Doctor Who: Audience and Industries

The second half of our Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child case study focuses on the key concepts of Industry and Audience.

You'll find all the answers you need in the notes and clips below. You can then complete the blog tasks at the bottom of this blogpost.

Notes from the lessons

Audience

Reminder: demographics and psychographics

Demographics: The audience classified through ‘fixed’ characteristics such as: age, gender, race/ethnicity, where you live, job.

Psychographics: The audience classified through beliefs, values, hobbies and interests such as: Strugglers, Reformers, Aspirers and Mainstreamers. 

General audience notes:

• Mainstream family audience – broad appeal as millions of people watch the BBC.
• Long-running which shows it appeals to mainstream audience (age 10-40+). 
• An Unearthly Child given PG certificate – parental guidance.
• Demographics: A-E class as some complex plot points but also action that is easy to understand.
• Gender: split down middle (although traditional science fiction fans were male, this has changed over time. From 1970-2010 the female sci-fi audience grew by 22%).

Audience pleasures

We can apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory when analysing the audience pleasures offered by Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child. Remember, we must consider it from the perspective of a viewer in the 1960s who would have reacted in quite a different way to an audience in 2020. Remember, the four key categories for Uses and Gratifications theory:

INFORMATION/SURVEILLANCE: learning information that you did not already know. Doctor Who offers its audience an education about space travel, science and history.  

PERSONAL IDENTITY: personally relating to something - seeing your lifestyle on screen. Think about how different audiences may identify with Susan, her teachers or the Doctor.

DIVERSION/ENTERTAINMENT: escapism and being entertained away from your normal life. Science Fiction is a classic genre for escapism - what examples of this could be found in the episode?

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS: caring about characters and wanting to find out what happens to them. This is the first episode of four - which characters do you think the audience will want to follow on their journey? 

The 3 Vs

VISCERAL PLEASURE: Physical thrill of watching something e.g hairs on the back of your neck in a horror film, sport, big explosions. 

VICARIOUS PLEASURE: Experiencing something through the characters (e.g. time/space travel). 

VOYEURISTIC PLEASURE: Watching something you wouldn't normally get a chance to see (e.g. inside TARDIS).

Industries

TV industry in 1963

There were only two TV channels in the UK in 1963: BBC and ITV. 

In terms of technology, videotape had only been in use for seven years when An Unearthly Child was made. It allowed the BBC to create the space and time travel effects we can see in the episode which were considered amazing at the time. 

In 1967, BBC2 launched as the first colour TV channel. BBC1 and ITV then switched to colour in 1969 as more people bought colour TVs. 

Compared to the digital and streaming TV landscape of today, 1960s television was a different world.

Importance of Doctor Who to BBC

Doctor Who is one of the most iconic franchises that the BBC has. It has been shown all over the world through BBC Worldwide and generates huge income for the BBC.

In 2014, a BBC Worldwide Report stated Sherlock and Doctor Who as the BBC’s biggest exports of the past year. The worldwide simulcast (simultaneous transmission) of “The Day of the Doctor” in 2013 saw this episode air at the same time in 98 countries on six continents.

 

Doctor Who franchise: spin-offs 

The BBC has maximised the popularity of the Doctor Who franchise by creating a series of spin-offs that build on the same universe or characters as the original show. These include:

• K9
• Sarah Jane Adventures
• Torchwood
• Class

These spin-offs allow the BBC to target slightly different audiences while still taking advantage of the huge Doctor Who fanbase. 

Spin-offs - opening titles:

Audience and Industry: blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Doctor Who: Audience and Industry blog tasks' and answer the following questions:

Audience

1) Who is the target audience for Doctor Who? Do you think it has changed since 1963?

2) What audience pleasures are offered by Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity:

Personal Relationships:

Diversion (Escapism):

Surveillance (Information / Facts):

3) What additional Uses and Gratifications would this episode provide to a modern 2020s audience?

4) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to An Unearthly Child?

5) What kind of online fan culture does Doctor Who have? Give examples.

Industries

1) What was the television industry like in 1963? How many channels were there?

2) How does An Unearthly Child reflect the level of technology in the TV industry in 1963?

3) Why is Doctor Who such an important franchise for the BBC? 

4) What other programmes/spin-offs are part of the wider Doctor Who franchise?

5) Why does the Doctor Who franchise have so much merchandise available? Give examples. 

Grade 8/9 extension tasks and reading

Read this press statement from Disney+ regarding Doctor Who and their agreement with the BBC. What does this tell you about the global television industry?

Read this Guardian article about Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and the possible end of the BBC. What does he say about it?

Read this New Statesman feature on Doctor Who as a global phenomenon. What does it suggest about Doctor Who fandom, British identity and the importance of the brand to the BBC?

Read this Guardian feature on the representations of race and ethnicity in Doctor Who over the last 55 years. How has the programme changed in its representations of race and how does this fit the BBC's remit to inform, educate and entertain? 

You will have some lesson time to work on this but will need to complete this for homework - due date on Google Classroom.