MEDIA STUDIES - Doctor Who : An Unearthly Child - CSP
CSP OF DOCTOR WHO : An Unearthly Child
CSP: close study product
Social and
Historical context
1) How does An Unearthly Child reflect the social and historical contexts of
the 1960s?
On
23rd November 1963 was the transmission of "an unearthly child”.
Looking back to 1960's was one of hectic era, from the cold war continuing
between USSR and USA lead to the first women in space, which changed many views
of the patriarchal societal
views on women empowerment. Hence there were many roles in "An Unearthly
Child" challenging more patriarchal attitudes, roles such as Susan and
Barbara reference to
triumphant of Valentina Tereshkova's flight.
In the jest of
1963, the country seemed to be obsessed with spies after government minister
had found himself in a scandal involving a Russian spy.
This has immensely affected
views of how the audience and
roles of the two teachers (Barbara and Ian) on Susan as she acted abnormally creating a sense of
doubt, portraying or
guessing she might be a spy. However noticing the Susan vibing with music at
the begging of the episode connotes how the young people of 1963 were
disconnecting from war time values of patriotism and developed their own
culture , hence emergence of the music industry booming in early 1963.The post
war boom contributed to the country's economic success and how this situation was reflected in
the episode , was through the
representation of better world with a brighter future - TARDIS reinforces audiences' hope of a positive
future.
2) How
might audiences have felt towards science fiction in the 1960s?
In 1960, Britain was nuclear power with nuclear weapons and
nuclear reactors supplying electricity. This development had feared a lot of people
with hope of disarmament of such powerful and harmful energy and a
lot of media did receive attention towards the people's protest. As this seed
of development had already brought a sense of fear and anxiety of what the
future would hold, and science fiction was an added factor that helped people
reinforce a positive outcome of the near future. Science fiction was used
as escapisms from the reality they faced. Science fiction was an
inspirational hope of a better world and brighter future.
Language and close-textual analysis
1) Choose three key moments in the episode and write an NCIS analysis
for those clips. Make specific, detailed references using media
terminology (e.g. media language - camera shots, diegetic/non-diegetic sound,
mise-en-scene etc.)
An Unearthly Child scene analysis -
Narrative: Susan's unusual behavior at school
Character: Susan, Barbara, Ian (schoolteacher)
Iconography: looking at the scene of where Ian and Barbara especially
worried about Susan's after here strange behavior at school struck their mind
of following her and providing help if she were to be in trouble. Here the
teachers are symbolized as Susan's hypothetical parents or guardian to the
media audience, however as the scene follows through we come across Susan
entering a dark and gloom junkyard into a bright interior of the TARDIS in
disguise of a booth connotes a sense of development from the past to the near
future , as how the audience would perceive the coming future as bright and
advanced.
Setting: Coahill Highschool ,Dark gloomy junkyard , TARDIS
2) How does Todorov's theory of equilibrium apply to An
Unearthly Child? Try and use the expanded version of Todorov's theory:
Equilibrium - Disruption - Recognition - Reparation - New equilibrium.
We can apply the theory of equilibrium to
the beginning scene of the episode, where we come across a normal day at
Coal Hill school, with teachers and students minding their own business and
about their day . As Miss Barbara makes her way to the teacher's lounge were
she and Mr. Ian have a discussion on Susan on how smart and
ingenious her answers were , everything until here seemed to have a
steady equilibrium until Barbara brings the topic of how strange
Susan acted when Miss Barbara offered to provide her special classes after
school at her house and Susan was apprehensive of how her grandfather
doesn't enjoy the company of others, as quite strange as the
atmosphere became , Barbara decided to pay a visit at Susan's place but
what was even more strange was the address of her house it was junkyard,
here we can imply disruption and recognition of the disruption as we come
across the scene. Now the reparation (attempt to restore equilibrium) was
Barbara and Ian following Susan home to figure out the mystery. As Susan enters
the junkyard followed by Ian and Barbara, they come across the TADRIS and the
find out Susan and her grandfather are time traveling aliens hence this sets as
the new equilibrium.
3) Applying Propp's character theory, what character roles do each of
the main characters in An Unearthly Child fit into? Alternatively, you may wish
to discuss how characters do not fit Propp's character types.
Across the episode we come across many
characters and we would illustrate them into any one of them into Propp's
character theory. We have
Doctor who: the hero - the main agent of
change
Susan: The helper- the hero's trusted sidekick
Although we don't come across any
villain's this episode, we do have a sense of a villain's presence sooner
or later in the upcoming episodes. We do have Ian and Barbara how could be
narrated as helpers to doctor who as they are science and history teacher who
may give ideas and solutions in upcoming events.
4) What enigma and action codes (Barthes) can you find in An
Unearthly Child? Make specific, detailed reference to the text using media
terminology (e.g. media language - camera shots, diegetic/non-diegetic sound,
mise-en-scene etc.)
When analyzing the enigma codes that
convention into message for the audience. The camera movement, digital and
postproduction codes. There were ellipsis scenes where
audience would have to figure and break down the enigma codes.
Often Heightened sounds are unnaturally amplified to create an atmosphere
for dramatic effect an example of this use would be the entrance of Doctor
Who in the scene where he encounters the teacher and Susan in the
junkyard. With often action codes and enigma codes work their way into
scenes ending the episode with Doctor Who, Susan, Ian and Barbara found in the
prehistoric era hence leaving the audience at a cliff hanger, driving
the narrative out of the suspense.
5) What
examples of binary opposition (Levi-Strauss) can you find in
An Unearthly Child? How do these create narrative or drama for the audience?
You can find notes on binary opposition if you scroll up this page if you
haven't covered this in class yet.
good vs.
evil
Dark vs.
Light
Human vs.
Alien
Young vs.
Old
Representations
1) What stereotypes of men are reinforced and subverted in Doctor Who: An
Unearthly Child? How?
The stereotype of men in doctor who
aren't really fighting against any patriarchal views as they are
still portrayed as more dominant and given the essence of being wise
and often given as the matured and are often brought by female to confirm their
doubt or so. Ian is portrayed as a fighting personality doing all the
physical work compared to Barbara. Doctor Who gave sense of maturity and
portrayed as a dominant star character.
2) What stereotypes of women/girls are reinforced and subverted in Doctor Who:
An Unearthly Child? How?
The stereotype of the women/ girl in
Doctor Who are challenging many of the patriarchal attitudes, roles such
as Susan and Barbara reference to triumphant of
Valentina Tereshkova's flight. Hence normalizing and providing
the female actors enough screen time as male actors as well as
portraying them as young, intelligent yet soft caring personalities.
Susan's character is young and ingenious as they are allowing the growth
of young girls in the dominant world with their knowledgeable thoughts and
ideas.
3) What are common media stereotypes of young people and old people? Do any of
the characters or scenarios reinforce or subvert these conventional stereotypes
(consider this was 1963)?
4) What
representations of race/ethnicity can be found in Doctor Who: An Earthly Child?
Is this surprising or not? Give reasons for your answer and consider historical
/ cultural context (the 1960s). Has this changed in more recent series of
Doctor Who?
By the early 1960, racial conflicts became more serious, with
race riots in many cities stirred up by the right-wing political groups. This
often made it difficult to cast a diverse character into "Unearthly
Child" hence the cast of Doctor Who: Unearthly child had the characters as
white with no ethnicity. However, many recent series have a diverse cast of
BAME representation to different settings across the world for example: in
recent series Doctor Who travelled to India or Doctor Who had an edition
especially during BLM movement about black history and Rosa Parks.
5) How
is social class represented in An Unearthly Child? Think about how education
and knowledge is presented in the episode.
The social class representation in an unearthly child can be
regarded towards how Susan who was s knowledgeable that too for a young girl
during 1960 surely left many teachers in suspense or doubt about Susan. This
replicates the thoughts and ideas about how the society perceived well educated
females as the era of gender equality emerged.
Audience
1) Who is the target audience for Doctor Who? Has it changed
since 1963?
It was a mainstream series hence about millions of people
watched and were aware of doctor who but the original target
audience were set for young fans and comparatively young males as
they are more interested in sci-fi, space and more although the addition
of drama and romance lifted the demographics of young female watchers as
well. The use of pop cultural reference has widened the age range. Over the
recent years the representation of homosexuality's, BAME and other
representation has attracted a wider audience range.
2) What audience psychographic groups might
particularly enjoy Doctor Who?
Looking at the audience from the original airing year , we can
identify the psychographics of focus group , Doctor Who originally aimed for:
trendies , innovators , groupies , drifters, utopians but over time the audience
range has widened and approached many different psychographic groups . Such as
Aspirers, Strugglers, Main streamers and slowly opening their audience range
towards resigned audiences.
3) What audience pleasures are offered by An Unearthly Child?
Apply Bulmer 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: Susan's character has created reliability for
the youth of the generation as time pass over the production doctor who has
vastly changed its reliability of character with the audience, for example
Susan today is given more a character perspective matching generation Z ' s
representation.
Personal Relationships: The concern developed by the teachers at Coal Hill
School about Susan reflects the personal relationship developed between the
teacher and Susan, connoting them as replacement for her parental image in the
series.
Diversion (Escapism): The use of the series has developed a timing for the
audiences to feel emerged into the series escaping from reality. The use of
time travelling, TARDIS widens their perspective and interest into this realm
of virtual reality developed.
Surveillance (Information / Facts): The representation of how the future might
be perceived by the audience, the entertainment bonus to the education
interests the facts and information thriving the audience.
4) What additional Uses and Gratifications would this episode provide to
a modern 2020 audience?
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5) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic
pleasures), which of these can be applied to An Unearthly Child?
VISCERAL PLEASURE: there is a thrill of emotion when the
audience is introduced to the TARDIS and how it works and travels Susan,
the Doctor and teachers back to 1000 years before, this intensifies the thrill
through explosions, and many more.
VICARIOUS PLEASURE: The audience experiences through the
teachers' eyes as we also weren't aware that Susan and the Doctor are
aliens and as we come across the space travel, we experience the emotions
that teachers are expressing as well.
VOYEURISTIC PLEASURE: The chance of experiencing and viewing the
interiors are voyeuristic features that the audiences are
newly introduced.
Industries
1) What was the television industry like in 1963? How many channels were
there?
The television industry in 1963 there were only two TV channels,
the BBC and ITV, and of course, no opportunities for recording or time shifting
or pausing broadcasting programmers’ only other place to watch moving images of
any sort of cinema. Putting forth a science fiction series was bit experimental
towards the media industry as most of media products are dominated by the
stretch of cold war, racial movement adapted into the industry.
2) Why is Doctor Who such an important franchise for the BBC?
Doctor Who was a world renowned franchise, which had been
launched all over the world through BBC which directly generated huge
income for BBC. Hence it was a television series that turned around the income
of the BBC industry's income, it attracted greater audience which lead to
greater income.
3) How does Doctor Who meet the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and
entertain'?
Inform: They contain information that balances
the escapism from reality as well as realistic information reflecting the
United Kingdom's culture and values to the world, e.g.: cold war references.
Educate: The learning for people of all ages is supported with
various ways of the audience being educated about science and fiction and other
possible elements of nature (fire, water, land, wind, space and time), e.g.:
Susan being a well-educated person reflecting the growth of the school system
as well encouraging and informing audience about different areas of science and
fiction.
Entertain: the production of creative output, out of the
ordinary with diverse content with variety of representation increasing
relatability between character and audience hence entertaining them.
4) How is the BBC funded?
It is different from other TV broadcasters in that funding comes
from audience as BBC license fee payers whereas other channels rely on
advertising and sponsorship. They are funded by number of viewers of the show
5) Who regulates the BBC and what is the watershed?
Since 2017, The BBC is now regulated by OfCOM (the Office of Communications). OfCOM oversees all media channels and produces a code of conduct that all media channels must follow or have their license to make content removed and/or be fined heavily. This includes suitable programs before the 9pm watershed and various other quality standards. Watersheds are after a certain timing; TV channels start to broadcast programs which aren't suitable towards younger viewers such as children.
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