Doctor Who stories are many things: thrilling adventures, historical dramas, tales of love and war and jelly babies. They’re also science fiction – but how much of the science is actually real, and how much is really fiction? The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who is a mind-bending blend of story and science that will help you see Doctor Who in a whole new light, weaving together a series of all-new adventures, featuring every incarnation of the Doctor. With commentary that explores the possibilities of time travel, life on other planets, artificial intelligence, parallel universes and more, Simon Guerrier and Dr Marek Kukula show how Doctor Who uses science to inform its unique style of storytelling – and just how close it has often come to predicting future scientific discoveries. This book is your chance to be the Doctor's companion and explore what's out there. It will make you laugh, and think, and see the world around you differently. Because anything could be out there. And going out there is the only way to learn what it is.

Science has always been part of Doctor Who. The first episode featured scenes in a science laboratory and a science teacher, and the 2020 season's finale highlighted a scientist's key role in Time Lord history. Hundreds of scientific characters, settings, inventions, and ethical dilemmas populated the years in between. Behind the scenes, Doctor Who's original remit was to teach children about science, and in the 1960s it even had a scientific advisor. This is the first book to explore this scientific landscape from a broad spectrum of research fields: from astronomy, genetics, linguistics, computing, history, sociology and science communication through gender, media and literature studies. Contributors ask: What sort of scientist is the Doctor? How might the TARDIS translation circuit and regeneration work? Did the Doctor change sex or gender when regenerating into Jodie Whittaker? How do Doctor Who's depictions of the Moon and other planets compare to the real universe? Why was the program obsessed with energy in the 1960s and 1970s, Victorian scientists and sciences then and now, or with dinosaurs at any time? Do characters like Missy and the Rani make good scientist role models? How do Doctor Who technical manuals and public lectures shape public ideas about science?

In a richly developed fictional universe, Doctor Who, a wandering survivor of a once-powerful alien civilization, possesses powers beyond human comprehension. He can bend the fabric of time and space with his TARDIS, alter the destiny of worlds, and drive entire species into extinction. The good doctor’s eleven “regenerations” and fifty years’ worth of adventures make him the longest-lived hero in science-fiction television. In The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues, Jason Barr and Camille D. G. Mustachio present several essays that use language as an entry point into the character and his universe. Ranging from the original to the rebooted television series—through the adventures of the first eleven Doctors—these essays explore how written and spoken language have been used to define the Doctor’s ever-changing identities, shape his relationships with his many companions, and give him power over his enemies—even the implacable Daleks. Individual essays focus on fairy tales, myths, medical-travel narratives, nursery rhymes, and, of course, Shakespeare. Contributors consider how the Doctor’s companions speak with him through graffiti, how the Doctor himself uses postmodern linguistics to communicate with alien species, and how language both unites and divides fans of classic Who and new Who as they try to converse with each other. Broad in scope, innovative in approach, and informed by a deep affection for the program, TheLanguage of Doctor Whowill appeal to scholars of science fiction, television, and language, as well as to fans looking for a new perspective on their favorite Time Lord.

This collection of fresh essays addresses a broad range of topics in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, both old (1963-1989) and new (2005-present). The book begins with the fan: There are essays on how the show is viewed and identified with, fan interactions with each other, reactions to changes, the wilderness years when it wasn't in production. Essays then look at the ways in which the stories are told (e.g., their timeliness, their use of time travel as a device, etc.). After discussing the stories and devices and themes, the essays turn to looking at the Doctor's female companions and how they evolve, are used, and changed by their journey with the Doctor.

cosmologist and is ideal beach reading for anyone who loves science and watches the show—no matter which planet the beach is on.

Geek out over the TARDIS, aliens, alternate timelines, parallel worlds, and all your favorite characters from the Doctor Who Universe! Doctor Who arrived with the Space Age, when the Doctor first began exploring the universe in a time-traveling spaceship. Over half a century since, the Doctor has gone global. Millions of people across this planet enjoy Doctor Who in worldwide simulcast and cinema extravaganzas. Doctor Who has infused our minds and our language and made it much richer. What a fantastic world we inhabit through the Doctor. The program boils over withballsy women, bisexual companions, scientific passion, and a billion weird and wonderful alien worlds beyond our own. The show represents almost sixty years' worth of magical science-fiction storytelling. And Doctor Who is, despite being about a thousands-of-years-old alien with two hearts and a spacetime taxi made of wood, still one of our very best role models of what it is to be human in the twenty-first century. In The Science of Doctor Who, we take a peek under the hood of the TARDIS and explore the science behind questions such as: What does Doctor Who tell us about space travel? Could the TARDIS really be bigger on the inside? In what ways does the Doctor view the end of our world? Is the Doctor right about alternate timelines and parallel worlds? Will intelligent machines ever rule the earth? Is the earth becoming more like Doctor Who's matrix? Is the Doctor a superhero? How do daleks defecate? So welcome to The Science of Doctor Who, where the Doctor steps smoothly in and out of different realities, faces earthly and unearthly threats with innovation and unpredictability, and successfully uses science in the pay of pacifist resistance!

From 1963 to 1989, the BBC television program Doctor Who followed a time-traveling human-like alien called "The Doctor" as he sought to help people, save civilizations and right wrongs. Since its 2005 revival, Doctor Who has become a pop culture phenomenon surpassing its "classic" period popularity and reaching a larger, more diverse audience. Though created as a family program, the series has dramatized serious themes in philosophy, science, religion, and politics. Doctor Who's thoughtful presentation of a secular humanist view of the universe stands in stark contrast to the flashy special effects central to most science fiction on television. This examination of Doctor Who from the perspective of philosophical humanism assesses the show's careful exploration of such topics as justice, ethics, good and evil, mythology and knowledge.

Not only is Doctor Who the longest-running science fiction TV show in history, but it has also been translated into numerous languages, broadcast around the world, and referred to as the “way of the future” by some British politicians. The Classic Doctor Who series built up a loyal American cult following, with regular conventions and other activities. The new series, relaunched in 2005, has emerged from culthood into mass awareness, with a steadily growing viewership and major sales of DVDs. The current series, featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, is breaking all earlier records, in both the UK and the US. Doctor Who is a continuing story about the adventures of a mysterious alien known as “the Doctor,” a traveller of both time and space whose spacecraft is the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space), which from the outside looks like a British police telephone box of the 1950s. The TARDIS is “bigger on the inside than on the outside”—actually the interior is immense. The Doctor looks human, but has two hearts, and a knowledge of all languages in the universe. Periodically, when the show changes the leading actor, the Doctor “regenerates.”

A comprehensive account of Doctor Who as a television series and product of popular culture. Doctor Who, the iconic British science-fiction series following a time-traveling alien scientist, was first broadcast November 23, 1963, on BBC Television. Though modestly conceived and produced, its depiction of the alien but strangely human "Doctor" proved to be such a commercial success that the program was shown in more than forty countries over twenty-six seasons—from 1963 to 1989—and returned successfully to television in 2005. In Doctor Who, Jim Leach explores the reasons behind the original series’ popularity and the ways it evolved during its long run. Leach analyzes in detail seven representative episodes from the original run of the series to trace the development of the seven "regenerations" of the main character by different actors. In addition to detailing each actor’s contribution to the role, he also tackles such issues as the show’s self-reflexivity, its attitude toward science and technology, and its generic mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Leach considers Doctor Who as a "fantastic" text, with its concept of regeneration and the complex experience of time that evolved during its run. He also looks at the series’ manipulation of the medium of television and its broader cultural influences and implications. Leach concludes with a section that looks at the continuities and differences found in the new series. Doctor Who is an accessible and intriguing guide to one of the most popular series in television history. Film and television studies scholars, fans of the show, and general readers interested in popular cultural studies will enjoy this enlightening volume.