Textual Analysis Of Doctor Who's A Christmas Carol
Doctor Who (BBC 1, 1963-1989, 2005 -) is a BBC produced programme created in the early 1960s when Sydney Newman - the head of BBC’s drama - was brought over from ABC. The passion for science fiction that was gained drove him to create many ideas, one of these ideas was a teatime serial called Doctor Who. ‘The Daleks’ (Christopher Barry, 1963) and ‘A Christmas Carol’ (Toby Haynes, 2010) are the two most important in relation to the discussion to be made in relation to Doctor Who and give the best textual analysis due to the aesthetics and narratives of both episodes. Focusing on the context into Doctor Who’s production and broadcast, it will allow two key issues to be explored - the BBC’s channel identity and the cultural discourse of ‘quality’
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In this episode, it brings together Reith’s aims for the BBC and explores in more detail the aesthetic and narrative aspects which are placed to the audience. This episode tells the story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and puts Doctors Who’s science fiction twist through it. Steven Moffat’s Christmas specials ‘always tend to be fables that draw upon literary fantasy’ (Chapman 2006: 285) and it is this that makes this programme distinctively ‘British’. In this episode the most obvious literary relevance is to Charles Dickens character Scrooge, he is represented through costume and performance to be like he is in the book. He wears vintage apparel suitable for the time that Dickens wrote the book and his personality and character reflect that of which is used in the book. In the beginning of this episode a voice over starts to explain the events of the town and then moves onto what different places call Christmas, this helps to introduce the character ‘Kazran Sardick’ who represents Scrooge, he is who we understand as being the voice over as the choice of editing brings us to Kazran who continues his speech with ‘I call it expecting something for nothing!’ portraying his character instantly through his choice of introduction in the narrative, influenced by Dickens’s novel. Within this episode from the serial, it always stands out as if apart from the serial with small links to what has happened before and what will be in a future episode however the most important aesthetic and narrative detail as roughly explored is its ‘Britishness’ which is what the BBC aim to produce as it develops and explores our culture to others and it has to be enjoyed by a mass British
In this episode, it brings together Reith’s aims for the BBC and explores in more detail the aesthetic and narrative aspects which are placed to the audience. This episode tells the story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and puts Doctors Who’s science fiction twist through it. Steven Moffat’s Christmas specials ‘always tend to be fables that draw upon literary fantasy’ (Chapman 2006: 285) and it is this that makes this programme distinctively ‘British’. In this episode the most obvious literary relevance is to Charles Dickens character Scrooge, he is represented through costume and performance to be like he is in the book. He wears vintage apparel suitable for the time that Dickens wrote the book and his personality and character reflect that of which is used in the book. In the beginning of this episode a voice over starts to explain the events of the town and then moves onto what different places call Christmas, this helps to introduce the character ‘Kazran Sardick’ who represents Scrooge, he is who we understand as being the voice over as the choice of editing brings us to Kazran who continues his speech with ‘I call it expecting something for nothing!’ portraying his character instantly through his choice of introduction in the narrative, influenced by Dickens’s novel. Within this episode from the serial, it always stands out as if apart from the serial with small links to what has happened before and what will be in a future episode however the most important aesthetic and narrative detail as roughly explored is its ‘Britishness’ which is what the BBC aim to produce as it develops and explores our culture to others and it has to be enjoyed by a mass British