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 * __Introduction__**

We are going to be looking at Doctor Who and how it relates to Trisha Dunleavy’s theories on ‘Television Drama: Forms and Contexts’ and ‘Dominant Narrative Forms: The Series and the Serial’. First, a bit of background into Doctor Who. It began in 1963 and ran until 1989 originally. The BBC then resurrected it with Russell T Davies in 2005. Doctor Who has been seen as both a serial and more recently a series. It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful and longest running sci-fi drama series.


 * __Scarcity and the Beginnings of Drama__**

When Doctor Who first aired on BBC One in 1963 there were only two channels: BBC One and ITV. BBC Two didn’t launch until 1964 and Channel Four and Five followed much later. Dunleavy describes this period as a time of ‘scarcity’. There were few channels, few networks and few programmes. Drama programming started to appear in the 1930s with the showing of teleplays. Through the age of ‘scarcity’ TV dramas changed from live to filmed. Indeed, contrary to myths early episodes of Doctor Who were never live. Scarcity in TV also saw the emergence of ‘long form’ programming ‘ rather than ‘one off’ programming. Doctor Who can be seen as ‘long form’ programming. Chris Anderson states: “Television drama began as fiction for the age of the mass marketing, produced on a grand scale to a few standard formulas, delivered as efficiently to a mass audience scattered across the continent as to a single viewer seated before the television set...It was this context that the fictional world of television drama became the domain of lawyers, cops, and doctors. (2005:65). However, as the BBC does not rely on advertising revenue this is not necessarily the case for Doctor Who. Emphasis at the BBC and that time in Britain was placed more on ‘public service broadcasting’. Regulation of TV was another factor of scarcity. The BBC was established in 1936 but its rival ITV wasn’t allowed to launch until 1955. The control BBC had over television in Britain was clear as ITV was only allowed to operate as a ‘system of regional franchisers’. ITV had strict ‘public service’ objectives to stick to and faced removal of their broadcasting license. Due to this scarcity of channels TV dramas received high viewing figures, as there was such limited choice. Viewers unlike now were unable to choose when to watch their programmes. For example nowadays we have VCRS, DVD Recorders and Sky Plus. However, the audience figures for Doctor Who go against this. The highest figure for the new Doctor Who was 13.3 million whereas the original Doctor Who series received a highest figure of 16 million. This figure was only due however to the ITV Network strike of 1979. This may be because Doctor Who was not like other dramas. It suffered badly in later years when placed against Coronation Street in the 1980s. This had been one of the dramas produced by ITV to adhere to regulatory rules set out by the ITA (Independent Television Authority). So, even though BBC had the monopoly over ITV Doctor Who still couldn’t surpass other types of drama. Viewers probably felt that they could relate more to soaps such as Coronation Street rather than a Doctor travelling time and space.

__**Commercialism and Public Service**__

By the latter phrase of scarcity when nearly every home had a Television, TV drama programs in the 1960s- 1980s were playing to unusually larger audiences. During the 1950s the most popular form of TV drama was the single plays and anthology series but as the decades progressed, the episodic series (cop shows, sitcoms, action/adventure shows) developed: which Doctor is. Series demonstrated greater cost- effectiveness than one-offs but also an ability to deliver audiences to advertisers more reliably and predictably than anthology drama. The first British advert was in 1955“Coincidentally”, the BBC chose the same evening to kill off Grace Archer in its long-running radio soap, //The// //Archers//, thus stealing the next day's newspaper headlines. Example of early TV advertising: []. TV drama was then fixated on the size of audiences and just aimed to maximise its audience size- which led to network executives searching for potential through just the pitch and being able to spot out “failures”. Robert Thompson used the term (LOP) “Least Objectionable programming” to describe the prevailing network perception that people switched through channels and settled not on what they liked but on what they least disliked”. Public service and commercial institutional objectives have presented different opportunities for the development of drama as a meta-genre and has offered TV drama some very significant opportunities for creative innovation.


 * __Series and Serial__**

Serial the story and discourse do not come up a conclusion during an episode, and the threads are picked up again after a give break -Unfolds in sequence; usually linear fashion with each episode often ending in some sort of cliffhanger. - Either be open ( potentially never ending) e.g. Lost or “ closed” ( resolving within a limited number of episodes) e.g. 24 - Can also be more complex than series in narrative structure forms. e.g. Brideshead Revisited, the jewel in the crown. Series refers to those shows whose characters and settings are recycled, but the story concludes in each individual episode. -Sub categories: crime, medical, science fiction, western, action, comedy. - More of audience loyalty. -Tend to tell stories that are introduced, developed and resolved in the space of an hour. - They have core characters. Guest characters and the problems they bring. Core characters in Doctor Who: “The Doctor” and his companion, and sometimes her family. Re-appearing guests such as the Daleks, the Face of Bo and The Master. Guests also appear each week from different planets and times usually trying to take over the world or needing to be saved. Not always this straight forward however to place a programme in series or serial: []. The two episodes have different titles but have a developing story about the Doctor being human. So these episodes can be seen as a serial within a series. There’s a cliffhanger to make people come back to find out what happens. Unlike a normal series you need to tune in to know what’s happening as it’s a two part episode.

__**Popular, Serious and Quality Drama**__

Popular television can be seen as Trisha Dunleavy states, “highly accessible entertaining programming which is expected to be commercially successful and has been designed for broad, rather than specialist audience appeal”. (2009: 28). The format of ‘popular drama’ is commonly associated with dramas such as soaps, sitcoms and episodic series. So, this makes sense to place Doctor Who in the realm of popular television. Indeed, it is placed on a mainstream channel and was broadcast firstly in age where programmes were just for the mass audience. The series also won the National Television Award for ‘Most Popular Drama’ in the four years since it’s been back on TV. Doctor Who is a flagship programme; with the aim of building and keeping audiences as a popular TV drama should. Popular drama is conventionally seen as an ‘economic product’. Broadcasters don’t want to stray off the conventional path. Writers have to reinvent popular forms which are already a success but not too much so that the audience doesn’t reject the series. This is relevant as the writers and producers for the new Doctor Who series had to reinvent an already iconic programme with the fear that Doctor Who could lose its broad/cult appeal if they strayed too much. So, serious and popular in drama are seen as binary opposites. The serious drama is more creative whereas the popular is more of a product built for mass consumption. Serious drama as Caughie states is: ‘a belief system which pays tribute to creative freedom’ as a result of which its creators feel entitled to ‘push the boat out’ ‘and take audiences where they have never been before’. (Dunleavy, T., 2009: 30). Doctor Who has been praised for its originality and creativity which is something uncommon in popular dramas. Steve Moffat (a producer for the series) said: “The other day I had to BEG a meeting with [BBC1 controller] Jay Hunt, just so I could explain what we're spending all her money on in Doctor Who. She said it all sounded very nice and sent me off to play. That's more than creative freedom, that's being turned loose in the wild”. So, I think Doctor Who is a serious drama as well. Or indeed a hybrid of serious/popular drama. Serious drama is beginning to have new meanings or unclear definitions. If you can classify Buffy the Vampire Slayer as having serious drama tendencies as Dunleavy does, then why can’t you classify Doctor Who as serious drama? Quality television can be described as having ‘high production values‘ and appealing to a well off audience. Doctor Who fulfils the first definition but can’t be said to appeal to a higher class audience. Quality drama also mixes together popular and serious drama which Doctor Who does. But it does not have the realism that quality drama has and does not challenge language, sex, and violence due to its mass family appeal and timeslot placing. Quality drama was also represented by being more complex and innovative in its narrative than ‘procedural’ drama series.


 * __What makes Doctor Who a Series or a Serial?__**

First aired in 1963 as a 25 minute long serial. On a Saturday evening in the child friendly tea time zone. They were always grouped into “mini-serials” and most ranged from four to seven episodes, its first being “An Unearthly Child”. Since its comeback in 2005 there have been many changes to compensate the more competitive television era. It’s now a 45 minute-long series that aims at a more general audience, and tries to pick up the teenage audience with the change of the central character going from a frail old man to a young handsome man. It has a much higher budget so are able to have more computer generated imagery and use far more locations. Doctor Who has subsequently lasted so long and done so well due to the “regeneration” factor. Doctor Who is now on its tenth Doctor (soon to be 11th) and has boosted its popularity with the central character.

__**Authorship**__

An author can be seen as ‘an individual solely responsible–and thus exclusively deserving of credit-for the production of a unique original work’. (Dunleavy, T., 2009: 34). Unlike in film authors in TV Drama are the producers and writers instead of the directors. Russell T Davies can be seen as the author of the new Doctor Who. Like the British way of thinking he deserves credit as the writer. However, America sees the author as a producer which Russell also is. ‘Authorship’ in TV drama, it is suggested, is as much about individual talent as it is the consequence of a fruitful collaboration between two or more equally talented individuals.” (Dunleavy, T., 2009: 36). Authorship also relates Doctor Who to the realm of serious drama.

__**References:**__

Dunleavy, T. 2009. //Television Drama: Form, Agency, Innovation.// New York: Palgrave Macmillan

YouTube, 2009. //Doctor Who Human Nature Part 6.// [Online]. Available at: __http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Y0HUt3244__ [Accessed 4 December 2009]. = =

YouTube, 2008. //1950's & 60's TV Commercials Pt.1 of 3.// [Online]. Available at: __http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFbCGT_AWBI&feature=related.__ [Accessed 2 December 2009]. The Slug. //Doctor Who Poll Scores-Viewing Figures.// [Online]. Available at: __http://www.slug-web.co.uk/doctorwho/viewingfigures.asp__ [Accessed 30 November 2009]. IMDB. //Doctor Who (2005)-Awards.// [Online]. Available at: __http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436992/awards__ [Accessed 30 November 2009].

The Doctor Who News Page, 2009. //Moffat On Creative Freedom.// [Online]. Available at: __http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/07/moffat-on-creative-freedom.html__ [Accessed 30 November 2009].

National Media Museum. //A Short History of British Television Advertising.// [Online PDF]. Available at: __http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/pdfs/TVads.pdf__ [Accessed 1 December 2009].

Condemned to Rock and Roll, 2009. //Archive for April, 2009.// [Online]. Available at: __http://condemnedtorocknroll.wordpress.com/2009/04/__ [Accessed 1 December 2009].

Forbidden Planet International, 2008. //Russell T Davies, OBE.// [Online]. Available at: __http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2008/russell-t-davies-obe/__ [Accessed 1 December 2009].

Wikipedia. //Doctor Who.// [Online]. Available at: __http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who#The_Doctor__ [Accessed 2 December 2009].