The Doctor Who Franchise: American Influence, Fan Culture and the Spinoffs

201 Pages·2012·0.84 MB·English

by  Lynnette Porter

The Doctor Who Franchise
ALSO BY LYNNETTE PORTER

Tarnished Heroes, Charming Villains and
Modern Monsters: Science Fiction in Shades of Gray
on 21st Century Television (McFarland, 2010)

EDITED BY LYNNETTE PORTER

Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century:
Essays on New Adaptations (McFarland, 2012)
The Doctor Who Franchise

American Influence, Fan Culture
and the Spinoffs

LYNNETTE PORTER

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ISBN 978-0-7864-6556-9
softcover : acid free paper

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

© 2012 Lynnette Porter. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

On the cover: Promotional artwork for the sixth series of Doctor Who, 2010–2011.
From left: Karen Gillan, Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill (BBC/Photofest).

Manufactured in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction vi
1
1. The Culture of Doctor Who
2. Doing Business with the U.S.
3. The “Americanization” of British Television
4. Intertextuality and the Doctor
5. Intertextuality, Captain Jack, and the Future of Torchwood
6. “You Don’t Kill Sarah Jane!”
7. Tweet Success: Social Media and Television Marketing
8. Friday Is Fez Day: The Popularity of Conventions
9. The Cosmos Is Their Oyster 9
37
59
78
89
119
132
148
164
Bibliography
Index 179
189

v
Acknowledgments

I thank the many people who talked with me about
Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures as I
researched and wrote this book. Special thanks to Torchwood
actor Kai Owen; Gillian Hanhart, Westminster Reference
Library, London; Lewis Swan and Helen Thomas, Brit
Movie Tours; Jarrod Cooper, Hurricane Who; and Jennifer
Adams Kelly, Chicago TARDIS, for lengthy interviews. I
appreciate your time and enthusiasm. Thanks, too, to the
kind and generous volunteers, staff, and fans at Gallifrey
One, San Diego Comic- Con, Wizard World, Chicago
TARDIS, and Hurricane Who, who made my fan experience
most memorable.
I must recognize and thank yet again my research assistant, Kirsten Peterson, who helped me keep tabs on media
reports about the Doctor Who franchise and read many drafts
of these chapters. Thank you, Kirsten, for all your help.
A Doctor’s adventures through time and space would
not be worthwhile without companions, and I am blessed
with the best: Bart, Nancy, Heather, and Elvis. As always,
I dedicate this book to you.

vi
Introduction

During my sabbatical in Christchurch, New Zealand, in early 2007, I
presented a seminar about “apocalyptic television” and series currently in
vogue in the U.S. One series in which the protagonist was dealing with the
aftermath of a genocidal war was the newly re-launched Doctor Who featuring
the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston). At that time he was introduced
as the lone Time Lord surviving a war-to-end-all-wars with the Daleks, and
I commented on U.S. fans’ preoccupation with homeland security in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. (I also discussed other thenpopular series such as 24 and Jericho, which were perceived as “purely
American” series.)
During the Q&A session following my presentation, an indignant student questioned my use of Doctor Who in a discussion of science fiction (SF)
series popular in the U.S. “How can you co-opt Doctor Who?” he asked.
“That’s a British series, and Americans just don’t get it.” Several students
agreed and, indeed, seemed discontented with an American interpretation of
the venerable SF series. Commonwealth countries, including New Zealand,
apparently can rightly lay claim to the Doctor, but, according to these fans,
he will always be a visitor in the U.S., not part of mainstream culture. Fundamental cultural differences, not only regarding the Doctor but the perceived
“national personality,” differentiate Americans and Brits.
In light of the introduction of “American” Captain Jack Harkness in the
2005 episodes “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances,” perhaps these
students have a valid point. Although the former Time Agent/present con
man currently going by the name of an American officer really is not from
the U.S., the “American” personality traits given in these episodes to Captain
Jack provide a clear contrast between him and the Doctor. Jack is brash,
loud, swaggering, and supremely confident — at least until the Doctor points
out the lack of humanity in his self-interest. ( Jack’s con inadvertently releases
a type of plague on humanity, beginning with an innocent boy in wartime

1
2 Introduction

London.) The Doctor’s pro-Britain speeches exalting the resilience and dedication of ordinary British citizens during World War II also separates him
from Jack, who seems to have little understanding of the world in which he
lives beyond its immediate impact on himself. To confuse matters further,
both the Doctor and Jack are competing for Rose Tyler’s attention, although
the Doctor correctly surmises that Jack is also interested in the him. In these
and other ways, Jack’s personality and his lacking sense of history make him
seem different from Rose and the Doctor.
Even years later (in TV time), when Jack becomes the leader of Torchwood (and lead in Torchwood), the Cardiff-based series illustrates Jack’s differences from the rest of the local population. His outfit is vintage middle
America with remnants of his service in World War II. His generalized American accent also marks him as “other.” Despite Jack’s living in the U.K. for
hundreds of years, he still looks, sounds, and acts “American.”
Jack will always be an outsider, despite his long friendship with the Doctor and his association with Torchwood. His experience, framed in this
description, is similar to the way U.S. fans are perceived by many Commonwealth fans and critics. Doctor Who is very much a part of British, not American, television history and, more recently, mainstream popular culture. Welsh
Torchwood asserts that it is not English, but neither is it American. The Doctor
Who franchise’s roots are firmly planted in the U.K. But what does that mean
to American fans?
In this book I apply an “American” concept of the franchise when I refer
to the post–2005 Doctor Who and its most recent spinoffs, Torchwood and
The Sarah Jane Adventures. The BBC’s marketing strategy increasingly includes
the U.S. through BBC Worldwide production (e.g., Dancing with the Stars,
So You Think You Can Dance, X Factor) and BBC America’s programming
(e.g., SF series including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Being Human, Bedlam,
and The Fades, as well as non-SF series like Top Gear). In the past few years,
the Who franchise has begun a concerted effort to attract greater attention in
America. As the U.S. market for Doctor Who grows and becomes more vocal,
additional programming and special events will take place in the U.S., just as
they have during a pivotal time in Who history.

Coming to America

Much of Torchwood’s development of the 2011 fourth season, Miracle
Day, and the future direction of Doctor Who changed when showrunner Russell
T Davies decided to live in the U.S. In 2009 the duo behind the re-imagined
Doctor Who, Davies and Julie Gardner, relocated to Los Angeles. The balance
Introduction 3

of power for the BBC’s most lucrative franchise shifted from Davies to Doctor
Who’s next showrunner, Steven Moffat. As Moffat steered Doctor Who into
innovative if controversial SF territory in the U.K., the Doctor developed a
greater presence in the U.S., in part because of BBC Worldwide’s and BBC
America’s marketing strategies.
At a gathering of Who fans in Orlando, Florida, in early December 2010,
BBC Worldwide’s Andrew Beach, the man responsible for gathering and identifying artifacts for the about-to-be-launched Doctor Who Experience, noted
that the BBC long has wanted a U.S.-based drama, and Torchwood seemed
poised to make that dream come true (Porter, “Doctor Who”). More recently,
the BBC has collaborated with other U.S. cable networks (e.g., in 2011-12,
with HBO, as well as Flemish VRT, to produce Parade’s End, a product practically guaranteeing that the star of the BBC’s Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch,
would become more widely known in the U.S.). Nevertheless, the BBC-Starz
arrangement to develop Torchwood as a jointly produced, jointly re-launched
television series was a groundbreaking collaboration that blended U.S. cable
television sensibilities and money with the BBC’s characters and built-in audience.
From LA, Davies and Gardner began pitching ideas for TV dramas to
U.S. networks. With the surprising success of Torchwood: Children of Earth
in July 2009, Davies’ focus turned to a fourth season of the newly acclaimed
show that was generating a lot of new fans’ and TV critics’ attention internationally. When Fox rejected a Torchwood TV pilot story in 2010, the series
began looking for another backer — amid fan consternation at the direction
the series might take if it became a U.S. instead of U.K. production. Eventually
the BBC partnered with U.S. cable network Starz to produce Torchwood: The
New World. By January 2011 it had been renamed Miracle Day, an international
production that nonetheless seemed heavily influenced by American tastes
and production methods.
Throughout late 2010 and into early January 2011 shooting, Torchwood
casting news and interviews from returning stars John Barrowman (Captain
Jack Harkness) and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) kept online entertainment and
SF sites busy, and Barrowman’s comment that another seven years of Torchwood were being planned got a lot of attention from fans eager to see more
(Bendoris). As filming began in Los Angeles but quickly returned to South
Wales, fans on both sides of the Atlantic gleefully posted online their candid
photos and star sightings.
Davies told the press that he was proud to show off the Gower coast to
a new global audience (“New Torchwood Series”), but he also noted that
about ninety percent of Miracle Day’s filming locations were in the U.S. When
Davies glibly commented that he might leave the series because he is growing