From its first airing in the immediate wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Doctor Who has been a fascinating portal through which viewers observe changing times and standards. For over sixty years it has told the story of not just the central protagonist, the Doctor, but also of humanity. To understand the Doctor is to understand ourselves through the eyes of a stranger.
In Doctor Who: A Cultural History, Graham Gibson highlights the incredible impact of the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who on television by guiding readers through the show’s history and evolution to remain a fixture of popular culture for over six decades. Investigating a range of topics from religion and politics to gender and technology and even the very nature of good and evil, Gibson demonstrates how the show reflects our society, sometimes showing a powerful prescience, sometimes not. Beginning with the first Doctor through to the fifteenth, this book covers everything from fan-favorite Doctors played by David Tennant and Matt Smith to the introduction of the first female and Black Doctors, respectively, as well as iconic lore such as the Tardis’s origins, the Doctor’s essential companions, and key foes from the Daleks to the Master.
Doctor Who: A Cultural History will be published on May 6, 2025. Rowman and Littlefield provided an early galley for review.
Like Gibson, I was born after the show launched in 1963. I've been a Doctor Who fan since watching weekly runs on PBS in the earlate 70's though I fell off after college on the back end of the 80's. My apartment-mates (my weekly D&D and comic book buying crew) were big fans too. I got back the show thanks to Netflix in 2012, basically catching up on on the shows since the relaunch in 2005. Now, I never miss a new drop while still watching the occasional classics over on YouTube. Suffice to say, I am very much in the target audience for this new book.
I enjoyed learning the early history of the program, how the original concepts evolved and what went into bring those first serials to air. There was also a good bit of character profiles of the many incarnations of the Doctor, his various companions, and his assorted enemies. While those heavily into the fandom might find this information excessive and unrequired, I was happy to have some refreshers.
The final third focuses really on the cultural impacts of the show. Gibson takes a very even stance in presenting all of this. The only point where this study let me down was where it cuts off, only tracking up to the Christmas Special of 2023 and not being able to include a more thorough look at the first season of the 15th Doctor (which ran through the late Spring of 2024). Given this as a 2025 release, I think it could have and should have been included.
No comments:
Post a Comment