Design for Doctor Who: Vision and Revision in Science Fiction Television
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Overview
The long-running popular TV series Doctor Who is, Piers Britton argues, a ‘uniquely design intensive text’: its time-and-space-travel premise requires that designers be tirelessly imaginative in devising new worlds and entities and recreating past civilizations. While Doctor Who’s attempts at worldbuilding are notorious for being hit-and-miss – old jokes about wobbly walls and sink plungers die hard – the distinctiveness of the series’ design imagery is beyond question. And over the course of six decades Doctor Who has produced designs which are not only iconic but, in being repeatedly revisited and updated, have proven to be an ever-more important element in the series’ identity and mythos.
In the first in-depth study of Doctor Who’s costumes, sets and graphics, Piers Britton offers an historical overview of both the original and the revived series, explores theoretical frameworks for evaluating Doctor Who design, and provides detailed analysis of key images. Case studies include the visual morphology of Doctor Who’s historical adventures, the evaluative character of cosplay, and the ongoing significance for the Doctor Who brand of such high-profile designs as the Daleks and the TARDIS interior, the ‘time-tunnel’ title sequence, and the costumes of the Fourth and Thirteenth Doctors.
The first book to address the design history of Doctor Who, tracing how the design of sets, props, graphics, costumes and hair and make up all combined to form the show’s distinctive visual style.
The first in-depth critical study of the production and costume design of Doctor Who across the whole history of the series
Illustrated with unique material from the personal archives of the designers who worked on the show
Table of Contents
Preface
PART 1: A CRITICAL DESIGN HISTORY OF DOCTOR WHO
Introduction: Why a history of Doctor Who design?
1. The London Period – Lime Grove 1963 to Television Centre 1989
2. The TVM, and the Cardiff Period – Upper Boat Studios 2004 to Roath Lock 2020
Postlude
PART 2: THIRTEEN KEY DESIGNS - A PERSONAL VIEW
Introduction
3. Formative and Enduring Images
4. Design of the Times
PART 3: WHAT’S AT STAKE IN DESIGN FOR DOCTOR WHO
Introduction
5. The Work of Design in the Doctor Who Narrative
6. Responding to Design for Doctor Who – Evaluation and Transformations
LAST THOUGHTS
Notes
Britton’s book highlights the important role played by design throughout the various incarnations of Doctor Who, providing both a fresh perspective on the long-running series and a robust model for future research into this neglected area of media studies.
Whether you’re a Doctor Who fan or a design student – perhaps even an attentive student of Doctor Who or a passionate design fan – Design for Doctor Who is for you. Expertly and innovatively bringing together design studies and ’Doctor Who studies’, Piers Britton restores the importance of the visual to understanding this long-running TV show.
- Title: Design for Doctor Who: Vision and Revision in Science Fiction Television
- Author: Piers D. Britton
- Series: Who Watching
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 280
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350116832, 9781472984159, 1472984153, 1350116831
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350116832
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T10:34:08Z
Piers D. Britton is Professor and Director of Media & Visual Culture Studies at the University of Redlands, Southern California, USA. He is the author of TARDISbound (I.B.Tauris, 2011) and co-author of Reading Between Designs: Visual Imagery and the Generation of Meaning in The Avengers, The Prisoner and Doctor Who (2003).