МБОУ гимназия им. А. Платонова

XIII научно-практическая конференция «Воронеж, вставший из руин и пепла» the tv series "doctor who" and its impact on popular culture

Выполнил: Сомов Олег

Проверила: Короткова В.А.

Воронеж 2012

CONTENTS

Introduction 3

1. The TV series “Doctor Who” 4

1.1. The fate of the series 4

1.2. The Doctor 5

1.3. Ten’s fate 6

2. The impact on popular culture 8

2.1. Daleks. An absolute evil 8

2.2. Music culture. Timelord rock 9

3. Research 10

3.1. The Popularity of the Show in Russia 10

Conclusion 11

References 12

Introduction

Television is an integral part of our lives, and a series is an integral part of television. At the moment there are a lot of different series. Some of them are forgotten very quickly, others have their own fan base, and the thirds are truly iconic and affect not only on its’ fans but also on popular culture. And there are very few of them. In fact, there are only two series that have really great influence: “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who”.

In my opinion, both of these series are noteworthy, but as I am a fan of “Doctor Who” my project is dedicated to it.

The goal of the present work is not just some information on the series, but an investigation of its impact on the UK and world culture, as it is, in my opinion, the most interesting feature of the series.

During this research the different sides of British culture are investigated, and, what is more, there is analyzed a survey held among the people of different ages and interests.

1. The tv series “Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who” is a British science fiction series produced by the BBC. The show depicts the adventures of a Time Lord — a time travelling, humanoid alien known as the Doctor.

“Doctor Who” is the longest-running science fiction series in the world and an important part of British popular culture.

Elements of the show are known and recognized not only by its fans. In the UK and many other countries "Doctor Who" has become a television favourite and has influenced on generations of British television writers, many of whom were its long-time viewers. It has received acclaim from critics and audiences as one of the best British show.

1. The fate of the series

Initially, the series was aired from 1963 to 1989 and was aimed at family audiences. The division of the department of drama series BBC created 26 seasons, which were aired on BBC One. However, the falling number of viewers, a decline of interest for the series, as well as inconvenient time broadcast led to a halt filming of the series in 1989.

Despite the closure of its own filming of the series, BBC hoped to find an independent company which has expressed a desire to re-run the show. Philip Segal, expatriated Briton, who worked in the television division of Columbia Pictures in the U.S. contacted the BBC BBC on the possibility of such an agreement in July 1989, when the 26th season was filmed. These talks eventually led to the creation of the television movie "Doctor Who", which was shown by Fox in 1996 and was a pilot of a new series of the show, but poor ratings in the United States canceled the plan. The movie was created jointly by Fox, Universal Pictures, BBC and BBC Worldwide. The film was very successful in the UK but not in the U.S. and led to a revival of the series.

Accredited media products such as novels and radio plays created new stories about Doctor Who in the universe, but the TV series has remained in the same place until 2003. In September that year BBC Television announced a start of filming of a new season on its own after years of attempts to find support for BBC Worldwide to produce a feature film. The executive producer of the new incarnation of the series was the writer Russell T Davies and the head of drama at BBC were Cymru Wales and Julie Gardner. The new version of the series has been sold to many countries around the world.

In 2005, the series was successfully. "Doctor Who" finally returned to the screens with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on March 26, 2005, and was a direct continuation of the classic seasons of the series. Since then 7 seasons of the show have been shown, and the role of doctors has been performed by three actors (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith). The series released in 2005 became known as "the revival series", and the series until 1996 as "classic ones."

At the moment, the role of the Doctor has been played by 11 actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith.