Watching Doctor Who: Fan Reception and Evaluation

by Paul Booth, Craig Owen Jones

Overview

Watching Doctor Who explores fandom's changing attitudes towards Doctor Who. Why do fans love an episode one year but deride it a decade later? How do fans' values of Doctor Who change over time? As a show with an over fifty-year history, Doctor Who helps us understand the changing nature of notions of 'value' and 'quality' in popular television. The authors interrogate the way Doctor Who fans and audiences re-interpret the value of particular episodes, Doctors, companions, and eras of Who.

With a foreword by Paul Cornell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350116740
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/20/2020
Series:	Who Watching
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Paul Booth is Professor of Media and Cinema Studies in the College of Communication at De Paul University, USA. He is the author or editor of ten books, including the Wiley Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (2018); Crossing Fandoms: SuperWhoLock and the Contemporary Fan Audience (2016); Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games (Bloomsbury, 2015) and Seeing Fans: Representations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2016).

Craig Owen Jones is a lecturer at San Jose State University, USA, and an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Music and Media, Bangor University, Wales. He has written three books and over 30 articles on TV and film studies, music, history, and literary criticism.
Paul Booth is Professor of Communication at DePaul University, USA. Booth's research interests include fandom, new technologies and media, popular culture, and cult media. He is the author of Time on TV (2012), Digital Fandom (2010), and Playing Fans (2014). He has edited Fan Phenomena: Doctor Who (2013), and has published numerous articles on fans, social media, and technology. He is currently enjoying a cup of coffee.
CRAIG OWEN JONES is a lecturer at San Jose State University, USA, and an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Music and Media, Bangor University, Wales. He has written three books and over thirty
articles on TV and film studies, music, history, and literary criticism.

Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Foreword by Paul Cornell
Acknowledgements
Notes on Titles
Introduction: Going Forward in All Our Beliefs: Regenerating and Re-Valuing Doctor Who Fandom
Chapter One: The Concept of Evaluation in Doctor Who Reception
Case Study 1A: The Mightiest Values: Rankings of Doctor Who - Paul Booth
Case Study 1B: Fan Reaction Videos: Responding to Doctor Who - Craig Owen Jones
Dialogue 1C: Evolving Evaluation of Doctor Who - Paul Booth and Craig Owen Jones
Chapter Two: Reception History and Fan Perceptions of Doctor Who
Case Study 2A: Tegan: The Makers' Vision - Craig Owen Jones
Case Study 2B: Reception after the Fact: Companions in Big Finish - Paul Booth
Dialogue 2C: The Ends of an Era – Paul Booth and Craig Owen Jones
Chapter Three: The Error of Eras
Case Study 3A: Nightmare of Eden and the Limitations of Genre - Paul Booth
Case Study 3B: The Discovery of The Time Meddler - Craig Owen Jones
Dialogue 3C: Series 24 - Craig Owen Jones and Paul Booth
Chapter Four: Re-Evaluating Value in the Canon of Doctor Who
Case Study 4A: Evaluative Changes in The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Craig Owen Jones
Case Study 4B: The Caves of Dilemma: or, The Twin Androzani? Evaluating Value at the Poles - Paul Booth
Dialogue 4C: Minisodes and Changing Appreciation – Craig Owen Jones and Paul Booth
Conclusion: Go Forward in All of Your Beliefs, and Prove to Me that I Am Not Mistaken in Mine

Endnotes
Bibliography
Index