The ‘Silurians’ and ‘Sea Devils’ are among the most enduring of Doctor Who species, speaking as they do directly to deep human anxieties about our ability to trust others different from ourselves. Their stories touch on popular Doctor Who themes: the value of building common understandings across seemingly deep chasms of differences, the need to … Continue reading
‘Doctor Who and Race’ book out now!
Doctor Who and Race, a volume of essays by 23 contributing writers, has now been published by Intellect Books in this, the 50th anniversary year of Doctor Who. It is available from all good booksellers in paperback or ebook format. The blurb reads: Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television series in the world … Continue reading
Don’t judge till it’s published
Doctor Who and Race has received a lot of attention in the media and on blogs this week. Almost all that attention can be sourced back to one newspaper article about the book. Since the book has not been published yet, almost no one has actually read it. This has meant that almost everything written … Continue reading
A very good googly – race in Four to Doomsday
Doctor Who and Race the book encompasses celebrations as well as criticisms of Doctor Who’s engagement with elements of race. Taking the latter perspective, I’d like to smash the proverbial bubbly on this blog with a critical revisitation of something many Doctor Who fans are familiar with. It’s the scene from 1982’s Four to Doomsday … Continue reading
Why the jelly babies?
Here’s why the cover of Doctor Who and Race features an image of jelly babies in a white paper bag: [Doctor Who‘s] consistency in what humanity looks like constructs human diversity as an unremarkable and timeless fact. It casts racist attitudes as threatening, but in the grand scheme of human history, anomalous. The urge to a cosmopolitanism … Continue reading
Doctor Who and Race 