the better choice of using
local actors). “The Crimson Horror”
(2013) was set in <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place>. Depressingly, in both instances, the TARDIS
had veered off course: the Doctor meant to transport his companion to a
Southern English setting. Even in the latest series the programme relocated the Doctor to a university in Bristol, another southern city, albeit in England's south west rather than the south east. If <i>Doctor Who</i> is to represent <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>
properly, this will require a determined effort to shift a critical mass of <i>Doctor Who</i> escapades from the show’s
southern comfort-zone.</div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-38532719832957641022017-10-04T08:03:00.002+01:002017-10-04T08:03:18.876+01:00The lying of the land: post-truth politics in Doctor Who<br />
By Danny Nicol<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Deceiving others has been part of
the drama of <i>Doctor Who</i> since the
programme’s inception. In “The Daleks”
(1963-4) the Daleks deceive the Thals, offering them food when they mean to
ambush and kill them. In “The Keys of
Marinus” (1964), mind-control is used to make squalor seem like luxury. Sometimes, however, the deception in <i>Doctor Who</i> is particularly strongly
linked to politics here on Earth. This theme
was present in the classic era <i>Doctor Who</i>
(1963-89) but has become even more pronounced in post-2005 <i>Doctor Who.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKaa2PNhWiipVnz3cpBj7-5TdXCip8BPIJM8EFYqwRPOXknNb47ri2tW0TRfikIFCP1Q8GWBPr7knIbUhnZDkcT8k1WEwmoSoKuJEZcakGvwDOZ2Jej_-cjyENMGgrEF5WmIL_LjhRPDE/s1600/salamander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1352" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKaa2PNhWiipVnz3cpBj7-5TdXCip8BPIJM8EFYqwRPOXknNb47ri2tW0TRfikIFCP1Q8GWBPr7knIbUhnZDkcT8k1WEwmoSoKuJEZcakGvwDOZ2Jej_-cjyENMGgrEF5WmIL_LjhRPDE/s320/salamander.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aiming to be global dictator: Salamander</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“The Enemy of the World” (1967) is
the story of Salamander, a would-be world dictator with a curiously strong
physical resemblance to the Doctor.
Salamander is gaining power by predicting earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions and other natural catastrophes, and dealing with the
consequences. In reality Salamander is
engineering these disasters himself. He
has deceived a subterranean group of humans that they are survivors of an
endless nuclear war which they must continue to wage by creating natural
catastrophes from below ground. When he
blunders and the underground people start to suspect him, one of them says: “I
won’t take your word for it: I want to see for myself!” Ultimately this proves
Salamander’s undoing, and the war is exposed as a myth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2UyG_i5Ud50mvz8NeIx8D5aXWFQaT2PH5bP0ASBJaHWP1KoER5QutezoqWHxPoxia-M4VhyphenhyphenJUtEYFIPOZBA7wd8fiwN_oRWBIduE3tFRloTLQ7TTonpioeaTFWwOV0ni8T6EXKIEKOU/s1600/jm_master_7272.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="350" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2UyG_i5Ud50mvz8NeIx8D5aXWFQaT2PH5bP0ASBJaHWP1KoER5QutezoqWHxPoxia-M4VhyphenhyphenJUtEYFIPOZBA7wd8fiwN_oRWBIduE3tFRloTLQ7TTonpioeaTFWwOV0ni8T6EXKIEKOU/s320/jm_master_7272.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harold Saxon: British Prime Minister turned despot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Political deception becomes, if
anything, an even more pervasive theme in post-2005, new-series <i>Doctor Who</i>. In “The Sound of Drums”/“The Last of the Time
Lords” (2007) the Doctor’s long term adversary, the Master, becomes British
Prime Minister, using the name Harold Saxon.
Manufacturing a phoney past for himself, Harold Saxon never existed. The
Master gets the public to believe in him, and to vote him in, by subjecting
them to some form of hypnosis, suggesting an inability of the political elite
to connect with people in the absence of bewitching powers. Aspects of Saxon’s rule (cult of the
individual, pursuit of celebrity, “cool Britannia”, disdain for Cabinet
government) seem like a satire on Tony Blair’s period as Prime Minister. Saxon subsequently establishes a worldwide tyranny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
More recently still in “The Lie
of the Land” (2017) a species of alien monks invade Earth. Through mind control the monks confect a past
in which they have been guiding humanity since the very beginning, tenderly
shepherding mankind through its formative years as part of a blissful
partnership. All they insist upon from
the human race is total obedience. In reality the monks have only been on Earth
for a few months. Anyone who points this
out is imprisoned under a fictitious Memory Crimes Act 1975. The Doctor’s companion Nardole explains:
“however bad a situation is, if people think that’s how it’s always been, they
put up with it”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SykMp0hF4vftRr895kG9QT810HQHwbwQbW3quI_gjt5MRLaVenrm3OWlLZXlJtRHccrmfynWVvPjHVOmXCRO8dZ24DI9fVDzuaR4FaIAEV_B_OrBsd87oV-qhhl2GVNzZ1jftwbK4oQ/s1600/DoctorWho-S10-Ep8-Pix11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SykMp0hF4vftRr895kG9QT810HQHwbwQbW3quI_gjt5MRLaVenrm3OWlLZXlJtRHccrmfynWVvPjHVOmXCRO8dZ24DI9fVDzuaR4FaIAEV_B_OrBsd87oV-qhhl2GVNzZ1jftwbK4oQ/s320/DoctorWho-S10-Ep8-Pix11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The public finally realise the truth about the monks<br />and turn on them</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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In his book <i>The Rise of Political Lying</i> (London: 2005, The Free Press), Peter
Oborne advances a thesis which would explain why modern <i>Doctor Who</i> puts even more emphasis on political lying than
classic-era <i>Doctor Who</i>. Oborne contends that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> now
inhabits a post-truth political environment, and that this is new. Reality has been replaced by
pseudo-reality. Within this construct,
it is quite legitimate to deceive in order to obtain power. The consequences can be horrendous. For instance “in 2003 <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> went to war on the back of a fiction:
the proposition that Saddam Hussein’s <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> possessed weapons of mass
destruction. It did not, but tens of
thousands of people died as a result” (p.6).
Oborne further argues that New Labour in power started to mould the past
to suit its own purposes, regularly attributing to ministers remarks they had
not made and denying remarks which they had actually made (pp.73-7). There
seemed little evidence of an upsurge of truth-telling when New Labour made way
for the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition followed by a Conservative
administration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
How might one explain the
“abolition of the truth”? Oborne
suggests that the answer may be found in the theory of post-democracy put
forward by Colin Crouch: that differences between parties have largely been
replaced by the establishment of a homogenous political elite in the tradition
of the pre-democratic era, and that this goes hand-in-hand with the corporate
domination of our society. (Colin
Crouch, <i>Post-Democracy</i> (<st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>: 2004 Polity Press.)) The political elite are striving to conceal
the true nature of the entire regime, so systematic lying goes with the grain
of the system. Thus post-truth and post-democracy run together. It is in all likelihood this predicament which
contemporary <i>Doctor Who</i> is seeking to
address.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-70427575342082884102017-08-02T15:17:00.003+01:002017-08-09T06:22:48.874+01:00Hedonistic departures from the TARDIS?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>By Danny Nicol,<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><b>University</b></st1:placetype><b> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <i>Doctor Who</i> the way in which the Doctor’s companions quit the programme
is important, not least for representations of gender in the show. By indicating what is likely to happen next
in a companion’s life the programme can show whether she is going to make use
of the skills and sense of empowerment gained during her adventures with the Doctor. In post-2005 <i>Doctor Who</i>, the Doctor’s companions
have, until recently, tended to be prised out to the TARDIS against their will,
but given the consolation prize of settling down with husband and home in some
form. In an article co-written with <a href="http://whovianfeminism.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Alyssa Franke of Whovian Feminism fame</a>, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
we chart how this pattern,
specifically in the cases of companions Donna Noble and Amy Pond, fits with
post-feminist notions of retreatism.
The piece will appear in the <em>Journal of Popular Television</em> in Spring
2018.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGh8Uhhvx5ZIyri2X9yIob383r8FS52HdZGh2fZNoXiiNPTTG1X9TitXPQAVKnCbdcKYQ0RtNSRlsgpWsZEpVFW0X_G1fW3C1RwRq-tpQ7haEYpSo0fwRLNOgH2NwCpYWCN6Ci7lXKI0/s1600/bill-heather-tardis-doctor-falls-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1160" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGh8Uhhvx5ZIyri2X9yIob383r8FS52HdZGh2fZNoXiiNPTTG1X9TitXPQAVKnCbdcKYQ0RtNSRlsgpWsZEpVFW0X_G1fW3C1RwRq-tpQ7haEYpSo0fwRLNOgH2NwCpYWCN6Ci7lXKI0/s320/bill-heather-tardis-doctor-falls-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill takes her leave of the TARDIS with Heather</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">This post considers more recent
departures from the TARDIS – those of Bill Potts and Clara Oswald - and their
implications for representing gender and sexuality. </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">When
in “The Doctor Falls” (2017) Bill Potts seemingly takes her leave of the Doctor
the nature of her departure forms a stark contrast with that of Nardole, the
series’ male companion and, I would argue, serves to undercuts her as a
character.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>One-series wonders: Martha Jones and Bill Potts<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkHbjcLBHXl3CM1Y9LS84KTPp3Wn6ZC-xMdMHUJSRw9ZV1C7ySmpksbCCCBdJhe3_8Hbs5vNlv1nGap6awnU_a2CgWP67WrS1EMjOLsZDAU6qZp83qtYpUKodYzk7XJQvpG6HCF7hWAKw/s1600/25_Martha_hath.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="628" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkHbjcLBHXl3CM1Y9LS84KTPp3Wn6ZC-xMdMHUJSRw9ZV1C7ySmpksbCCCBdJhe3_8Hbs5vNlv1nGap6awnU_a2CgWP67WrS1EMjOLsZDAU6qZp83qtYpUKodYzk7XJQvpG6HCF7hWAKw/s320/25_Martha_hath.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Companions of short duration: Martha as well as Bill</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Before discussing her departure
and the contrast with Nardole, the comment should be made that we are losing Bill Potts rather too early, not least given Pearl Mackie’s exceptional merits as an
actor. In particular it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth that the Doctor’s two black companions – Martha Jones and
Bill Potts - only lasted one series each, whereas three white companions Rose
Tyler, Amy Pond and Clara Oswald all occupied the TARDIS for two series or longer. This discrepancy resonates with academic
analyses which show that whilst <i>Doctor
Who</i> shows admirable diversity when casting one-off characters it is poor at
ensuring equality with regard to the show’s starring roles (see Lorna Jowett "<em>Doctor Who </em>and the politics of casting" (2018)<em> Journal of Popular Television</em>, forthcoming).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bill’s short tenure might be
explained by the need to “clear the decks” for new showrunner Chris
Chibnall. But why should we accept
an iron law that new showrunners start with a clean slate of actors? It is all rather precious. The show’s longest-serving producer John
Nathan-Turner inherited both a companion (Romana) and a robot dog (K9) with no
ill effects.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Girls just wanna have fun?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps compared to the fates of
Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy the futures envisaged for Clara and Bill are an
improvement of sorts. They are more
jolly. They are, on a superficial level, very positive about women's same-sex relationships. They are also strikingly similar
to each other, evincing a repetitiveness in Steven Moffat’s writing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Uz_JFTe5kQJ_W2Y03GKwhx9lWP1WdLyKjkL6NC9FXPx2088xedpxiQ_wGNtayBN9WiX702bEGkEE5kcDPL7NBzi2lcp3eh5C8xYf-G7ENa8q8aKzNgFPsM72o-wHYGoWcuC3tnBWzeM/s1600/clara-ashildr-tardis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="540" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Uz_JFTe5kQJ_W2Y03GKwhx9lWP1WdLyKjkL6NC9FXPx2088xedpxiQ_wGNtayBN9WiX702bEGkEE5kcDPL7NBzi2lcp3eh5C8xYf-G7ENa8q8aKzNgFPsM72o-wHYGoWcuC3tnBWzeM/s320/clara-ashildr-tardis.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clara and Ashildr begin their travels</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Essentially, both women find a
same-sex partner together with a means of travelling around time and
space. Clara finds Ashildr, a part-human
immortal, and goes off in a spare TARDIS.
Bill is rescued from existence as a Cyberman by Heather, who was transformed
into a water-based alien able to transcend time and space in Bill’s
introductory story “The Pilot” (2017).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So for Clara and Bill alike
travel and adventure beckon. Yet for both
women everything about the future is left rather vague. In particular, what exactly are our two
heroines doing, zapping through the galaxies on their romantic, fun-filled
travels? Is there actually any<i> point </i>to this endless milling around? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Since no other motivation is
expressed it would seem that Clara’s and Bill’s travels are intended as a
fun-seeking exercise, their mission is to please themselves. Yet this life of
sight-seeing and pleasure-seeking is ultimately somewhat empty, though rather
in line with the spirit of the age.
David Ciepley has observed that modern capitalism has come to rely on
hedonism which has displaced the Protestant work ethic. Capitalism has fashioned an individualist
society in which work is not “a calling” but a means of consumption. The short-term focus of the hedonist has,
under neoliberalism, gained control of the arena of production. ((2017) 1 <i>American
Affairs</i> 58-71). Oliver James
contends that under neoliberalism, status-competition for consumer goods
accelerated and became a social imperative (<i>The
Selfish Capitalist</i>, <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>:
Vermillion, 2008) 152-3). It could be
argued that more recently the acquisition of experiences has perhaps partially
eclipsed the acquisition of possessions as a target for getting-and-spending. Yet the mildest tweaking of Clara’s and
Bill’s departures could have served to indicate that there was some more
virtuous, unselfish purpose to their future adventures than a quest for personal
enjoyment. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Nardole’s nobler calling?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zkD6SIoT-5nYRaAv01TRwnX8rd0jBx7yO6eIfNoJx4gnCG1EHfwSrm48hFjmFq7IPZ7o7DP0ESrdNs3gq58zJjT2tNbNta8sHVZRO98XlJwa3rtZDmI6rCSEMXeUmAoDMFHmU1GgceQ/s1600/maxresdefault+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zkD6SIoT-5nYRaAv01TRwnX8rd0jBx7yO6eIfNoJx4gnCG1EHfwSrm48hFjmFq7IPZ7o7DP0ESrdNs3gq58zJjT2tNbNta8sHVZRO98XlJwa3rtZDmI6rCSEMXeUmAoDMFHmU1GgceQ/s320/maxresdefault+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nardole is tasked with saving the children</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
By contrast Nardole has a nobler
finale. He leaves when the Doctor
charges him with defending a group of people – mainly children – from being
turned into Cybermen. He is thereby made
a welcome addition to the rather short list of<i> Doctor Who</i> companions who explicitly leave
life in the TARDIS to go off to do something worthwhile. Steven Taylor departs in “The Savages” (1966)
in order to act as an “honest broker” leader between two ethnic groups, the
Elders and the Savages. Nyssa leaves in “Terminus” (1983) in order to
help cure people suffering a deadly disease.
And Romana leaves in “Warriors’ Gate” (1981) in order to save an alien
species. (“Will she be alright?” queries
the Doctor’s remaining companion Adric: “Alright?” retorts the Doctor, "She'll be <i>superb</i>!”)</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonrbueZhGBucLSxGAAhYe9KqUgsWBQbSbDh_EIpkLx9rO2T7QvHn9mnJfWLRwKgg2XxnkYkAgH4_IQx38Bilp_ygMk3CSYCuvZy5AcNfZABly2G5tY_WUwqTZdp2P86RdNeJXUQK4aDM/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-01-27-17h08m48s241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonrbueZhGBucLSxGAAhYe9KqUgsWBQbSbDh_EIpkLx9rO2T7QvHn9mnJfWLRwKgg2XxnkYkAgH4_IQx38Bilp_ygMk3CSYCuvZy5AcNfZABly2G5tY_WUwqTZdp2P86RdNeJXUQK4aDM/s200/vlcsnap-2012-01-27-17h08m48s241.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magnificent Romana begins her new mission</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Against this backdrop there is
something rather demeaning to Clara and Bill that their departures are depicted in purely hedonistic terms. It also devalues the portrayal of their same-sex relationships. For many
individuals, “pure” pleasure-seeking, bereft of concern for a community, is
ultimately unsatisfying. It ought to be all the more unsatisfying to viewers of <em>Doctor Who</em>, a programme which is often about intervening in support of the endangered or oppressed.</div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-9703338626813422922017-07-18T14:58:00.001+01:002017-07-19T06:53:13.508+01:00Casting Jodie Whittaker: lots of planets have a Skelmanthorpe!<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>University of Westminster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
From 2018 onwards the Doctor in <i>Doctor Who</i> will be played by Jodie
Whittaker, a casting which has inspired much excitement for its gender change
as well as, sadly, some disapproval from a minority of the programme’s
viewers. The present blogger shares the
majority view, <a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/must-doctor-be-white-male.html" target="_blank">as shown by earlier posts on this blog,</a> and is very pleased indeed
at the BBC’s choice. But lest we get too
bogged down in gender, this post tries to ring the changes by focusing on a
different aspect of the new lead actor: Jodie Whittaker’s strong <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> identity.
Will she play the Doctor in her own accent?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35BRqCi5PTDxu00s2KUhGhkktLgQ-PwMQ_Quw1iLK9zI2GVaK5JYgqLHYYVCjVfmdk6mEfbuevxVko12pFNagZ4qv3hug_Fa984WAvQ5F8NON8rS2YhTgqOY0_a_AX3n3E7NdZgxyKEI/s1600/jodie-whittaker-doctor-who.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="564" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35BRqCi5PTDxu00s2KUhGhkktLgQ-PwMQ_Quw1iLK9zI2GVaK5JYgqLHYYVCjVfmdk6mEfbuevxVko12pFNagZ4qv3hug_Fa984WAvQ5F8NON8rS2YhTgqOY0_a_AX3n3E7NdZgxyKEI/s400/jodie-whittaker-doctor-who.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new Doctor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is widely accepted that <i>Doctor Who</i> is not only about planets,
space stations, ray guns and monsters. It
is also just as much about what it means to be British. It is widely acknowledged in <i>Doctor Who</i> scholarship that the show
perennially articulates a sense of national identity. Yet the issue of national identity is in many
respects highly political. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In this regard Jodie Whittaker
hails from Skelmanthorpe, a village in Yorkshire in <st1:place w:st="on">Northern
England</st1:place>. Yorkshire is the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:country-region>’s
largest county and Skelmanthorpe is noted in the Survey of English Dialects
(1950-1961) as having a particularly rich form of dialect. Whittaker seemingly acted with her own accent
in her breakthrough role in <i>Broadchurch</i>
(2013-2017). Will she be allowed or
encouraged to do so in <i>Doctor Who</i>?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The BBC has traditionally
strongly favoured “received pronunciation”, the standard English spoken in
southern <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>,
also sometimes known as “the Queen’s English” and “BBC English”. Three Doctors have thus far bucked the
tradition: the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and twelfth Doctor (Peter
Capaldi) used Scottish accents and the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
used a Northern English accent.
Conversely David Tennant, a Scottish actor, was obliged to play the
tenth Doctor with a <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
accent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It was Christopher Eccleston’s
Northern accent which proved particularly controversial. Not only did the Doctor have to explain to a
sceptical companion-to-be Rose Tyler that he really was an alien because “lots
of planets have a North!” but behind the scenes the actor’s insistence on
playing the Doctor with a Northern accent caused a rift with the <i>Doctor Who</i> production team, contributing
to his leaving the role after only one series.
Eccleston insisted on using a Northern accent for a political reason: <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/quit-dr-who-over-northern-5515270" target="_blank">he wanted to challenge discrimination based on the assumption that there was a correlation between accent and intellect. </a> </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH3iGOXPa8fR8zjm0v0EqULCflrCHCyQkwlXIbS68a4fBPSdklJgtpgQ89P5hnJWfwoEi7D3VIj1q5q_4JP4IdhuxQnhID4Oj9jic9qc9LFKo5sdisB0L76gq1uF3lAVcakePUfxvsGPk/s1600/rose+the+doctor+and+jack+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH3iGOXPa8fR8zjm0v0EqULCflrCHCyQkwlXIbS68a4fBPSdklJgtpgQ89P5hnJWfwoEi7D3VIj1q5q_4JP4IdhuxQnhID4Oj9jic9qc9LFKo5sdisB0L76gq1uF3lAVcakePUfxvsGPk/s1600/rose+the+doctor+and+jack+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Doctor and Rose none too subtly<br />
articulating British identity -<br />
with Captain Jack providing a contrast</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Great
Britain</st1:country-region> is an island, and <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>
a nation, in which the economic centrifugal force is towards <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> and the South East, <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2017-07-17/hs2-route-decision-shows-contempt-for-residents-of-south-yorkshire/" target="_blank">as very recently underlined by decisions on the country’s railway links.</a> Other parts of the country, not
least the North, have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jul/19/incomes-south-east-england-west-midlands-tuc-ifs-report" target="_blank">economically marginalised </a>under forty years of
neoliberalism. This has been reflected
in Brit-Grit films such as <i>The Full Monty </i>(1997)<i>,</i> <i>Brassed Off</i> (1996) and <i>I Daniel Blake</i> (2016) which have depicted people having to rely on each
other as the State has retreated from its economic and welfare roles. Yet despite the Doctor’s recent insistence
that <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> is “a dump” (“The Zygon Inversion”
(2015)), much of <i>Doctor Who</i> is still set
in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> and
the south east. This needs to
change. And if <i>Doctor Who</i> is to be a programme which reflects the <i>whole</i> of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> there should be no
objection in continuing to reflect this in the Doctor’s richly diverse identity –
including her accent.</div>
<br />Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-34101811677858551642017-05-05T13:33:00.000+01:002017-05-05T15:34:31.015+01:00Liquid lesbians: Doctor Who's dislike of the unlike<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b><br />
<b>University of Westminster</b><br />
<br />
According to Piers Britton <i>Doctor Who</i> has ethical value by dint of
the way in which it can stimulate engagement with vast and deep forms of <i>otherness </i>(<i>TARDISbound</i>, IB Tauris 2011, p.7.) Sometimes, though, <i>Doctor Who</i> can provoke thinking about the Other precisely because
the Doctor sides against it. On occasion he very clearly favours “the like”
over “the unlike”. When he does so, the
degree to which the show encourages viewers to form their own judgment as to
the rights and wrongs of his actions is important in making <i>Doctor Who </i>a worthwhile programme.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_kCi9bI1dy8zxqcIXLAlDqG6N8IVumfPCY6_jLW7pWofsda55QJ_Tp5MfUGmPVv_geWIMRfERRUQhASQrhECE7JAmp96Jf_Vquelq1jaXFawniYq9yoEXfGzxMsobnIHOfqMhoauW_c/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-11-27-10h05m43s40.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_kCi9bI1dy8zxqcIXLAlDqG6N8IVumfPCY6_jLW7pWofsda55QJ_Tp5MfUGmPVv_geWIMRfERRUQhASQrhECE7JAmp96Jf_Vquelq1jaXFawniYq9yoEXfGzxMsobnIHOfqMhoauW_c/s200/vlcsnap-2013-11-27-10h05m43s40.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eye-candy of the planet Skaro:<br />
companion Ian Chesterton pontificates<br />
to the Thals</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The tendency of the Doctor
sometimes to favour the familiar over the unfamiliar has been apparent ever
since the show’s transformatory serial “The Daleks” in 1963-4 where he sided
with the beautiful humanoid Thals against the Daleks. The
show perhaps made an effort to atone for this in 1965 where the Doctor made
common cause with the allegedly-grotesque Rills against the glamorous yet
ruthless Drahvins in “Galaxy Four”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRiSF9QqU2hw-AVTofl4Ur7jwB8zZ5Vn3mVekfN7RaFMPywNAfvL1RT70rqAT9uxRUKyTaQnL7FGq1yMne3E7Kap-xY6_4o2P9FQJWEQpeqjLmciQfAsAGa2Fh4iiMlWPACl0FMWcz8a8/s1600/galaxy_4_4368.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRiSF9QqU2hw-AVTofl4Ur7jwB8zZ5Vn3mVekfN7RaFMPywNAfvL1RT70rqAT9uxRUKyTaQnL7FGq1yMne3E7Kap-xY6_4o2P9FQJWEQpeqjLmciQfAsAGa2Fh4iiMlWPACl0FMWcz8a8/s320/galaxy_4_4368.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not as nice as they look: the Drahvins</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In “The Daleks” there is scant
reflection on whether the Doctor is doing the right thing, questions of
political morality being clouded by his efforts to regain the fluid link, an
essential component of the TARDIS which the Daleks have confiscated. As John Fiske has observed, in classic-era <i>Doctor Who</i> (1963-89) the BBC intended
the Doctor to be clearly good and his opponents clearly bad. (“Dr Who: Ideology and the <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place> of a Popular Narrative Text” (1983)
14 Australian Journal of Screen Theory 69).
By contrast, as Gabriel McKee points out, in new <i>Doctor Who</i> (2005-present) the Doctor’s actions are no longer held
up as singularly heroic, so viewers make up their own minds (“Pushing the
Protest Button: <i>Doctor Who</i>’s Anti-Authoritarian Ethic" in <i>Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith</i>, eds A Crome and J McGrath,
Darton, Longman and Todd 2013, p.22). This
trend perhaps reaches a high point in series 8’s pervasive theme of whether the
Doctor was “a good man”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRk70wbfxVfyii0lx3HlSontWIAOMIGUDblWhcd_EWw3y1VANXLzo8KzNUHmwQ_Gkdl6dZhBP1qPR1jeDpTqGpg9UejD2Dwu7XqL7WEWD9ry-fZCgXlQfATDulWV4C7gHkFWVphuia3E/s1600/Pearl-Mackie-and-Stephanie-Hyam-from-Doctor-Who-Season.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRk70wbfxVfyii0lx3HlSontWIAOMIGUDblWhcd_EWw3y1VANXLzo8KzNUHmwQ_Gkdl6dZhBP1qPR1jeDpTqGpg9UejD2Dwu7XqL7WEWD9ry-fZCgXlQfATDulWV4C7gHkFWVphuia3E/s320/Pearl-Mackie-and-Stephanie-Hyam-from-Doctor-Who-Season.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill and alien-Heather make contact</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The limits of the Doctor’s
tolerance of “the unlike” is apparent in the recent episode “The Pilot”
(2017). This story introduces us to the
Doctor’s new companion, Bill Potts. We
had earlier seen the Doctor’s previous companion Clara Oswald depart merrily in a
TARDIS of her own with Ashildr, a woman about whom Clara had previously expressed a
physical attraction. In “The Pilot” Bill’s
lesbianism is treated with similar matter-of-fact tolerance. But when Bill’s love-interest, Heather, is
without her consent transformed into a liquid alien, and invites Bill to
undergo a similar transformation and join her on intergalactic adventures, the
Doctor implores Bill to resist:</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF758krmDppnF4Ypm3VE26wq6z6e4x3hp2uKxQAkmSYA1q21y0Fsz48oXrIdEfPSFhyphenhyphen_8EpRkNqljjbBbtiyCG88hsKvhjgNAWiXIzZHA0eGZVwAQ7XNfYKHQsOXwhpkMG9ONU33cYYyA/s1600/doctorwho15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF758krmDppnF4Ypm3VE26wq6z6e4x3hp2uKxQAkmSYA1q21y0Fsz48oXrIdEfPSFhyphenhyphen_8EpRkNqljjbBbtiyCG88hsKvhjgNAWiXIzZHA0eGZVwAQ7XNfYKHQsOXwhpkMG9ONU33cYYyA/s320/doctorwho15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill gets a taster of life with Heather</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
BILL [OC]: I
see what you see. It’s beautiful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
DOCTOR: Bill, let go!
You have to let go! She is not
human any more.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Doctor does not explain what
is wrong with not being human any more.
But it appears that lesbians are fine, alien liquid lesbians are going
too far. Later on Bill almost expresses
regret at taking his advice:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
BILL: I saw it all for a moment. Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me. I was too scared.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Instead Bill flies with the
humanoid, solid-form Time Lord, which substantially softens her rejection of
Heather. Whilst one could criticise “The
Pilot” for downplaying Bill’s eschewing of “the unlike” and the seminal part
which the supposedly-tolerant Doctor plays in her decision, it is nonetheless
good that a question-mark is placed – however tersely - over her choice, given
how fear of “the Other” lies at the heart of discrimination.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-38725422863981581022016-12-12T08:29:00.001+00:002016-12-12T19:18:15.352+00:00Charlie grabs his Pole: the political significance of Matteusz Andrezejewski<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>By Danny Nicol,</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>University of Westminster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIfdk59CkZt9Fu2LnWr3KLeccUAfOyxkJ_h05kY-XApiuU_W-hLOeapR-u27KLwsN8epfMpdb77p8_F7i-oh4tHKnJEc3XJrJwwSKyWBTn6GGnvf97bsta8ShkpyDBWtJcJK5fp3ETqLM/s1600/tumblr_ofx18ehxeQ1vij700o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIfdk59CkZt9Fu2LnWr3KLeccUAfOyxkJ_h05kY-XApiuU_W-hLOeapR-u27KLwsN8epfMpdb77p8_F7i-oh4tHKnJEc3XJrJwwSKyWBTn6GGnvf97bsta8ShkpyDBWtJcJK5fp3ETqLM/s320/tumblr_ofx18ehxeQ1vij700o1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Class's happy twosome?<br />
Charlie and Matteusz</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In a recent issue of the BBC’s <i>Radio Times</i>, Peter Capaldi observed that
love of <i>Doctor Who</i> is a proxy
affection for Britishness. The same surely
applies to <i>Doct</i><i style="font-style: italic;">or Who</i>’s spin-offs,
the latest of which is <i>Class</i>. In <i>Class</i>,
the Doctor saves an alien prince, Charlie Smith (Greg Austin), together with
his arch-enemy Miss Quill (Katherine Kelly), and transports them to Earth in
the TARDIS. Landing at <st1:placename w:st="on">Coal</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hill</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype> in Stepney, <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>,
he charges Charlie and Miss Quill, along with several school students, with the
task of defending the planet against the creatures which will emerge from a
rift in time and space within the school.
(The fact that the rift seems to have been caused by the TARDIS’s
frequent visits to Coal Hill seems to be glossed over.)</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In the first episode, Charlie
invites Polish fellow student Matteusz Andrezejewski (Jordan Renzo) to be his
partner for the School Prom, prompting the new show’s first gay kiss as well as
the comment “Oh yes my deeply religious parents are very happy I’m going to
dance with a boy”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlANyKoRBPs85hpW5t6cdXDFX-l8wXj3e6QdBfGAWAgTUK5bMidL1YgG1dWdBFC8Xd8O1Qd6__no8WdPDO2xuWEzL5JsxiiVq17dC5G6KvoE3aNr9gzxQuSzCKdZ9xs7RuAgiBWuWci1E/s1600/9NRzJxm+Matteusz+and+Charlie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlANyKoRBPs85hpW5t6cdXDFX-l8wXj3e6QdBfGAWAgTUK5bMidL1YgG1dWdBFC8Xd8O1Qd6__no8WdPDO2xuWEzL5JsxiiVq17dC5G6KvoE3aNr9gzxQuSzCKdZ9xs7RuAgiBWuWci1E/s320/9NRzJxm+Matteusz+and+Charlie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A united kingdom:<br />
Matteusz and Charlie snuggle up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Class </i>was broadcast in the wake of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s 2016 referendum on
membership of the European Union, where the country decided by 52% to 48% to leave
the organisation. One reason was public dissatisfaction with the free movement of
persons, a central pillar of the <st1:place w:st="on">Union</st1:place>. In particular the accession of Eastern
European countries to the Union in 2004 gave rise to an influx of Eastern
European nationals into <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>,
represented in<i> Class</i> by Matteusz.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There are several points of
interest here. The first is that <i>Doctor Who</i> and its spin-offs had up until <i>Class</i> almost ignored the Eastern European immigration, despite the show’s obsession
with charting British national identity.
This is probably because the show has had another story to tell: <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s
transformation from Empire to multi-racial society. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly, now that Brexit – British
exit from the EU – is happening, the <i>Who</i>niverse
seems more relaxed about making Eastern Europeans part of its national story. This is timely, as Poles have recently
replaced Indians as <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s
most numerous ethnic minority. Moreover the referendum result was followed by a deplorable upsurge in racist attacks against Eastern Europeans. In this light the thoroughly sympathetic image of Matteusz points the way forward for popular culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSaADlY09O6rTuMGQMIj65ic4hktpTpL7rOCcKaUSpIR_ccSkn07xmo5htPW1l1p_e5PAdZvxC0RirI4LyYsFNVSAHQTuSipqEy2OKH8n4dgStQ5XpLtb-uvTDjpj2iwe7RkxUoGgfgA/s1600/12750193_1531842447116689_280316699_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSaADlY09O6rTuMGQMIj65ic4hktpTpL7rOCcKaUSpIR_ccSkn07xmo5htPW1l1p_e5PAdZvxC0RirI4LyYsFNVSAHQTuSipqEy2OKH8n4dgStQ5XpLtb-uvTDjpj2iwe7RkxUoGgfgA/s1600/12750193_1531842447116689_280316699_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thoroughly British couple:<br />
Madam Vastra and Jenny</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The third point of interest, however, is
the “Britishisation” of Matteusz. In a fine act of stereotyping his
parents are represented as “the Other”.
First they disapprove of Matteusz’s relationship with Charlie, then they
ground him, then they throw him out. It
is not fanciful to see Charlie as a character who serves to make Matteusz more
British. Despite being an alien, Charlie represents Britishness. This is unsurprising
in <i>Doctor Who</i> where aliens often
represent the British: the Doctor himself is a very British alien. Other non-humans which may be perceived in the same light include Madam Vastra (see e.g.
“The Crimson Horror” (2013)), the Star Whale (see “The Beast Below” (2010)) and
even arch-enemy Missy (see e.g. “Death in Heaven” (2014)). As with the Doctor, Charlie’s eccentricity marks
him out as representing Britishness. By inviting Matteusz to the Prom, he prompts
the gay relationship which detaches Matteusz from his Polish family and ushers
him into the British family of the <i>Class </i>team - which in post-2005 <i>Doctor Who </i>fashion is typically multiracial. (Lesbian and gay
relationships too have arguably been used as something of a signifier of
Britishness in <i>Doctor Who</i> and its
spin-offs.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But not all aspects of British
identity are attractive. In terms of
species Charlie is a Rhodian, a name strongly reminiscent of the British colony
of Southern Rhodesia which spawned the apartheid-state of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Rhodesia</st1:country-region> before it became <st1:country-region w:st="on">Zimbabwe</st1:country-region>. The <st1:country-region w:st="on">Rhodesia</st1:country-region> metaphor chimes with the Rhodians’ oppression of their rival species the Quill. It also confirms that the <i>Who</i>niverse remains centrally animated by Britain's imperial story. Charlie’s ruthlessness makes Matteusz realise
that the couple are not as similar as he thought, and prompts a short-lived
split between the couple. It is fairly common for <i>Doctor Who</i> to portray the British as unduly callous - see for example. "Doctor Who and the Silurians" (1970), "The Christmas Invasion" (2005) and "The Beast Below" (2010).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With Brexit in the offing, Matteusz’s
Britishisation is on all fours with the trend towards Eastern Europeans living in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>
applying for British nationality. This
is not to say that Matteusz lacks pride in being Polish – “never turn
your back on an angry Pole” he quips on one occasion – but it shows once again <a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/school-reunion-are-krillitanes-really.html" target="_blank">how the <i>Who</i>niverse projects as an attractive quality of Britishness its capacity to absorb into its fold ethnicities and nationalities which constantly enrich its very character. </a></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-44671809697159821512016-10-05T09:25:00.000+01:002016-10-05T13:59:08.042+01:00Mistrial of a Time Lord - further thoughts<div class="MsoNormal">
By Craig Owen Jones</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bangor University</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://politicsandlawofdoctorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/mistrial-of-time-lord.html" target="_blank">Danny Nicol’s recent comments</a> <span style="text-align: center;">on Doctor Who’s twenty-second
season, otherwise known as "The Trial Of A Time Lord" (1986) achieve a great deal in drawing attention to the season’s tendency to play fast
and loose with the most basic principles of jurisprudence. As an adjunct to
Nicol’s characterisation of its problems, there are some interesting precedents
in British television prior to the season’s broadcast that may benefit from
scrutiny.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcVsmz_EajSotbNHtxl2qbLpqhShyphenhyphenIRnN9ljlyb6YZiVB9fs3sEJah3treVZfg4gz2AqeD5L3Bn6KHgqXac07kJuVPpQnjmpMe59JyDTW77quKLuoYVxRYFPT7umvUvkbTuk0fLS4Eyc/s1600/p01zhpfq+trial+of+a+time+lord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcVsmz_EajSotbNHtxl2qbLpqhShyphenhyphenIRnN9ljlyb6YZiVB9fs3sEJah3treVZfg4gz2AqeD5L3Bn6KHgqXac07kJuVPpQnjmpMe59JyDTW77quKLuoYVxRYFPT7umvUvkbTuk0fLS4Eyc/s320/p01zhpfq+trial+of+a+time+lord.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Trial of a Time Lord":<br />
The Inquisitor questions the Doctor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the germane aspects of the trial depicted in this
peculiar quartet of serials from the Colin Baker era receive their most
compelling treatments not in British science fiction (Blake’s 7’s (1978-81)
dalliances with the device of the courtroom trial during its second season
notwithstanding), but in the realm of comedy. The television run of Monty
Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74) found the conduct of judges and policemen
alike to be fertile ground. Both the death penalty and the rule against bias
were satirised by a sketch in ‘The Spanish Inquisition’ (1970), in which a
frustrated judge (Graham Chapman) rails against his inability to condemn the
defendant in the light of the restrictions then recently placed on usage of the
death penalty, asserting instead his imminent move to South Africa (‘England
makes you sick!... I’m off, I’ve bought my ticket’), before declaring that, in
a final fling before leaving, the defendant is sentenced to be burnt at the
stake. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question of reliability of police evidence, meanwhile,
was mercilessly lampooned in the Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode ‘The
Light Entertainment War’ (1974), in which a doltish police officer (Michael
Palin) is in cahoots with Terry Jones’ judge, and (ineptly) gives evidence to
implicate the defendant (Eric Idle) while reading from his notebook. The sketch
was still considered sufficiently relevant in 1979 to warrant an airing during
the Secret Policeman’s Ball, the series of occasional charity shows staged in
aid of Amnesty International throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, this
time with Graham Chapman as the policeman and Peter Cook as the defendant. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cook provides another example that is relevant to the issues
under study. On the penultimate evening of the 1979 show’s run, Cook – taking
his cue from the outrageously partial summing-up of Sir Justice Cantley during
the Thorpe trial which had ended the previous week – delivered a monologue that
has since become known as ‘Here Comes The Judge’ that combined observations on
class and political leanings to impugn the judge’s impartiality with
devastating effect. The monologue, which brought the house down, was so
successful that it was shortly released as a spoken-word record, and is now
acknowledged as a masterpiece of British comedy. Cantley’s couching of his
comments in the language of impartiality bring to mind nothing so much as Lynda
Bellingham’s Inquisitor, whose behaviour becomes increasingly inscrutable as
the season progresses.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUW86x9X0q9hdLEy2qlSvrD5BpDP6pwoEbSLW_k-0YQgKp7u8cujEQILgYs9mXPyeEFWCSwfD3AVgS6jZYlCP8ND5UDgc1sWdE8CXrSOXsA8bjfYPWqtnqzYqpEdZUhYluf7Rp9YSuurQ/s1600/maxresdefault+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUW86x9X0q9hdLEy2qlSvrD5BpDP6pwoEbSLW_k-0YQgKp7u8cujEQILgYs9mXPyeEFWCSwfD3AVgS6jZYlCP8ND5UDgc1sWdE8CXrSOXsA8bjfYPWqtnqzYqpEdZUhYluf7Rp9YSuurQ/s320/maxresdefault+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Satirising the police:<br />
<i>Not The Nine O'Clock News</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The late 1970s in particular seems to have provided a good
deal of grist for the satirist’s mill in the way of improper conduct in both
the courtroom and the police station. Arguably the most successful satirical
programme of the period, Not The Nine O’Clock News (1979-82) was the originator
of several sketches to criticise the conduct of the police, including an
uproarious monologue by Griff Rhys Jones that begins with an extreme close-up
of what we assume is a yob bragging about his exploits during a riot in which
he assaulted several people – ‘I hate mush, cos they make me puke, right?...’ –
only for the camera to slowly zoom out, revealing that Jones is in fact wearing
a police uniform (but see below). The much-criticised ‘sus laws’ that resulted
in the disproportionate stopping and searching of black people provided a focus
for another sketch that saw Jones playing a policeman, this time one ‘Constable
Savage’, who is pulled up by his superior (Rowan Atkinson) for repeatedly
arresting the same man, one Winston Kodogo; the sketch ends with Atkinson
deciding the best place for Savage to continue his career is with the Special
Patrol Group. The SPG also received bad press in The Young Ones (1982-84), in
which the police in general are routinely portrayed as needlessly heavy-handed.
In one episode, Alexei Sayle plays a police inspector in the guise of Benito
Mussolini; in another, Rick (Rik Mayall) starts to play some music during a
party, only to have his record player destroyed – mere seconds later! – by a
police officer who asserts that ‘the neighbours have been complaining’. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvwvIksOljKXDfyeGTgK8jPfPiABn_pDzVDvbCtKXzfBWVfZ93yMWVR48ZXFXKbQfOitpW6J6lVJKpiSfho84j8ck2x_CDAx2Qv8A8M2pcX-fpiEqC45wFlYQlqPWT-VqrZ8JUuG8Dfc/s1600/hqdefault+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvwvIksOljKXDfyeGTgK8jPfPiABn_pDzVDvbCtKXzfBWVfZ93yMWVR48ZXFXKbQfOitpW6J6lVJKpiSfho84j8ck2x_CDAx2Qv8A8M2pcX-fpiEqC45wFlYQlqPWT-VqrZ8JUuG8Dfc/s320/hqdefault+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Satirising the police interview video:<br />
<i>Alas Smith and Jones</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the treatment of police officers that is most relevant
in respect of Trial Of A Time Lord’s preoccupation with the admissibility of
the evidence provided by the Matrix is found in Alas Smith And Jones (1984-98),
the vehicle of NTNOCN alumni Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith. In<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOy_oP3ESQY" target="_blank"> a keenly-observed sketch set in the interview room of a police station</a>, we see
the interviewer (Jones) questioning a suspect (Smith). Smith’s character is
clearly innocent, but Jones’ gleeful demeanour derives from his transparent
attempts to tamper with the evidence – the video of the interview shows
evidence of several clumsy edits, and in the final seconds of the video, Smith
finally appears bloodied and bruised, implying his maltreatment in the cells.
The sketch was broadcast in 1992, several years after the introduction of
recorded interviews in 1984, but it is hard not to view it as a direct response
to that policy. What it questions is not the principle of recording, but the
fidelity to the truth of that which is recorded. When we hear the evidence of a
witness as recorded in an interview room shorn of context, to what extent may
it be relied upon?</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such depictions of the adversarial process play, of course,
devil’s advocate. Smith and Jones do not seriously claim that the recording of
police interviews should be dispensed with as useless or unreliable. But they
do succeed in interrogating our understanding of such interviews as infallibly
truthful sources of evidence. The police interview sketch takes the point to
its furthest extreme; it is Kurosawa’s Rashomon played for laughs. But in its
highlighting of the mutability of evidence presented at one remove, in videoed,
taped, or written form, it asserts the centrality of authority, of ruling by
the sword. After all, the Time Lords are more or less all-powerful; and there
are several moments in Trial Of A Time Lord where the court gets perilously
close to dispensing the cosmic equivalent of victor’s justice. Unlike the
science fiction comedy Red Dwarf episode ‘Justice’ (1991), in which the crew
enter a penal space station enveloped by a ‘justice field’ within which the
consequences of an unjust act are instantly played out on the perpetrator – in
Trial the gap between the act of interrogation of one’s actions and determining
ways of dealing with them in a just fashion is improbably broad. As Nicol
notes, the contradiction between the format of the trial and the outcome is
never resolved – charges are summarily dropped, and the process is never
properly concluded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the preponderance of satirical commentaries on these
issues noted above, it is tempting to view Trial in the same way, as a
metatextual comment on the way in which Doctor Who was being treated by the BBC
at the time. As is well known, season twenty-three’s story arc was occasioned
by producer John Nathan-Turner’s conviction that the show was experiencing
something akin to being on trial, with frequent changes to format and
scheduling and near-constant criticism of its tone both within the BBC and from
viewers irate at the gory, violent tenor of the programme under the editorship
of Eric Saward. This seems on the face of it to be a legitimate rationale for
the haphazard trial process that we see. After all, Doctor Who was not above
satirising the British establishment in the 1980s – one thinks of The Happiness
Patrol (1988), a trenchant comment on the Thatcher ministry. Showing a
frustratingly Kafkaesque Gallifreyan system of jurisprudence could, in the
right hands, have constituted a powerful riposte to the show’s treatment by the
BBC.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU12TvSZt1dQgQZeP4tylGclHks_d4MRlm1a7lyJnS1HkXjxl_2_TU1r6_8rhvC24uYEv70oKVKKbW16A9IoWxq19Mfd4xkO6QSKKGi5uHwHi871BFmGSiZQyIGoL04YNY9HRHlfBPyvw/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU12TvSZt1dQgQZeP4tylGclHks_d4MRlm1a7lyJnS1HkXjxl_2_TU1r6_8rhvC24uYEv70oKVKKbW16A9IoWxq19Mfd4xkO6QSKKGi5uHwHi871BFmGSiZQyIGoL04YNY9HRHlfBPyvw/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campy dialogue:<br />
The Doctor and the Valeyard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
But this seems altogether too cosy an explanation of the
strange perorations and verbose exchanges of Trial Of A Time Lord’s courtroom
scenes to be admissible. For one thing, the season achieved its final form in
the most haphazard fashion; the final serial, a two-parter entitled ‘The
Ultimate Foe’, was famously written at breakneck speed by Pip and Jane Baker
when Saward resigned as script editor before the season’s conclusion.
Furthermore, the courtroom two-handers between the Doctor (Colin Baker) and the
Valeyard (Michael Jayston), while often glossed as ‘comic’ in scholarly
commentaries, are anything but. The schoolboy insults the Doctor launches in
his interlocutor’s direction are risible and painted in the broadest of
strokes, and the Valeyard’s replies are campy and unconvincing. Crucially, even
viewers at the time viewed these scenes as poorly conceived and unfunny, even
if the intent on the writers’ part was to introduce levity into what on paper
were needlessly wordy exchanges. Ultimately, it is difficult to think of Trial
as anything other than a noble failure, a stab at a grand and lofty narrative
that falls flat due to a combination of silly posturing between protagonist and
antagonist, pedestrian storytelling, and an almost complete lack of internal
logic in terms of the trial t<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>hat lies at its heart.Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-89259292377409531362016-10-03T07:03:00.001+01:002016-10-03T07:08:04.678+01:00Mistrial of a Time Lord<div class="MsoNormal">
By Danny Nicol,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Professor of Public Law</st1:placetype></st1:place><br />
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“The Trial of a Time Lord” (1986)
was a 14-part serial, the longest in <i>Doctor
Who’</i>s history. In it, the Doctor (Colin
Baker) is put on trial by his own people, the Time Lords, for interfering in
the affairs of other peoples and planets.
The trial is presided over by the Inquisitor (Lynda Bellingham) and the
Doctor is prosecuted by an official called as the Valeyard (Michael
Jayston). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocgVYmCbcPWo8elRxFskRDz8mpY7DMuvbREpC7Fa9by6mFDkV2-99gZZx95-SvOLaIikz3RjNtTOnok5OGeC4lRFgPlZdL3QcxcFQkS7OaDdRZGKIl20d8wMmgDntwMcH_Qr2mqi_r1o/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-12-19-14h07m59s179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocgVYmCbcPWo8elRxFskRDz8mpY7DMuvbREpC7Fa9by6mFDkV2-99gZZx95-SvOLaIikz3RjNtTOnok5OGeC4lRFgPlZdL3QcxcFQkS7OaDdRZGKIl20d8wMmgDntwMcH_Qr2mqi_r1o/s320/vlcsnap-2010-12-19-14h07m59s179.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doc in the dock: the Doctor makes a<br />
point in his defence</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The trial provides the
opportunity to relate several of the Doctor’s adventures which the Valeyard
deploys as evidence of his guilt.
Professor James Chapman has criticised these various segments as
unengaging, and has condemned the over-arching narrative as inconsistent,
incoherent and poorly-structured (<i>Inside
the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who</i>, 2<sup>nd</sup> edition, <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>: Tauris, 2013, pp.158-9). Be that as it may, this post focuses not on
the merits or demerits of the serial, but on the procedural shortcomings of the
trial. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The analysis does not purport to
be comprehensive. Indeed the procedural
deficiencies in “The Trial of a Time Lord” are so substantial as to merit a
major article in the field of Law and Television. Instead this post merely flags up a few of
the issues of procedure with which the narrative engages (and does so without giving
the game away about the plot’s moment of revelation). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A first issue in the trial is what
lawyers call <b><i>public interest immunity</i>.</b>
This is the notion that certain information can be withheld from the
court in the public interest. When the
Doctor is on the planet Ravalox certain dialogue incriminating the Time Lords
is removed from the evidence. In 1968 in
<i>Conway v Rimmer</i> ([1968] AC 910) Britain’s
top court the House of Lords held that it was for the court - not the
government - to strike a balance between <i>two</i>
public interests involved: the public interest in withholding the information
versus the public interest in ensuring justice in the case. Here, the Inquisitor shows undue deference to
the Time Lords’ decision on suppressing the information: she does not really
interrogate the public interest in non-disclosure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1nd9AufOaSXvJD9JmOiS_qzDBZVt-8M7TYt3vewb-365ybmoU3i32cpLBxPKkqCnnZ0LyQFl1Y6rR3j4eSSxJXAPHii9AfOuImvFSzQXGqMhOPHxREzbpDRAMJYocoTv3u6PVDcyKDk/s1600/The_Inquisitor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1nd9AufOaSXvJD9JmOiS_qzDBZVt-8M7TYt3vewb-365ybmoU3i32cpLBxPKkqCnnZ0LyQFl1Y6rR3j4eSSxJXAPHii9AfOuImvFSzQXGqMhOPHxREzbpDRAMJYocoTv3u6PVDcyKDk/s320/The_Inquisitor.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Impartial arbiter?<br />
The Inquisitor adjudicates</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A second issue is <b><i>the
assumption that the Matrix cannot be challenged</i>.</b> The Matrix is the computer-based depository
of all Time Lord knowledge and experience.
When the Doctor insists that evidence from the Matrix has been
falsified, the Inquisitor pre-judges the issue, telling the Doctor “your
accusation would be laughable if it were not so outrageous”. The problem of certain
forms of evidence being considered unchallengable may have had resonance in the
mid 1980s when “The Trial of a Time Lord” was written. It was an era in which the evidence of the
British police, whilst often relied upon at trial, was becoming increasingly
discredited as miscarriages of justice mounted up. As a result the Police and Criminal Evidence
Act 1984 ushered in the tape-recording of interviews. Such recordings now form the focus of a very
large number of criminal trials, as well as a long-standing trope in British television
crime drama.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A third issue is <b><i>the
upgrading of the charge against the Doctor from interference to genocide</i></b>. Late in the trial we learn that the Doctor
has destroyed an entire alien species, a race of sentient plants known as the
Vervoids. Instantly the Valeyard
insists that the capital charge of genocide be added to the charges against the
Doctor. Yet the rules of procedural fairness include
the right to adequate time to prepare one’s case (see for instance the ruling
of the High Court in <i>R v Thames
Magistrates’ Court ex parte Polemis </i>[1974] WLR 1371). To add new charges mid-trial would be an
outrageous breach of that principle. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRsmNJZEMcgyIss30wD0uC8iONHJCoZ0nhzXfx89KkPx4h6EQTHWbjDko2kIeMKwj-J8ZwiJ7stR1AiIywDl_UhKlCuXFc8yL_QRQTOc5_E3fiqE0nb-bx6bG7EIxIoZpLEm88k9-v8U/s1600/doctor-ho-the-valeyard-555x278.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRsmNJZEMcgyIss30wD0uC8iONHJCoZ0nhzXfx89KkPx4h6EQTHWbjDko2kIeMKwj-J8ZwiJ7stR1AiIywDl_UhKlCuXFc8yL_QRQTOc5_E3fiqE0nb-bx6bG7EIxIoZpLEm88k9-v8U/s320/doctor-ho-the-valeyard-555x278.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Valeyard presses for the ultimate sanction</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A fourth issue is <b><i>the
death penalty</i></b>. The Valeyard strongly presses for the death
penalty. In <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>,
Parliament effectively abolished the death penalty in 1965 after several
miscarriages of justice, and in 2004 the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> government accepted the 13<sup>th</sup>
Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which created an obligation
in international law not to reintroduce it.
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region> does not extradite
individuals who would face the death penalty in trials elsewhere. The presence of the death penalty in
Gallifreyan law marks Gallifrey as a more primitive society than <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A fifth issue is <b><i>the
rule against bias</i></b>. It is a
vintage principle of common law that judges should be impartial vis-à-vis the
parties to a case (see e.g. <i>Dimes v </i><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename style="font-style: italic;" w:st="on">Grand Junction</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on"><i>Canal I </i>[1852] 10 ER 315).</st1:placetype></st1:place> The principle has also been enshrined in Article 6
of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Yet for all her gravitas, the Inquisitor eventually shows herself
far from impartial: she defends rather too vigorously the Time Lords’ decision
to extract the Doctor from time and space to face trial just as his companion,
Peri, needed rescuing from imminent destruction. Bias
in the opposite direction is apparent at the trial’s end: the Inquisitor drops
all charges against the Doctor because the Time Lords owe him a debt of gratitude
for having saved their skins. So much for the due process of law.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Eventually the Time Lords emerge
discredited from the trial because of their own constant interference in time
and space. It is Time Lord hypocrisy
which “The Trial of a Time Lord” ultimately condemns. But as a result the appalling lapses in
judicial procedure get sidelined. Yet
these deficiencies fall well short of the common law principle that it is not
enough for justice to be done, it must be manifestly be <i>seen </i>to be done – through compliance with the requirements of
procedural fairness. This raises the
important question of whether a conviction, however justified in substance,
should ever be lawfully obtained on the basis of an unfair procedure. The procedural corruption of the trial alone
justifies the Doctor’s stirring denunciation:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
In all my
travellings throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against
power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed HERE! The oldest civilization:
decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! … Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen -
they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute
power - that's what it takes to be really corrupt!</div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-65952030384410883192016-08-31T16:14:00.001+01:002016-08-31T17:32:01.270+01:00Doctor Who's unjew influenceBy Danny Nicol,<br />
University of Westminster<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Doctor Who</i> began
in 1963, less than two decades after the Nazi holocaust had been brought to an
end. Yet the programme’s earlier years
reflect an alarming degree of anti-Jewish stereotyping on the part of postwar
British society.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqyFng2ceohZlGNGw4A_8UeOLskjls7bqUz0evGhNgKyV-KCjhWpEF8pIu2xXB0EfZ4WIPZrMVPicAQHi86NtWMt-RUl1UlVFJTsrIbGa3FVJYtmrHWB9-2JpiZHiuCQ8hmTxowiNa7w/s1600/Silverstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqyFng2ceohZlGNGw4A_8UeOLskjls7bqUz0evGhNgKyV-KCjhWpEF8pIu2xXB0EfZ4WIPZrMVPicAQHi86NtWMt-RUl1UlVFJTsrIbGa3FVJYtmrHWB9-2JpiZHiuCQ8hmTxowiNa7w/s320/Silverstein.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julius Silverstein, anxious to keep his hands on his collection</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In “The Web of Fear” (1968) we meet Julius Silverstein, a
central European Jew who owns the sole surviving robot Yeti, a menace which the Doctor
had encountered in his earlier adventure “The Abominable Snowmen”
(1967). Julius’ friend Professor
Travers implores him to part with the Yeti, on the grounds that a control unit
sphere has gone missing and is in danger of reactivating the Yeti. But Julius is so obsessed by his material
possessions that he is impervious to reason.
“You vont to rob me…nobody destroys Julius Silverstein’s collection! Nobody!
The Yeti is mine!” Julius’
excessive materialism costs him his life, when his precious Yeti is reanimated
– and kills him.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stereotyping involved in Julius Silverstein's character wouldn’t be so bad
were it a one-off. Alas, in “The
Creature from the Pit” (1979) we meet a Jew from outer space. This is the
bandit leader Torvin, who is performed as Charles Dickens’ Fagin (he variously
calls his colleagues “my lovely boys!”, “my beautiful boys!” and ultimately “my <i>rich </i>boys!”). Torvin lives on the planet Chloris which is
rich in vegetation but has scant metal, a material which therefore obsesses
him: “metal, metal, metal: I’ll put my trust in this solid metal!” He
sees people (such as the Doctor’s companion Romana) largely in terms of their monetary
worth. He also proves himself entirely
self-serving, having to be repeatedly reminded by his gang that he should be
fighting for their collective wealth not just his own. Once
again his materialism proves fatal, yet even Torvin’s last, comic, words are
materialistic: as he dies he admires the metal of the blade with which he has been stabbed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2u_GN5XcHj-zDzVUzGMSU8RX2mXJE4VSCGIwI8GSDk1FxSkknlviMep6i5l8xFiO2sNEkdMm5XcVeMCq_2LCgT0cK0gZoJn_kbZ19P4YvVMtybnjyHLLhfU-djXMxx-0OvsKiuX7gHA/s1600/Torvin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2u_GN5XcHj-zDzVUzGMSU8RX2mXJE4VSCGIwI8GSDk1FxSkknlviMep6i5l8xFiO2sNEkdMm5XcVeMCq_2LCgT0cK0gZoJn_kbZ19P4YvVMtybnjyHLLhfU-djXMxx-0OvsKiuX7gHA/s320/Torvin.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Torvin admires some metal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a great pity that <i>Doctor
Who</i>’s crude anti-Jewish racism prevented the programme from engaging
properly with the Jewish story. By
contrast, in the <i>Star Trek Deep Space
Nine</i> episode “Duet” (1993) a space station has a visitor who seemingly ran
a forced labour camp in which one alien species persecuted and perpetrated
genocide against another alien species.
The episode raises mature issues of responsibility and of the distinction between
justice and vengeance which were highly relevant in the quest for Nazi war
criminals. It is not too late for contemporary <i>Doctor Who</i> to atone for its past stereotyping by treating these
issues seriously. </div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-21158244552064387112016-06-04T06:56:00.000+01:002016-06-07T06:38:16.505+01:00"Everyone who isn't an American, drop your gun!"<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><b><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“A Town Called Mercy” (2012) is a
<i>Doctor Who</i> adventure set in an
American frontier town in the nineteenth century. In it, the Doctor forces an alien war
criminal, Jex - at gunpoint - to face a cyborg called The Gunslinger who intends
to kill him. The Doctor’s companion, Amy
Pond, grabs another gun, and threatens to shoot the Doctor if he continues to
do this, arguing “When did killing someone become an option? … We can’t be like him, we’ve got to be
better than him!” After Amy hamfistedly
allows her weapon to discharge into the air the town’s sheriff, Isaac, hollers:
“Everyone who isn’t an American, drop your gun!”</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_n9berqzt4rvnlNZ8IimZRzkLmcooZbTPRpOZm3E1kI9xMfHh7sx3JEj42lx7XvD8mmWUXuCgfp2YTpF0YD2Hi6LYJol6DTiDh3ncVQtpm0SMWVQQo0aSrXx3B258ZBWbskKjp_MGng/s400/mercy4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_n9berqzt4rvnlNZ8IimZRzkLmcooZbTPRpOZm3E1kI9xMfHh7sx3JEj42lx7XvD8mmWUXuCgfp2YTpF0YD2Hi6LYJol6DTiDh3ncVQtpm0SMWVQQo0aSrXx3B258ZBWbskKjp_MGng/s400/mercy4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Doctor points his gun at Jex</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Doctor Who</i> isn’t just science fiction. Since 1963 the programme has also strived to
define Britishness as part of the British Broadcasting Commission’s mission to contribute
to a sense of national identity.
According to Jean Seaton the BBC must sort out what the nation <i>is</i>, expressing worries about the British
whilst trumpeting their virtues (“The BBC and Metabolising Britishness” in
Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (eds) <i>Britishness:
Perspectives on the British Question</i>, Wiley-Blackheath 2009).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In this regard the show
repeatedly defines Britishness by what Britishness is <i>not</i>. Here, it pokes fun at
the American “Other” and more specifically at American gun culture, as encapsulated in the US Constitution's Second Amendment</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Many British people find the
“right to bear arms” shocking and puzzling.
In our own country, horror at the
Hungerford massacre of 1987 and the Dunblane school massacre of 1996 led to
immediate gun control legislation. With
scant public dissent <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s
sovereign Parliament, which can famously “make or unmake any law whatsoever”
unimpeded by a written constitution, clamped down on gun ownership without
delay.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ravereader.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dw_impossible-astronaut-oval-office.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://ravereader.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dw_impossible-astronaut-oval-office.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hands up! The Doctor is confronted by American gunpower<br />
in the Oval Office, in "The Impossible Astronaut"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Cocking a snook at the Americans
is, however, nothing new for <i>Doctor Who</i>. In “The Impossible Astronaut”/ “Day of the
Moon” (2011) British brainpower is rather pointed counterposed to American
firepower in the context of an adventure featuring President Nixon. In “The Christmas Invasion” (2005) the
British Prime Minister Harriet Jones instructs that the President of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
be told that he is not her boss. And
“The Sound of Drums”/ “Last of the Time Lords” (2007) features an arrogant US President-elect
being assassinated at the behest of the Master.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In an essay entitled “Tardis at
the OK Corral”, Nicholas J. Cull argues that post-war <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s relationship with the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
is a pervasive theme both in terms of the old-show <i>Doctor Who</i>’s rise and fall and as a regular passing reference
within its storyline. The show had to engage
with fears of American domination and American-style capitalism. Cull contends that the triumph of brains over
brawn in the Doctor’s adventures signifies the British belief that we can keep
muddling through without John Wayne style gunpower (John Cook and Peter Wright
(eds) <i>British Science Fiction Television </i>IB
Tauris, 2006). These themes are evident
in “The Tenth Planet” (1966) and “The Tomb of the Cybermen” (1967). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dailypop.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tenthplanet2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://dailypop.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tenthplanet2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bombastic American General Cutler tries to reason with an<br />
early Cyberman in "The Tenth Planet"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, one must observe a degree
of British humbug. In “A Town Called Mercy”
the Doctor (a Time Lord, not a human, but definitively coded as British) does
actually use a gun, as does Amy, though neither kills anyone. Recurring companion Professor River Song (also
coded as British) relishes firearms, not least in “Day of the Moon”. Moreover the Doctor can resort to weapons of
mass destruction as he does in destroying Skaro in “Remembrance of the Daleks”
(1988) or a Cyberfleet in “A Good Man Goes to War” (2011). And as Davros, creator of the Daleks, observes
in “Journey’s End” (2008) the Doctor can fashion his companions into weapons,
transforming them into murderers (for instance Rose Tyler destroys a multitude
of Daleks in “The Parting of the Ways” (2005)).
The uneasy notion that the British are actually just as aggressive as their
American cousins has been a persistent undercurrent of the post-2005 show, reflecting
the country’s rather-frequent interventions in other countries such as
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. If
Amy’s comment had been directed towards the Americans – “we can’t be like them, we’ve
got to be better than them” – then perhaps <i>Doctor
Who</i> sometimes serves to remind us that the British and the Americans are not so different from each other.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-49930242071407320352016-03-15T07:32:00.000+00:002016-03-17T07:58:09.451+00:00Terrorism of the Zygons<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>by Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>University of Westminster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwyew5qJvSXLhlnB-DkGQxqcnPlNWiai8hszvCREVQF2x82CoGWOhzvwaWSZkqqw2QLpvmklS1zoSzphs51jRT8tNQq8W36o-Z14ZHbh9_waeHNWM7orwpDR5Qjm18dMIU2wahPZL69I/s1600/zygon_inversion_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwyew5qJvSXLhlnB-DkGQxqcnPlNWiai8hszvCREVQF2x82CoGWOhzvwaWSZkqqw2QLpvmklS1zoSzphs51jRT8tNQq8W36o-Z14ZHbh9_waeHNWM7orwpDR5Qjm18dMIU2wahPZL69I/s320/zygon_inversion_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Zygons in their true form</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In “The Zygon Invasion”/“The
Zygon Inversion” (2015) the Doctor and companion Clara encounter the Zygons, shape-shifting aliens who settled on Earth in the wake of the events chronicled in the show’s 50<sup>th</sup>
anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor” (2013). They take human form and live out their lives
peacefully on Earth in human guise, and are particularly concentrated within the <st1:place w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:place>. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The plot involves a group of
Zygons which becomes “radicalised” and kills the existing Zygon leadership. Its grievance appears to be that Zygons want
“the right to be themselves”. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The story’s pervasive theme is
encapsulated in an argument which the Doctor makes to his friend Kate Stewart
of UNIT, the Unified Intelligence Taskforce: “Isn’t there a solution which
doesn’t involve bombing everyone? … This is a splinter group. The rest of the Zygons, the vast majority,
they want to live in peace. You start
bombing them, you’ll radicalise the lot.
That’s exactly what the splinter group wants.”</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROxEfgftyqm619yQ0QbyQ_OcxkRekMMXUohxSWsCKwJdqnFMV9tMA18zmuDSFJrtFfpvvY1tMG6QsIccyPII-8wSi8B_zFkKnyk738bkPMYgGaSjFLdADwifvQANCZGifv1znuynQn70/s1600/DW-384780.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROxEfgftyqm619yQ0QbyQ_OcxkRekMMXUohxSWsCKwJdqnFMV9tMA18zmuDSFJrtFfpvvY1tMG6QsIccyPII-8wSi8B_zFkKnyk738bkPMYgGaSjFLdADwifvQANCZGifv1znuynQn70/s320/DW-384780.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UNIT's Kate Stewart favours the military solution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Doctor’s anti-war stance turns
“The Zygon Invasion”/“The Zygon Inversion” into rather a sharp political
satire. It was broadcast around the time
that the British House of Commons was deciding whether to bomb <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region> as part of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region>’s efforts against the
so-called Islamic State group. The idea that bombing would win recruits to
the extremist group was a major argument against intervention. But the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region>
bombing was of course no flash in the pan: it followed British military action
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Libya</st1:country-region>, which were likewise none-too-successful
in ending conflict. One can therefore view
“The Zygon Invasion”/“The Zygon Inversion” as a satire on the country’s foreign
policy as a whole. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately the Doctor prevents
UNIT from using “Sullivan gas” which would kill the Zygons, and, with some
impressive anti-war rhetoric, he manages to convince the leader of the rebel
Zygons to accept the way of peace. He
reinstates his friend Osgood and her Zygon counterpart as guardians of the
peace, with the tantalising suggestion that “the Osgoods” are neither human nor
Zygon but somehow a hybrid between the two species.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4oRIFouX0N0PDcHKoXR6Fzxgc_H_Yjf5TKXwoLtwm5pQoaAjCoKoRFbHbrwBAxS9P8huzpTijOL9VPpNW8Gm8K_EreWg0VJLlZzXIHwwvdI5RH0wLl1Bjq3Sq3SJW-aO3yziX5Y1hts/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-11-14-14h48m28s222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4oRIFouX0N0PDcHKoXR6Fzxgc_H_Yjf5TKXwoLtwm5pQoaAjCoKoRFbHbrwBAxS9P8huzpTijOL9VPpNW8Gm8K_EreWg0VJLlZzXIHwwvdI5RH0wLl1Bjq3Sq3SJW-aO3yziX5Y1hts/s320/vlcsnap-2015-11-14-14h48m28s222.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Osgoods: human and Zygon defenders of the peace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The flaw in the story is that conflicts don't tend to end this way. Usually the side
which has a grievance obtains some concessions, even if these concessions are
far removed from what they originally sought.
An example would be the Irish Republican Army in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Northern Ireland</st1:country-region>, which craves a united <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region> but settled for a power-sharing
constitution in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Northern
Ireland</st1:country-region> as the price for peace. “The Zygon Invasion”/“The Zygon Inversion”
falls down somewhat because it does not interrogate the Zygons’ grievance, nor
does the Doctor offer them anything beyond the <i>status quo ante</i>, not even a fig leaf. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-33945671278652607922016-01-14T10:12:00.000+00:002016-03-24T07:22:13.041+00:00Women-only TARDIS: Imagining the Adventures of Clara and Ashildr<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>By Danny Nicol</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><b>University</b></st1:placetype><b> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wbi7kqe6p2AhXJ-tpNMz-RtZQ0rl3brS-iGQGdE82fka0zCbDYYWMsmM-paArMIouOM99ZyvANYX88AOBwm8gof0W-i0gWQ9LzhWx4yWGOXw4UX4VPCFfbU8qritFUOSyRpSaRUlBZc/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wbi7kqe6p2AhXJ-tpNMz-RtZQ0rl3brS-iGQGdE82fka0zCbDYYWMsmM-paArMIouOM99ZyvANYX88AOBwm8gof0W-i0gWQ9LzhWx4yWGOXw4UX4VPCFfbU8qritFUOSyRpSaRUlBZc/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a>In “new-show” <i>Doctor Who</i>, travelling with the Doctor
comes at a high price. For the (male) Doctor,
the adventures in time and space go on and on; for the (mainly female)
companions they usually end in tears. Since
<i>Doctor Who</i>’s return in 2005 the
Doctor’s women have suffered a variety of unfortunate fates: Rose Tyler is
banished to an alternative Universe and builds a career at its Torchwood
institute, yet is repeatedly depicted as morose. She is eventually palmed off with an unstable
Doctor-substitute. Donna Noble is depoliticised
by the Doctor erasing her memories of their adventures in time and space, returning
to her former world of gossip and weddings. Amy Pond, along with husband Rory, is zapped
back in time to an unliberating 1930s <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region> from whence she cannot
return. Only Martha Jones controls her
own destiny. Weary of the Time Lord not
requiting her love, she dumps the Doctor, cheers up, and takes advantage of her
extraterrestrial experiences to build herself a career within UNIT. Even Martha’s exit is undercut by the one-sidedness
of her love for the Doctor, yet at least she leaves on her own terms and
visibly recovers. Martha apart, gloomy
exits have been the order of the day. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
These departures undoubtedly make
the new show “more emotional” than the old show. We need our hankies more. But this emotionality comes at a price. <i>Doctor
Who</i>’s gender politics have never been marvellous: the show’s template was
normally male dominant hero, female subordinate companion. But in the new show the departures of the
companions have been persistently unfavourable to the women characters, while
the man – the Doctor - bounces back. It’s
a rather disturbing pattern.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-ztjVq7OyZln3rCeqO8ReP8DDWQNdJFn5dgWW5reG55Ob06NARTXStCyJDt45sBT5_eDAQCUd79UUNNQOXXNZSJI4iDbrbKFvG_FgcPsihuNBttJgh_wsNE9vYAR5vT2l4rfKpfP-fA/s1600/Clara-and-Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-ztjVq7OyZln3rCeqO8ReP8DDWQNdJFn5dgWW5reG55Ob06NARTXStCyJDt45sBT5_eDAQCUd79UUNNQOXXNZSJI4iDbrbKFvG_FgcPsihuNBttJgh_wsNE9vYAR5vT2l4rfKpfP-fA/s320/Clara-and-Me.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Doctor Who</i>’s anti-women tendency seemed taken to its logical
conclusion with the killing-off of companion Clara Oswald in “Face the Raven”
(2015). Why bother giving the Doctor’s
women dismal futures when you can kill them.
Thankfully the 2015 series finale “Hell Bent” revised this departure. Plucked out of time and space by the Time
Lords as she is about to be killed, she eventually makes off in a stolen Tardis
with a woman companion, Ashildr (otherwise known as Me, Lady Me and Mayor Me). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This twist in the plot won’t
generate a spin-off, as far as I know.
However, imagining <i>The Adventures
of Clara and Ashildr </i>can provide useful insights into <i>Doctor Who</i>. There might be
several interesting differences between such a spin-off and “traditional” <i>Doctor Who</i>, some of which bear on <i>Doctor Who</i>’s politics. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
First, <i>The Adventures of Clara and Ashildr</i> would remove the dead hand of <i>Doctor Who</i>’s gender narrative – dominant
male, subordinate female. Clara and Ashildr are both women, and both have diverse
experience. Breaking the mould would
make for a more interesting tension. In this regard it is intriguing that, whilst Ashildr (an immortal) may have the wisdom of years, it is Clara who pushes the lever which sets their TARDIS off on its travels, and does so with a jolt clearly reminiscent the Doctor abducting his first two companions, Ian and Barbara, in the show's very first episode ("An Unearthly Child" (1963)). For
good measure, Clara has already claimed to be bisexual, boasting of a
relationship with Jane Austen, so there is the possibility of a romantic entanglement
between the women (as there was between two men, Captain Jack and Ianto, in the
spin-off <i>Torchwood</i>). And what if the ladies acquired a male
companion? What if that male companion
were to be “helpless damsel-in-distress type”, forever screaming at monsters? What if he tended to wander off, get into
trouble and have to be rescued by Clara and Ashildr?
It might be telling to turn <i>Doctor Who</i>’s traditions on their head. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly, Clara and Ashildr, whatever
their background, do not enjoy the Doctor’s encyclopaedic knowledge of time, space
and monsters. This is signalled in “Hell
Bent” by Ashildr having to consult the TARDIS manual. A little less knowledge might be a good thing.
<i> Doctor
Who</i>’s early years were marked by a sense of wonderment as the Doctor met
beings, including the Daleks, of whom he was wholly unaware. The show’s original producer Verity Lambert
complained that, as the years went by, the Doctor increasingly possessed “this
awful thing of knowing everything and being right about everything”. (J Tulloch
and M Alvarado, <i>Doctor Who the Unfolding
Text.</i> <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>:
St Martins Press, 1983, 130). <i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Thirdly, what would actually be
the point of Clara’s and Ashildr’s travels? Would
it be one long holiday? In <i>Doctor Who</i>’s earliest days the main
object was to return Ian and Barbara to
their own time and planet. Some say that
it was during “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (1964) that the Doctor first
articulated his mission to fight evil. But this has led to many adventures
where his choices have been questionable and his actions brutal. The show has had a patchy record in
questioning and interrogating these choices and actions: sometimes stories have
done so; sometimes the Doctor’s virtue is simply taken as read. Perhaps Clara and Ashildr, without the Doctor’s
masculine and aristocratic authority, and with each accountable to the other,
might have more sustained disagreements about the rightness or wrongness of their
deeds in time and space.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-75796652029705952862015-12-22T09:53:00.000+00:002015-12-22T10:27:19.041+00:00Ashildr, the law that prevailed<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"><b>By David Yuratich,</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"><b>School of Law,</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"><b>Royal Holloway University of London</b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrloMXxHnkEHFSqURcQFo-DGztouJG93Zj9lLRRS-njLzCzZ5flS2D-RvYl023hDWKPuG2Oq34cz42PDOYz7AMLJ-bkmGjhqZVKGOZB0Zq2upo5t_X1GwAC8SkklrNXhb6h-1XQGqvAFk/s1600/ash-women-who-died-pub-scene-570x321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrloMXxHnkEHFSqURcQFo-DGztouJG93Zj9lLRRS-njLzCzZ5flS2D-RvYl023hDWKPuG2Oq34cz42PDOYz7AMLJ-bkmGjhqZVKGOZB0Zq2upo5t_X1GwAC8SkklrNXhb6h-1XQGqvAFk/s320/ash-women-who-died-pub-scene-570x321.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">I have been struck that much of
the iconography associated with Ashildr raises, to my mind at least,
comparisons with the idea and practice of the law. This emphasises the argument I have made
previously that the Doctor's adventures can be read as not only taking place in
time and space, but also within the law; for the Twelfth Doctor at least, his
adventures are shaped by a third force.
In this post I will explain why Ashildr can be said to represent 'the
law' and make some brief and incomplete observations about this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">1. The Woman Who Lived</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">.</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">In <i>The Woman Who Lived</i>, we
are shown Ashildr's study. It is filled
with hundreds of her thick and bound diaries containing her vast life
story. This imagery is familiar to
lawyers and law students. For those who
have not had the pleasure, the law reports, in which decided cases are
published, are thick bound volumes.
Within these we find not just reports of what happened in those cases;
we find binding precedent, persuasive statements, notable and notorious
historical events, disagreement and dissent over fundamental principles,
interpretations of legislation, and the evolution of the common law. Ashildr's journals are not unlike the law
reports. Coincidentally they contain
'800 years of adventure' - the legal database Westlaw contains case reports
dating back a similar amount of time, to at least 1219 (albeit the accuracy and
quality of many early reports is generally accepted to be poor). We are told that Ashildr's diaries contain
memories too numerous for her to remember, that they tell the story of her
life, that some parts have been ripped out because they were too painful. Similarly, the development of the common law
is marked by decisions that have been half-forgotten and re-discovered, and by
law that has been developed and re-developed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYY1ScYdaDXR_HLI5gU9hyphenhyphen9Yf6juiLUJWOXaqmp7IC6U5C9sdxKIIqutZamhreNITHKrXml7heK7_EqNwA8qD8Uy_3u8VBklUGt0KOvDv5SPkbLrEyA_D0Zbt0hoIXvyWzfFY5EAdrqg/s320/p035wrl0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The wisdom of the common law:<br />
Ashildr sits in front of her diaries</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course, these observations may
well be a sign that it's been a very long term and that I should take a break
from work (some of my students would no doubt agree). The imagery is important though, because of
Ashildr’s role in Series 9. Steven Moffat
has said that her immortality was intended to provide her with a perspective on
events shaped by the whole of history.
She is a character 'who will know better than he [the Doctor] does' (see
</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuKEpl3TnHM"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> at around 50 seconds). The law is also supposed to know better than
we do - or at least, it defines the boundaries in which we are required to
act. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">2. Face The Raven, </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">face the law.</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">A criticism that is often (not
always) levelled at the law is that it undervalues the human element: law can
translate nuanced issues into black-letter doctrine. A famous example of this is the ‘twitter joke
</span><a href="http://www.criminallawandjustice.co.uk/features/Bad-Law-and-CPS-Part-I-R-v-Chambers"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">trial'</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">, where a joke made on twitter led
to a conviction, quashed on appeal, for sending a menacing message via a public
electronic communication network. Of
course, for each argument that the law has been a blunt object, there are
examples of it being drafted or interpreted widely so individual circumstances
may be properly considered; this is most evident in human rights law, where for
example Section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 requires judges to read statutes
widely, in so far as it is possible to do so without acting inconsistently with
a fundamental feature of that statute, so that individual rights may be upheld
(for more on what the European Convention on Human Rights requires see </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/danny/Documents/www.rightsinfo.org"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">www.rightsinfo.org</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ashildr highlights both sides of
the law in <i>Face The Raven</i>. She is
the mayor of a trap street that is essentially a refugee camp for aliens. She uses her position to protect her
residents from the outside world and from each other. Under her watch, they all appear human and
are treated as equals in a society governed by law. Ashildr's haven invites comparisons with the
rule of law - when understood as the idea that everyone is entitled to equality
and dignity under the law - and human rights law, particularly its role in
protecting minorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">A less positive imagination of the
law she represents is also evident in this episode. The plot revolves <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6xPDseIDO7XVZJDfZRxu6SqIj-7867wdh2NsO8bEUPvgs6S4ZQxBoEIh1kP3Z39nhoVmLL4rDkBvap5o41cwLrEc54fIPSz_JbuNYUx72EB3qLUMFZsNdEKn3Sa6-Pqy_SUCG1SruhW8/s1600/ashildr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6xPDseIDO7XVZJDfZRxu6SqIj-7867wdh2NsO8bEUPvgs6S4ZQxBoEIh1kP3Z39nhoVmLL4rDkBvap5o41cwLrEc54fIPSz_JbuNYUx72EB3qLUMFZsNdEKn3Sa6-Pqy_SUCG1SruhW8/s320/ashildr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rule of the common law:<br />
Ashildr governs the trap street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
around Rigsy, accused by
Ashildr of a murder he says he did not commit.
He has been sentenced to death and will die when a 'chronolock' tattoo
on his neck reaches zero, unless the Doctor can prove his innocence. Clara, essentially acting as Rigsy's lawyer,
spots a loophole. She decides to game things
by transferring the chronolock from Rigsy to herself, surmising that this will
remove him from harm's way without any negative consequences for her, since she
is under Ashildr's protection. Clara is
wrong. Her idea, borne of an unselfish
desire to help Rigsy and a sense of justice for the falsely accused, falls foul
of the black-letter of the law. It turns
out that the chronolock can only be passed on or removed once, and Clara is
doomed. It doesn't matter that she is
innocent, or that she acted out of good motives. Here we see how the law can (I stress not
always) reduce complex situations to a simple matter of whether your actions
fall within a narrowly-defined legal schematic.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 356.95pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">More widely than this, when
Clara's actions are compared to the Doctor's, two models of being a lawyer
become evident. Unlike Clara, the Doctor
helps Rigsy solely by trying to prove his innocence. His approach seems preferable, since it is
motivated by a pursuit of the truth rather than a linguistic game. But like Clara, the Doctor also faces
negative consequences. In finding out
what is really going on, he is trapped.
Rigsy was framed so that the Doctor would visit the trap street, try to
prove Rigsy’s innocence, and ultimately be captured by Ashildr to be sent to
the Time Lords. Like Clara, the Doctor’s
engagement with the legal process in the trap street is a negative
representation of the legal process: damned if you do and damned if you don’t,
always at the mercy of legal logic.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">3. <i>Hell Bent </i>(on bending the law).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Our final visit to Ashildr comes
in <i>Hell Bent</i>. She meets the Doctor at the end of time itself, having
outlived everything – a vision of an eternal, natural law. Throughout Series 9 she has set clear rules
within which the Doctor and Clara must act, with <i>Face The Raven </i>just one example.
<i>Hell Bent </i>shows the culmination
of this as the Doctor realises he must part from Clara, a realisation he comes
to following a dialogue with Ashildr.
She – the law – makes him realise that his travels with Clara are
dangerous, universe-threatening in fact, and must cease. Within this set of rules established by
Ashildr, the Doctor seeks the most just solution he can think of: a memory wipe
process where either his or Clara’s memories will be destroyed, without either
knowing whose. This is not unlike
Dworkin’s approach to how judges decide ‘hard cases’, using principles of
justice to seek the best solution within the law when there is no clear or easy
answer. The Doctor loses his memories
but achieves his goal: he is separated from Clara and Ashildr’s demands are
satisfied.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqsAdHlEpQxhh1Pi3wXxcALJYoZY8yePZM8Vefv9dMCuKWdUkH1hpbmaRkPGLZkIeC-ZhXg1lS802FsHAm8TOVee-hPP9TvTQn2DwSGOh_ktd0RjzU3_Rw7AE1VAoE_pAylXXQbd9wM8/s1600/vrlpxxbzcze7dojiqrbi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUqsAdHlEpQxhh1Pi3wXxcALJYoZY8yePZM8Vefv9dMCuKWdUkH1hpbmaRkPGLZkIeC-ZhXg1lS802FsHAm8TOVee-hPP9TvTQn2DwSGOh_ktd0RjzU3_Rw7AE1VAoE_pAylXXQbd9wM8/s320/vrlpxxbzcze7dojiqrbi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The justice of the common law:<br />
Ashildr and Clara embark on new adventures</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ashildr’s role does not end
here. Clara, whose memories remain, has
an opportunity to seek a solution to her own problems: the fact that she is
supposed to return to the trap street where she must ultimately die, and her
loss of the Doctor. This time she identifies
a loophole that is acceptable to Ashildr.
Clara realises that although she is ultimately destined to die in the
trap street, she can traverse the Universe forever until she chooses to return
there. Unlike in <i>Face The Raven</i>, the Doctor and Clara’s legal arguments are allowed
to succeed, albeit Clara gets the ‘best’ result, with her memories intact and
an eternity of space and time to explore.
The tables are thereby turned, with the law ultimately benefitting
Clara’s black-letter approach rather than the Doctor’s full-blooded pursuit for
the just outcome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">All of this is because of Ashildr,
who represents how the supposedly timeless social structure of the law
determines the boundaries in which we, and the Doctor, live our lives. She is neither adversary nor friend to the
Doctor: she represents a dispassionate law that governs his adventures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-33692034506542756372015-12-19T09:42:00.000+00:002015-12-21T15:14:16.451+00:00"School Reunion": Are the Krillitanes really the British in disguise?<b>By Danny Nicol,</b><br />
<b>University of Westminster</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO72T9oWACnNUaD9eVVAVc2bAgjhgHG8nckx5ccdrczLqS13GBVk3bPFUAonDsy5Y6-t4mY4c_EhnRs2vstFOJK8hyphenhyphenKIeFXcoIMO5e5PMJWLcMja_U1GQW3fWBFfiFAKWh8bdh_Cwbpuk/s1600/04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO72T9oWACnNUaD9eVVAVc2bAgjhgHG8nckx5ccdrczLqS13GBVk3bPFUAonDsy5Y6-t4mY4c_EhnRs2vstFOJK8hyphenhyphenKIeFXcoIMO5e5PMJWLcMja_U1GQW3fWBFfiFAKWh8bdh_Cwbpuk/s320/04.jpg" width="320" /></a>It seems a matter of consensus
among <i>Doctor Who</i> scholars that one of
<i>Doctor Who</i>’s authorial purposes is to
represent and to fashion British national identity. In this regard “School Reunion” (2006) is the
first <i>Doctor Who</i> story in which a
black British character, Mickey Smith, becomes a companion of the Doctor,
albeit not for long. Mickey is the
on-off boyfriend of the Doctor’s beloved (white British) companion Rose
Tyler. His promotion to the role of
companion is encouraged by the well-loved companion of yore Sarah Jane Smith,
who quips that there should always be a Smith in the Tardis. Sarah Jane thereby creates a sense of shared
identity and continuity, tempering and easing the welcome transition from the
long series of all-white companions.
Mickey’s inclusion, swiftly followed by Martha Jones’ longer period as
companion, helped to emphasise <i>Doctor Who</i>’s
commitment to racial diversity as a fundamental characteristic of Britishness.</div>
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Perhaps it is no coincidence, too,
that the Doctor’s enemies in this adventure are the Krillitanes, a composite
race. Significantly they are led by an apparently
human headteacher played by Anthony Stewart Head, an actor who represented
Britishness <i>par excellence</i> in <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>. However, the Krillitanes turn out to be
shape-shifting, horrifying bat-like creatures.
They are, we are told, an amalgam of the races they have conquered. But they take on physical aspects as well,
cherry-picking the best qualities of their colonised. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimIGsnpLXBoLqN4Qm5mRVwTENg1SyU1u70-REH9An-Mft3Anx7lHYowbj3Z76EdFML9gozLeXPnfns9o96b8sXGiZAT0Rf753zJFbPADVR_KxedBJwAcXDz6MEQ8cBuf5XqOnNoXMR1c8/s1600/school-reunion3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimIGsnpLXBoLqN4Qm5mRVwTENg1SyU1u70-REH9An-Mft3Anx7lHYowbj3Z76EdFML9gozLeXPnfns9o96b8sXGiZAT0Rf753zJFbPADVR_KxedBJwAcXDz6MEQ8cBuf5XqOnNoXMR1c8/s320/school-reunion3.jpg" width="320" /></a>Graham Sleight has argued that <i>Doctor Who</i>’s portrayal of monsters is a
kind of moral parable: the Doctor opposes not merely the monsters but the
values that they represent. (<i>The Doctor’s
Monsters</i> (<st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>:
IB Tauris, 2012), 2). But in the case of
the Krillitanes they embody a <i>favourable</i>
British trait – their mixed heritage is their source of strength. They mingled, just as the British have
mingled in terms of heredity and culture alike.
Hybridisation is a recurring theme in <i>Doctor Who</i>, not least in the 2015 series. But being a hybrid is usually depicted as a <i>good </i>thing. The value which the Doctor opposes in “School
Reunion” is that the Krillitanes have deployed their hybrid strength to conquer
rather than for living peacefully. But
are the British so different? <i>Doctor Who</i> storylines often echo the <st1:place w:st="on">British Empire</st1:place>, not always favourably (“The Mutants”
(1972), “Kinda” (1982)). More recently
the show has satirised the country’s somewhat endless interventions in the
Middle East, not least poking fun at Tony Blair’s notorious “45 minutes” claim
in “Aliens of London”/“World War Three” (2005), and the Doctor’s trenchant
criticism of bombing campaigns in “The Zygon Invasion”/“The Zygon Inversion” (2015). It is one of <i>Doctor Who</i>’s strengths that sometimes the monstrous turn out to be
ourselves. </div>
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Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398721955833872423.post-23756714231373502622015-10-06T09:41:00.001+01:002015-10-06T09:59:29.220+01:00Wilson, WOTAN and the white heat of technocracy<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Danny Nicol<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">University</b></st1:placetype><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Westminster</st1:placename></b></st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The period during which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Who</i> has been broadcast has been
characterised by a “rise of the unelected” – the growth of appointed
commissions, banks and courts which decide political policy without the worry
of having to stand for re-election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
this context politics is seen as a technocratic “fix”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has little to do with class interests:
rather, it’s all a complicated matter of detailed, technical policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With their special knowledge the <em>experts</em>
can be trusted to solve the country’s problems.</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Technocracy came to the fore
modestly in the early days of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Who</i>
when Harold Wilson’s Labour government eschewed socialism in
favour of managing “the white heat of technology” through a National Economic Development Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since then, unelected bodies have been doing
a roaring trade: the European Commission, the Monetary Policy Committee of the
Bank of England, the Office of Budget Responsibility, the little-known panels
of the World Trade Organisation, the Eurozone troika with its preference for
technocratic national governments…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
some, technocracy is a matter of pride, with Tony Blair in 1997 promising a “government without ideology”.</span></div>
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</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmXrn7c6fAP9npBKFwEikiMBnTkoKVg18L3L6Hjkw5cLKS9MykpMaJtH1VxLdLvcTqDoStCpBt_GtUi_noKsGMR4mrZq0gQW06QYdqqQG6n_kasn7Dq3Mn5PtGg-ax35DhSxf69xKwvQ/s1600/wotan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmXrn7c6fAP9npBKFwEikiMBnTkoKVg18L3L6Hjkw5cLKS9MykpMaJtH1VxLdLvcTqDoStCpBt_GtUi_noKsGMR4mrZq0gQW06QYdqqQG6n_kasn7Dq3Mn5PtGg-ax35DhSxf69xKwvQ/s320/wotan.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Doctor (William Hartnell) encounters WOTAN</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rise of the unelected is
presaged by two early <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Who</i>
adventures which imagine computers running the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In “The War Machines” (1966) the government
builds a powerful computer called WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue) in
what is now the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">British</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Telecom</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A senior civil servant Sir Charles Summer
asserts that “no one operates WOTAN…the computer is merely a brain which thinks
logically <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without any political ends</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is pure thought…it is our servant.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, WOTAN hypnotises the staff
operating it, and goes about trying to eliminate humans from the planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The Ice Warriors” (1967)
introduces a species of Martians whom we meet several times in subsequent
adventures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the beauty of the story is
that the monsters are not the real enemy: the world is run by a Great World
Computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The humans in the story are
led by Leader Clent who says “you know how efficient our civilisation is,
thanks to the direction of the Great World Computer.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet we’re told that the Computer’s guidance
has reduced the number of plants on the planet so that land can be used for
house-building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No plants, no carbon
dioxide, no spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new Ice Age has
established itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clent’s robotic
deference towards the Computer is startling in its disconnect and denial: the
World Computer has destroyed the Earth’s climate, yet is praised as the font of
an efficient civilisation!</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJmJuyfJOx6eqeLsaolLAv2xNuu0TAsn2NBQS0-FB8ETxlYMwlpNajr3szHm7lOY13K_fPcJIP4dkIIlCG4HwxJB40if4AB8TFMnBe089KkCMkFOmy9VqhZMFRZId2v3ykU9mLvELF90/s1600/ice7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJmJuyfJOx6eqeLsaolLAv2xNuu0TAsn2NBQS0-FB8ETxlYMwlpNajr3szHm7lOY13K_fPcJIP4dkIIlCG4HwxJB40if4AB8TFMnBe089KkCMkFOmy9VqhZMFRZId2v3ykU9mLvELF90/s320/ice7.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Leader Clent and his assistant Miss Garrett</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> defer to the Great Computer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’re told that the Computer’s
principle is that all decisions, all actions must be impartial and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must conform to the common good</i> – again,
familiar technocratic rhetoric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Opponents of the Computer’s rule are regarded as “scavengers” and are
deported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One critical voice is the
rebel scientist Penley, who argues that the Computer isn’t designed to take
risks, but that risk-taking is the basis of man’s progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The humans eventually come to realise that
the World Computer’s top priority it is own survival.</span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In today’s world technocracy is
alive and well, as shown by the likelihood that the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership) will enable corporations to challenge the policies
of democratically-elected governments in secret courts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor
Who</i> deserves credit for using the computer metaphor to challenge uncritical claims
that technocracy is an impartial form of governance dedicated to the common
good.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
Danny Nicolhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15904022182805068279noreply@blogger.com0