Audience and Industry: Doctor Who

 Audience


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

Mainstream family audience, and also to both males and females. As it is mainstream and made for families, the age can range from 10- 40+

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: 
Susan can give teenagers identity as she is a teenager herself, and she wears casual clothes that a 1960s teen would wear. Ian and Barbara could give identity to teachers as they also care about what is going on in their students' lives.

Personal Relationships: Audience members could form relations with Ian and Barbara, as they seem like the heroes for the majority of the episode.


Diversion (Escapism): The genre is science fiction, and this offers diversion as it is different from reality, and it offers entertainment, which is also escapism  


Surveillance (Information / Facts): 
through the concepts they mention in the episode, like the fourth dimension, and also the audience can learn what it could be like if it were real 


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

It can inform a modern audience on what life was possibly like in the 1960s also shows us that normalised racism was there. 

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

Visceral pleasures: the ending when they were travelling in the TARDIS, and when we didn't know who the Doctor was 

Vicarious pleasures: Susan's experience at school 

Voyeuristic pleasures: seeing what it looks like in the TARDIS

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

The ‘Whoniverse’ is made up of podcasts, spin-offs (other shows that derive from the main Doctor Who and have settings, ideas, characters in common e.g. K-9 which is a kid’s show about Doctor Who’s robot dog) and documentaries, behind-the-scenes, sneak peaks and so on.

Industries

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

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.

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

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.

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

Because it brings in income that they use to make new episodes and different franchises 

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

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. 



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

Because it targets the same majority audience and a different audience it brings in more income for BBC

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