After nine years of suspension, BBC re-launched Doctor Who in 2005 (the so-called new Doctor Who, henceforth the series before are called classical Doctor Who) so as to embark on the competitive global “telefantasy” (Cornea 116). Matt Hills observes that “…‘makeover modalities’ [such as the new Doctor Who extend] to [revamps of TV franchises] themselves as well as…‘[bodies, clothes, rooms]’ (Weber, 2009: 27-8)” (321). The paradigms of “bodies, clothes, rooms” in Doctor Who series could be the Doctors’ costumes, Tardis console rooms and sonic screwdrivers.
Change is one of Doctor Who’s eternal themes. Indeed, what excite me as a fan are in part its indefinite possibilities of change. In Piers D. Britton’s words, “…there is no baseline, no ‘ground zero’.” (159). I do not agree in its entirety Britton’s argument. Instead, Hills proposes a better way to understand change in Doctor Who: there is a “narrative palimpsest” (320) of Doctor Who that sustains the Doctor Who cultural features, the narrative arc of classical Doctor Who and its Britishness, and at the same time allows an indefinite possibilities of accretion (not arbitrary change) beyond itself. I argue that this narrative palimpsest and accretion constitute the franchise’s strategic rebranding. To elaborate on such way of understanding change in Doctor Who, this essay specialises in analysing how Doctor Who is rebranded through the redesigns of the Doctors’ costumes, Tardis console rooms and sonic screwdrivers.
The Doctor’s costumes are good cases in point: fashion history blogger Katy Werlin analyses the tenth Doctor’s costume:
The formality of a pinstriped suit gives authority to the character, and reflects a sense of Britishness. But the unusual colour combination of those pinstriped suits also subverts authority and brings a strong sense of mischievousness to the character. This is emphasised by his informal Converse sneakers, whimsically patterned ties, and swishy, swashbuckling coat.
In this analysis, I extract three key features, “formality”, “Britishness” and “mischievousness”. These features could be found among all the new Doctors since they could be a part of the narrative palimpsest.
The formality is presented with the Doctor wearing suits (or at least parts of a suit) (Classical Doctors also without exception wear suits). Also, suits are associated with stereotypical Englishmen. Together with Wales’s accents and British humours, the Doctor is not merely presented (also branded) as a cliché alien (such as the “green little men” in X-files or the “popped eyes” in E.T.) but a unique kind of British alien. However, the costume representations of mischievousness also subverts the stereotype, and adds a bit exclusive idiosyncrasy of the Doctor, such as the tenth Doctor’s Converse shoes and the eleventh Doctor’s bow tie and fez.
Thus seen, the narrative palimpsest is unchallengeable. However, its representations are flexible at the whims of the current production team. In other words, in order to sustain the franchise, Doctor Who could be rebranded through different “accreted” representations of the narrative palimpsest, but not deviated away from it.
In the classical Doctor Who, the Tardis is more or less constrained in the design: a bright white-lit room with its white beehive-like walls and a white console panel in the centre surrounding by a pumping bar. The visuals of classical Tardis centres on practicality (rather than flamboyance) and are influenced by typical “sciency-fantasy” spaceships (Just image the console room of Entrepreneur in Star Trek and Millennium Falcon in Star War).
When the ninth Doctor opened the new Tardis for the first time, fans were appalled by the flamboyant design: it was coloured brown (!) and “…was visuali[s]ed as an organic entity” (Hills 321) with all the pillars and wires that resemble skeleton and blood vessels. Meanwhile, fans were not entirely unfamiliar with this new design—beehive-like walls and a console panel in the centre surrounded by a pumping bar (as a part of the narrative palimpsest)—It is the Tardis! Plus, Hills concludes, “…Who fans… [do not] challenge the underlying logic of franchise transformation and ‘updating’” (323).
Thus far, the Tardis console room has been redesigned for three times in the new Doctor Who: the designers replace the monotonous whiteness with different characteristic colours (brown, red and blue) and themes (organic entity, last-century retro, returning to sciency-fantasy and university classroom) (see fig.1). Hills posits that “[the redesigns] made the transformed [Tardis] interior[s] as much of a ‘star’ as the lead actors” (321). In effect, unlike in the classical Doctor Who the new where the Tardis is merely mentioned as alive, the new Doctor Who takes a step further by portraying the new Tardis as a living female character with occasional temperaments expressed in its own ways (like making “the Tardis groans” and trembling itself).
Comparing to the metallic classical sonic screwdrivers, they are increasingly plasticised and gaining outlooks of colourful toys in the new Doctor Who (see fig.2). Possibly as another part of narrative palimpsest, these modifications however do not defy the buzzing sounds and stick shape of classical sonic screwdrivers in general. Notably, the narrative palimpsest is kept consistent even after the latest series enable other characters such as River Song to have their sonic screwdrivers.
By analysing the paradigms of Mise-en-scenes in Doctor Who (the Doctors’ costumes, Tardis console rooms and sonic screwdrivers), Britton’s theorisation of “no baseline” (159) is in part debunked, and Hills’ theorisation of “the narrative palimpsest” (320) is supported, extended and reified. I found that change in Doctor Who is expressed through the different accreted representations of the narrative palimpsest while the narrative palimpsest itself could by no means be altered. It is through this accretion of representations of the narrative palimpsest that Doctor Who could be rebranded into its new series, as remarked by Elizabeth Sladen (actress of Sarah Jane Smith), “[t]he mood…is just totally Doctor Who…That feels totally the same—it [is] just bigger[!]” (Cornea 117).
Works Cited
Britton, Piers D.. “Towards an Aesthetics of Doctor Who”. TARDISbound, Distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, New York, Published By I.B.Tauris and Co Ltd., New York, 2011, pp.146-190.
Cornea, Christina. “Chapter Eight: Showrunning the Doctor Who Franchise, a Response to Denis Mann”. Production Studies, Edited By Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks, John T Caldwell, Publised by Routledge, New York, 2009, pp. 115-122.
Hills, Matt. “Rebranding Doctor Who and reimagining Sherlock: ‘Quality’ television as ‘makeover TV drama’”. International Journal of Cultural Studies, Issue 3, Volume 18, Published By Sage Journals, 2015, pp. 317-331.
Werlin, Katy. “Doctor Who: A Contemporary Costume Evolution”. Online Journal, Clothes On Film (Website of Lord Christopher Laverty), August 21, 2014. Accessible At:
https://clothesonfilm.com/doctor-who-a-contemporary-costume-evolution/35381/