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This book argues that Doctor Who , the world's longest-running science fiction series often considered to be about distant planets and monsters, is in reality just as much about Britain and Britishness. Danny Nicol explores how the show, through science fiction allegory and metaphor, constructs national identity in an era in which identities are precarious, ambivalent, transient and elusive. It argues that Doctor Who's projection of Britishness is not merely descriptive but normative-putting forward a vision of what the British ought to be. The book interrogates the substance of Doctor Who's Britishness in terms of individualism, entrepreneurship, public service, class, gender, race and sexuality. It analyses the show's response to the pressures on British identity wrought by devolution and separatist currents in Scotland and Wales, globalisation, foreign policy adventures and the unrelenting rise of the transnational corporation.
List of contents
1. Whonited Kingdom.- 2. "One Tiny, Damp Little Island": Doctor Who's Construction of Britishness.- 3. "Lots of Planets Have A North!" Scottishness, Welshness and Northernness in Doctor Who.- 4. "The Enemy of the World": globalised law versus British Self-government.- 5. Is the Doctor a War Criminal?.- 6. From Davos to Davros: corporate power in Britain and in Doctor Who.- 7. Conclusion: Doctor Who's post-democratic Britain.
About the author
Danny Nicol is Professor of Public Law at the University of Westminster, UK. He specialises in constitutional law, European Union law and the UK’s Human Rights Act. He is the author of EC Membership and the Judicialisation of British Politics (2001) and The Constitutional Protection of Capitalism (2010).
Summary
This book argues that Doctor Who, the world’s longest-running science fiction series often considered to be about distant planets and monsters, is in reality just as much about Britain and Britishness. Danny Nicol explores how the show, through science fiction allegory and metaphor, constructs national identity in an era in which identities are precarious, ambivalent, transient and elusive. It argues that Doctor Who’s projection of Britishness is not merely descriptive but normative—putting forward a vision of what the British ought to be. The book interrogates the substance of Doctor Who’s Britishness in terms of individualism, entrepreneurship, public service, class, gender, race and sexuality. It analyses the show’s response to the pressures on British identity wrought by devolution and separatist currents in Scotland and Wales, globalisation, foreign policy adventures and the unrelenting rise of the transnational corporation.
