First published in 2006, James Chapman’s book has recently been updated.
Drawing heavily on the BBC’s written archives, it is able to provide a deeper insight than most while looking at the Doctor Who’s development along with its wider cultural evolution and impact.
Beginning in the early 1960s, Chapman reveals the research which laid the groundwork for the show. Early paperwork reveals an active hostility inside the corporation about the level of work required to mount the show.
Once on air, he considers the tone of stories from the serious like ‘The Massacre’ to the flippant such as ‘The Romans’. With ambitious sci-fi in the mix too, the show’s reception is chronicled through both viewing public and press.
Chapman looks at the inspirations drawn from fact and fiction, and the differing styles employed to bring them to the screen. He evaluates the show’s political rumblings too, most evident with social and environmental themes found under producer Barry Letts, where parallels were drawn to issues like the Miners’ strikes and the Common Market.
Doctor Who has perennially suffered accusations of being too violent and the book notes the history of the charge, from early press debates to the tussles with Mary Whitehouse. While the accusations are familiar, “Strangulation – by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter…” being a favourite of ours, it is refreshing to see producer Phillip Hinchcliffe’s stout responses and reminders of parental responsibility.
At the start of the 1980s, Chapman praises incoming producer John Nathan-Turner as “conceptually ambitious” providing a season with less humour and a more sombre Tom Baker. Post regeneration, he suggests the show is coded as typically English; returning to core values with a professional female companion, adventures in period Earth and, most importantly, the Doctor as a fallible hero.
Later, its popular decline is attributed to the increasing use of self reference. In its final years, both format and timeslot changes helped contribute to cancellation, and although there is praise for the final few seasons renewed confidence, it is suggested that the show had wider enemies within the BBC structure.
In 2005, the show returned at the heart of a multi-media machine. As well as the main show, Chapman chronicles the spin-offs, particularly Torchwood’s meteoric journey from BBC Three cult to mainstream BBC One drama and international co-production.
He queries the motives for the split series in Matt Smith’s tenure and looks at the burgeoning American dimension to the show – a ripe market for merchandise sales.
While some of his analysis is undeniable, we were not utterly convinced that ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ reminiscent of Escape from New York?
The book concludes with a comprehensive set of appendices, embedded with a wealth of information. Due to its publication date, the book does not catch the welcome return of nine missing Troughton episodes in October 2013.
The pre-1980 chapters are the most revealing with their access to the BBC written archives and the book suffers when that information is not available, drawing on more familiar sources to tell its tale.
Despite the occasional bewildering aside, like the assertion that Richard Hurndall provided an “…uncannily accurate impersonation of the late William Hartnell” in ‘The Five Doctors’, this is a thorough volume, in-depth yet remaining accessible to the non-academic reader or enthusiast too.
Out now from by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd.