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Design for Doctor Who: Vision and Revision in Science Fiction Television
The long-running popular TV series Doctor Who is, Piers Britton argues, a 'uniquely design intensive text': its time-and-space-travel premise requires that designers be tirelessly imaginative in devising new worlds and entities and recreating past civilizations. While Doctor Who 's attempts at worldbuilding are notorious for being hit-and-miss – old jokes about wobbly walls and sink plungers die hard – the distinctiveness of the series' design imagery is beyond question. And over the course of six decades Doctor Who has produced designs which are not only iconic but, in being repeatedly revisited and updated, have proven to be an ever-more important element in the series' identity and mythos.
In the first in-depth study of Doctor Who 's costumes, sets and graphics, Piers Britton offers an historical overview of both the original and the revived series, explores theoretical frameworks for evaluating Doctor Who design, and provides detailed analysis of key images. Case studies include the visual morphology of Doctor Who 's historical adventures, the evaluative character of cosplay, and the ongoing significance for the Doctor Who brand of such high-profile designs as the Daleks and the TARDIS interior, the 'time-tunnel' title sequence, and the costumes of the Fourth and Thirteenth Doctors.
In the first in-depth study of Doctor Who 's costumes, sets and graphics, Piers Britton offers an historical overview of both the original and the revived series, explores theoretical frameworks for evaluating Doctor Who design, and provides detailed analysis of key images. Case studies include the visual morphology of Doctor Who 's historical adventures, the evaluative character of cosplay, and the ongoing significance for the Doctor Who brand of such high-profile designs as the Daleks and the TARDIS interior, the 'time-tunnel' title sequence, and the costumes of the Fourth and Thirteenth Doctors.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 2021
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January 22, 2024
Interesting take on Doctor Who but a little short so all it can do is give brief summaries of the topics it covers.
There is however one area where he displays little actual knowledge of the subject, this is in the area of the culture at the time of the revival, like many academics he compares it to what was popular in America rather than the UK genre shows which were practically non existent and where they did exist were required to explain anything supernatural or alieney in terms of a hoax or a natural explanation, and shows like Buffy and Farscape were considered only as for children, this is vital context for any discussion of new who, the early design decisions were taken without any guarantee of anything other than a few episodes, it was not as many academic commentators claim part of the zeitgeist rather it created the zeitgeist.
Another problem is that it assumes the same factors were present when designing for both eras, the Cyberman designs would have been designed around what was both available and possible at the time, new who requires a design that can be easily replicated by CGI for example something London Era would not have considered, similarly using CGI to show Cybermen being created is the modern option while previously, Attack of the Cybermen for example, costumes were used to show the in-between stage.
There is however one area where he displays little actual knowledge of the subject, this is in the area of the culture at the time of the revival, like many academics he compares it to what was popular in America rather than the UK genre shows which were practically non existent and where they did exist were required to explain anything supernatural or alieney in terms of a hoax or a natural explanation, and shows like Buffy and Farscape were considered only as for children, this is vital context for any discussion of new who, the early design decisions were taken without any guarantee of anything other than a few episodes, it was not as many academic commentators claim part of the zeitgeist rather it created the zeitgeist.
Another problem is that it assumes the same factors were present when designing for both eras, the Cyberman designs would have been designed around what was both available and possible at the time, new who requires a design that can be easily replicated by CGI for example something London Era would not have considered, similarly using CGI to show Cybermen being created is the modern option while previously, Attack of the Cybermen for example, costumes were used to show the in-between stage.
Displaying 1 of 1 review