This is a podcast SF serial based on BBC’s Doctor Who. The whole point of it is the podcasts down the right hand side of the page – click on them to play them in the browser. If you have any problems, click on the files lower down the page to go straight to the source and download them. Any further problems, let me know.
Doctor Who is a UK BBC TV science fiction programme which has run, on and off, since the early 1960s. There was a lot that was good and bad about Doctor Who, but the main thing was that it created a legend of the pacifist hero; a vision of a someone who could resort to force but never will: that is what I kept, after all the plots had faded into each other. Well, it also had a good soundtrack. I actually sorted out a potentially violent street confrontation once by pretending I was Doctor Who, but less of that later.
This pacifist hero vision was imperfect: I suspect the BBC was never comfortable with it. The commissioning directors accepted pacifism, but the other heroic media stereotypes had to be thickly ladled on.
When it comes to women who are capable of nothing but screaming and being saved, Doctor Who used to beat James Bond. The new series are loads better, but has descended into formulaic brand-generation to boost audiences for pathetic spin-offs. Doctor Who defeated by neoliberalism.
Doctor Who is also a great example of science fiction being able to make social and political comment because institutional censors dismiss it as insignificant (the Daily Mail recently noticed this; though it may have been a publicity stunt for the new series). The 2005 anti-Iraq war episode, for example, broadcast to millions the week before the UK General Election, was amazing.
So I thought I would write something that kept the bits that I liked.
At the moment it is podcast only – once I finish it I’ll revise the text files and put it up on the net. If you want it, let me know!
Thank you so much for reading and listening! Whoever you are, you’re making my day without me knowing.
