Who Travels with the Doctor?: Essays on the Companions of Doctor Who

by Gillian I. Leitch (Editor), Sherry Ginn (Editor)

Overview

Throughout the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, the Doctor has rarely been alone--his companions are essential. Male or (mostly) female, alien or (mostly) human, young or old (none as old as he), the dozens of companions who have travelled with him over the past 50 years have served as sympathetic proxies for the audience.

Through their adventures the companions are perfected, facing danger and thus discovering their strengths and weaknesses. Yet they all pay a price, losing their innocence and sometimes their lives.

This collection of new essays examines the role of the companion as an intermediate between viewers and the Doctor. The contributors discuss who travels with the Doctor and why, how they interact, how the companions influence the narrative and how their journeys change them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476624129
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	04/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	180
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gillian I. Leitch is an independent scholar and historical researcher and is currently co-chair of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the PCA. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Sherry Ginn is a retired educator currently living in North Carolina. She has authored books examining female characters on science fiction television series as well as the multiple television worlds of Joss Whedon. Edited collections have examined sex in science fiction, time travel, the apocalypse, and the award-winning series Farscape, Doctor Who, and Fringe.
Gillian I. Leitch is an independent scholar and historical researcher and is currently co-chair of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the PCA. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Sherry Ginn is a retired educator currently living in North Carolina. She has authored books examining female characters on science fiction television series as well as the multiple television worlds of Joss Whedon. Edited collections have examined sex in science fiction, time travel, the apocalypse, and the award-winning series Farscape, Doctor Who, and Fringe.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction—Comrade, Confidante, Companion, Chum:
A Friend by Any Other Name (Sherry Ginn and Gillian I. Leitch)
With Whom He Travels: The Companions of the Doctor (Gillian I. Leitch)
“It’s bigger on the inside”: Verisimilitude and Companion
Reactions to the TARDIS (Craig Owen Jones)
“The ­battle-scarred, the insane, the ones even you can’t
control”: Disability and the Female Bodies of the Doctor’s
Companions (Kimberley ­McMahon-Coleman)
“There’s nothing only about being a girl”: Learning to “Play”
the Doctor’s Companion (David Boarder Giles and Amy Peloff)
Life ­Post–TARDIS? The Case for Jo Grant and Sarah Jane
Smith (Sherry Ginn)
Rose Is England: Nationhood, British Invasion Anxiety and
Why the Doctor Will (Almost) Always Rescue His
Companions (Tanja Nathanael)
Rory Williams: The Boy Who Waited (Teresa Forde)
A Muted Melody: The (Dis)Empowerment of River Song (Tom Powers)
Companions Who Weren’t: The Pompadour and the Pauper (Pamela Achenbach)
When No One Can Hear You Scream: Doctor Who Companions on the Printed Page (Aaron John Gulyas)
Selected Filmography
Selected Bibliography
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Who Travels with the Doctor? is an international eight author examination of a sampling of the various people who have traveled with a certain Time Lord”—SFCrowsnest; “scholars of television and other media and of narrative in any media explore secondary characters in the 50-year British television science fiction series”—ProtoView.

From the Publisher