TV CSPS: Dr Who

Introduction to Television Close Study Products (CSP)

The two television CSPs are:

• Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, Episode 1(first ever Doctor Who broadcast)

• Class, Co-owner of a Lonely Heart, Episode 4

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Television CSPs
• Television is an in-depth media form (alongside Newspapers and Online Social and
Participatory Media).
• This means that the television CSPs must be studied in relation to all four of the
media framework areas:
• media language
• media representations
• media industries
• media audiences.
• You must also be aware of the wider contexts of these products:
• historical
• cultural
• social
• Political.

You will also need to be aware of similarities and difference between the two
products; they need to be studied in relation to one another.

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Television CSPs in the Exam

• A screening (approx. 3 minutes) of one

of the two television CSPs will feature
in Media 2.
• Screening shown twice.
• Space on answer booklet for notes.
• Section A questions relate directly to
the screening and to one or both CSPs.

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Introducing the television CSPs

• Doctor Who is one of the (off and on) longest running programmes on
British television.
• What explains this?
• Different actors play the doctor. What happens when they change?
Why do they change?

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Overview: An Unearthly Child
• Introduces four main characters: Ian,
Barbara (teachers at Coal Hill school),
Susan and the Doctor.
• Susan’s strangeness is illustrated.
• The teachers follow her to the
junkyard, meet the doctor, discover
the Tardis and travel in time.

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 An Unearthly Child: Historical context
• In 1963 it was unusual for TV (or any) fictions to be set in an ‘ordinary’ school; most were set in boarding
schools or private schools. Coal Hill is probably a secondary modern, but could have been a very early
comprehensive.

• The Police Box was common sight on Britain’s streets. Not many people had phones (let alone mobile
phones!).

• It would not have been unusual to find a junkyard in an inner city street.

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 An Unearthly Child: Wider Historical Contexts
• The Cold War: fears of nuclear war and ‘the bomb’ were widespread.
• Space Race: competition between the East and the West in science and technology. In 1963, Russia was
firmly ahead in this race.
• The British public increasingly fascinated by the potential of science. In 1963 PM Harold Wilson made a
famous speech warning that the country could only prosper in the ‘white heat of scientific revolution’.
• Science Fiction often explored these themes.

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 Reminder: codes
A code is a communication system with the following three elements:
• Signs – anything that expresses a meaning is a sign. This could be a written or spoken word, an image, a
sound, a gesture or an item of clothing.
• Rules – signs are nearly always used in combination with other signs to create meanings. For example, the
words in a sentence are organised together using rules. For a language such as English we call these rules
grammar. In Media Studies the rules are called conventions.
• Shared understanding – a code only works when people share a knowledge and understanding of the rules
and the signs. All of us use and understand numerous different codes.

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 An Unearthly Child: Media language
Production codes
• Obviously not in colour, but you can analyse other technical differences between Unearthly Child and modern
TV.
• Cameras: very heavy and inflexible. Limited ability to zoom. Look at shot length, transitions, camera
movement.
• Studio based. Location shooting expensive, difficult to light.
• Post production/Editing. Very limited. Lots of TV went out live and was never recorded. An Unearthly Child
was recorded ‘live to videotape’. Very unusually, it was shot and recorded twice, but there are still mistakes in
performance.

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 An Unearthly Child: Media language
Performance codes
• Actors tend to perform more theatrically with exaggerated movements and vocal delivery. Studio floors are
‘blocked’ with movements planned and choreographed to suit relatively static cameras.
• How does Susan portray her unearthliness? Costume, non-verbal codes, voice?
• How does William Hartnell communicate the Doctor’s strangeness?
• Other characters have to emphasise their normality to reinforce the Doctor’s and Susan’s difference
(Juxtaposition).

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 Reminder: Genre and narrative
• These are two key components of the Media Language Framework area.
• You will need to know:
• definition of genre as a category or type of media product
• examples of genre (eg sc-fi) and genre crossovers (hybrids such as teen drama/fantasy/sci-fi)
• principles of repetition and variation in genre products
• how we recognize genre products
• the appeal of genres
• for audiences
• for producers.

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 Reminder: Genre and narrative
You will need to:
• define narrative as the way stories are put together
• how narrative structures link:
• causality: why things happen
• time: when things happen
• space: where things happen.
• Examples of narrative structure:
• equilibrium
• disruption
• recognition of disruption
• attempts to restore equilibrium
• new equilibrium.
Propp’s character types

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 Reminder: Genre and narrative
Propp’s character types
• The Hero The protagonist and the main agent of change.
• The Villain The opponent who places obstacles in the path of the hero and who must be defeated in a climatic
confrontation.
• The Donor The hero is given a magical gift by the donor. In modern stories the gift may be more rational than ‘magic’, for
example a secret weapon a key or a piece of information.
• The Helper The hero’s trusted sidekick. The hero may have several helpers. Helpers are often hurt or killed to strengthen
the hero’s motivation.
• The Dispatcher The hero is sent off on the mission by the dispatcher. The dispatcher has to overcome the hero’s
reluctance and objections. In traditional tales, this role is often taken by the Princess’s father.
• The Princess This is the ‘sought for’ person who may be the object of a rescue mission and/or the hero’s reward for
succeeding in the quest. Once again, for modern narratives, we shouldn’t see ‘the princess’ too literally. For example, the
character may be male and have nothing to do with royalty.
• False Hero Other characters often mistake the false hero for the real hero, making the real hero’s quest even more difficult.

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 An Unearthly Child: Media language
Genre and narrative
• There are few hints in early stages of the sci-fi genre (but the title sequence and music are
important here – BBC’s first use of electronic music, generated in-house).
• A useful text for basic narrative analysis:
• Equilibrium: Environment of Coal Hill School
• Enigmas:
• hints of Susan’s strangeness
• the teachers explore the junkyard, sense of danger lurking
• mystery of the Tardis and the Doctor (Partial Resolution)
• cliffhanger: where are they going? what is the big shadow?
• Action Codes? Strong contrast with Co-owner of a Lonely Heart. Dialogue-driven.

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An Unearthly Child: Media representations
• Many aspects of representation worthy of study here.
• Useful contrasts to be drawn between An Unearthly Child and contemporary TV
drama (including Co-owner of a Lonely Heart).
• Age (Susan, classmates) as teenager, Doctor as a (grumpy) old man.
• Gender Some examples of deference (Barbara to Ian, Susan to the Doctor), but in
many ways more egalitarian and progressive than later series of Doctor Who with
simpering female sidekick.
• Science and Tech very positively represented. Aliens (Doctor, Susan) vastly
superior to humans but not hostile. Interior of Tardis a celebration of modernity.

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An Unearthly Child: Media representations
• Ethnicity Strong contrast with Co-owner of a Lonely Heart. No negative
stereotypes of BAME, but useful to remember that representation is about
absence as well as presence.
• Also worth considering (in relation to Co-owner) representations of
sexuality/sexual preference, social class and relationships between the
generations (age).
• Voices may sound posh (especially given East End setting) but less so in context of
the time. Some attempt to represent characters (at least the human ones) as
down to earth; people the audience can relate to.

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Task: Consolidating your understanding
• You are going to produce an infographic that explores how Dr Who: An Unearthly
Child explores all four of the media framework areas:
• media language
• media representations
• media industries
• media audiences.

• We have discussed Media Language and Representations today, therefore you

should start work on producing these first two sections of the infographic, next
lesson we will cover Audiences and Industries to allow you to complete the
infographic.
• Homework – complete these first two sections of the infographic.