Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation

Fifty Years of Storytelling

Marcus K. Harmes

Although it started as a British television show with a small but devoted fan base, Doctor Who has grown in popularity and now appeals to audiences around the world. In the fifty-year history of the program, Doctor Who’s producers and scriptwriters have drawn on a dizzying array of literary sources and inspirations. Elements from Homer, classic literature, gothic horror, swashbucklers, Jacobean revenge tragedies, Orwellian dystopias, Westerns, and the novels of Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh have all been woven into the fabric of the series. One famous storyline from the mid-1970s was rooted in the Victoriana of authors like H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle, and another was a virtual remake of Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda—with robots!

In Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation: Fifty Years of Storytelling, Marcus Harmes looks at the show’s frequent exploration of other sources to create memorable episodes. Harmes observes that adaptation in Doctor Who is not just a matter of transferring literary works to the screen, but of bringing a diversity of texts into dialogue with the established mythology of the series as well as with longstanding science fiction tropes. In this process, original stories are not just resituated, but transformed into new works. Harmes considers what this approach reveals about adaptation, television production, the art of storytelling, and the long-term success and cultural resonance enjoyed by Doctor Who.

Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation will be of interest to students of literature and television alike, and to scholars interested in adaptation studies. It will also appeal to fans of the series interested in tracing the deep cultural roots of television’s longest-running and most literate science-fiction adventure.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 244 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-1-4422-3284-6 • Hardback • May 2014 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4422-3285-3 • eBook • May 2014 • $116.50 • (£90.00)

Series: Science Fiction Television

Subjects: Performing Arts / Television / History & Criticism, Performing Arts / Television / General

Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation

Fifty Years of Storytelling

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Although it started as a British television show with a small but devoted fan base, Doctor Who has grown in popularity and now appeals to audiences around the world. In the fifty-year history of the program, Doctor Who’s producers and scriptwriters have drawn on a dizzying array of literary sources and inspirations. Elements from Homer, classic literature, gothic horror, swashbucklers, Jacobean revenge tragedies, Orwellian dystopias, Westerns, and the novels of Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh have all been woven into the fabric of the series. One famous storyline from the mid-1970s was rooted in the Victoriana of authors like H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle, and another was a virtual remake of Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda—with robots!

In Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation: Fifty Years of Storytelling, Marcus Harmes looks at the show’s frequent exploration of other sources to create memorable episodes. Harmes observes that adaptation in Doctor Who is not just a matter of transferring literary works to the screen, but of bringing a diversity of texts into dialogue with the established mythology of the series as well as with longstanding science fiction tropes. In this process, original stories are not just resituated, but transformed into new works. Harmes considers what this approach reveals about adaptation, television production, the art of storytelling, and the long-term success and cultural resonance enjoyed by Doctor Who.

Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation will be of interest to students of literature and television alike, and to scholars interested in adaptation studies. It will also appeal to fans of the series interested in tracing the deep cultural roots of television’s longest-running and most literate science-fiction adventure.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 244 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-1-4422-3284-6 • Hardback • May 2014 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4422-3285-3 • eBook • May 2014 • $116.50 • (£90.00)

Series: Science Fiction Television

Subjects: Performing Arts / Television / History & Criticism, Performing Arts / Television / General

Author

Marcus K. Harmes lectures in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He has published extensively in Roman, British, and Australian history and the cultural history of British science fiction, including Doctor Who.

Table of Contents

Periods via lead actor
Acknowledgments
Editorial Note
Introduction
Chapter One: In the Beginning
Chapter Two: What Gets Adapted?
Chapter Three:Who Was Adapting?
Chapter Four: Motives for Adapting
Chapter Five: A Classical Education- Adapting History in Doctor Who
Chapter Six: Victorian Worlds in Doctor Who
Chapter Seven: Gothic Themes and Creative Tensions
Chapter Eight: British Westerns, American Frontiers, and a Marketing Strategy
Chapter Nine: Who-dunit? Agatha Christie in Time and Space
Chapter Ten: Tragedy, the Jacobeans… and Evelyn Waugh
Conclusion
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

In this book Marcus Harmes offers readers an accessible and engaging introduction to adaptation theory, journeying through the ways in which bits of old and new Doctor Who can be considered adaptations of something else. Even lifelong Doctor Who fans who have enjoyed decades of spotting cultural references in the program will be surprised at the extent to which the show has borrowed, blended, transformed and re-presented elements of the society and culture in which it was produced. Harmes amply demonstrates that this unique and beloved show—so original and unlike anything else—is in fact a multi-dimensional chimera of texts and genres from throughout time and space that have been given the Doctor Who treatment. The author brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of English-language literature and story-telling conventions, as well as his loving familiarity with Doctor Who.
— Lindy Orthia, editor of Doctor Who and Race (2013)

An examination of how Doctor Who borrows from book, film, and TV, creatively reworking other texts into its own never-ending narrative. Fans of every era of the show will find it engaging and eye-opening.
— Kate Orman, author of The Left-Handed Hummingbird (1993), Vampire Science (1997), and many other Doctor Who novels

Doctor Who has always borrowed ideas and aesthetics from a variety of sources. Marcus Harmes' fascinating book explores exactly how the show has done this over the past fifty years, taking the reader from kitchen sink dramas and Agatha Christie to British westerns and gothic horror. Any Doctor Who fan, or anybody with an interest in Adaptation Studies, should be sure to read this book.
— Andrew Crome, editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith (2013)

Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation

Fifty Years of Storytelling

Marcus K. Harmes

Doctor Who and the Art of Adaptation

Fifty Years of Storytelling

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