Doctor Who -- New dawn : essays on the Jodie Whittaker era

This book explores a new cultural moment in the history of the BBC TV series, Doctor Who: the casting of a female lead. Following the reveal that Jodie Whittaker would be the thirteenth Doctor, the series has been caught up in media and fan controversies – has it become ‘too political’? Has showrunner Chris Chibnall tampered disastrously with long-running continuity? And has the regendered thirteenth Doctor been represented differently from her predecessors? Analysing Whittaker’s era – up to and including Doctor Who’s responses to 2020’s first lockdown – this edited collection addresses how the show has been repositioned as a self-consciously inclusive brand. Featuring brand-new interview material with those working on-screen (series regular Mandip Gill and guest star Julie Hesmondhalgh) and those operating behind the scenes in crucial roles (Segun Akinola, composer of the current theme and incidental music), Doctor Who – New Dawn focuses on how the thirteenth Doctor’s era of spectacular TV has been created, and how it has diversified representations of queerness, race, and family. Moving beyond the television show itself, chapters also address fan responses to the thirteenth Doctor via memes, cosplay, and non-Anglophone translation. Finally, this collection looks at how the new ‘moment’ of Doctor Who has moved into gendered realms of merchandising, the commercial ‘experience economy’, and a paratextual neo-gift economy of Covid-19 lockdown reactions that were created by previous showrunners alongside Chris Chibnall. A vigorous new dawn for Doctor Who calls for rigorous new analysis – and the thirteen chapters gathered together here all respond adventurously to the call. Front Matter Dedications Contents List of figures Notes on contributors Introduction: New Dawn, new moment Part I Creating Thirteen Variations on a theme: temporal and cultural diversity in Segun Akinola’s music for Doctor Who ‘She is wise and unafraid’: writing the first female Doctor and a diverse universe for her to protect Shooting stars: modes of TV spectacle in the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who About time: addressing intersectionality in the casting and performance of Chris Chibnall / Jodie Whittaker era Doctor Who Part II Diversifying Doctor Who Casual queerness and desire lines in Doctor Who Post-racial amnesia: Doctor Who in the Brexit era All in the ‘fam’: interrogating kinship networks with the thirteenth Doctor Part III Fan responses Doctor Whumour: Internet meme culture, Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who, and fan mockery Braces, culottes, and coloured stripes: constructing and characterizing Doctor Who’s Thirteen in fashion design and cosplay Regendering and the chaos of translation: fan practices and reception of the female Doctor in Spanish fandom Part IV Beyond the text By any other name: gender and Doctor Who Barbie dolls, adventure dolls, and 1:6 scale figures Outside the box in the Chris Chibnall / Jodie Whittaker era: Doctor Who’s experience economy and tourism The thirteenth Doctor during UK lockdown: paratexts of hope and care Appendix: The Chris Chibnall / Jodie Whittaker episodes Index Analysing Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who as a regendered, inclusive brand, this book features original interviews with cast/crew. It offers in-depth analysis of recent episodes and examines fans’ reactions to the era, exploring how the experience economy displaced Who ’s public-service potential until lockdown restored it.