Doctor Who: Language and Representations

 

Doctor Who: Language and Representations:

Language and Representation: blog tasks

1) Write a summary of the notes from our in-class analysis of the episode. You can use your own notes from the screening in class or this Google document of class notes (you'll need your GHS Google login). 

Camerawork and sound: 

• Music - theme tune to Doctor Who. Very science-fiction - sets genre from beginning.

Mise-en-scene: 

• Susan - first introduced dancing and dressed as 1960s teenager (costume). Seems to be both typical teenager and alien.

Narrative and genre: 

• Enigma codes: mystery of Susan’s home. French Revolution book - “I’ll have finished it” “That’s not right”... suggests time trave 

 

2) How can we apply narrative theories to this episode of  Doctor Who? 

Todorov's Equilibrium: 

•     Todorov suggested that all narratives follow a three part structure

Propp's character theory:

• Vladimir Propp stated that there were seven basic character roles when he analysed classic fairy tales and that these were present in most narratives. Media products still use these recognisable character types today:

 

Barthes's enigma and action codes:

•  Action Codes: anything that suggests something dramatic is about to happen. E.g. when the TARDIS begins to take off or when the shadow appears in the final shot of the episode. 

•  Enigma Codes: a narrative code that creates mystery and gives the audience questions to keep them watching e.g. who is the Doctor and where is he taking them? Will the teachers get home? What is the mysterious shadow in the final scene?

 

Levi-Strauss's binary opposition: 

•  Binary opposition is a theory that all narratives are driven by conflict of a series of opposing forces. There are many examples that can be found in this Doctor Who episode e.g. good v evil; young v old; human v alien; dark v light etc. 

3) In your opinion, what is the most important scene in the episode and why?

- In the end when they time travelled to another world and we see another person, it ends with the credits. I feel like this is the most important scene because it shows that they proved they can really time travel anywhere in the universe

4) What genre is An Unearthly Child and how can you tell? Make specific reference to aspects of the episode.

- The genre is most likely science fiction because it obviously relates to how the police box can travel in time anywhere in space, making it think that the most scientific dream has been witnessed.

5) How does An Unearthly Child reflect the social and historical contexts of the 1960s?

- It shows that you don't normally find a time machine in the junkyard and see revolutionary tech. The mobile phone was created in the 1970s so it makes everyone wonder in the episode how can this tech be shown in the late 90s


Representations

1) What stereotypes of men are reinforced and subverted in Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child? How?

- Most stereotypes are that all men should be scientists and should know what a time machine is. Right now in this century, we often see men baking, singing or athletics, but in the 1960s, you would normally get stereotyped to be known as a smart man and to know it all.

2) What stereotypes of women/girls are reinforced and subverted in Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child? How?

- Women were seen as useless and clueless in the episode. we can see that in the junkyard, the man was fierce to the doctor who where as the woman was begging just to find the missing student. This made it obvious in the 1960s that women could not handle themselves

3) How do the representations of young people and old people in An Unearthly Child reflect the social and historical context of the 1960s? 

-  mostly young people were seen as happy and energetic and as old people, you would normally think of them as frail tired old people. In this episode, The old person who was known as the doctor who knew it all where whereas the children were seen as helpless ad non-existent to the episode/people.

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 the historical/cultural context (the 1960s). Has this changed in more recent series of Doctor Who?

- In this episode, you would've probably noticed that there weren't any black or mixed-race people in this episode. well, this isn't very surprising because this was well known in the 90s that you would see a quarter of mixed people on TV, this is considered very historical as it relates to history and rights.

5) How is social class represented in An Unearthly Child? Think about how education and knowledge is presented in the episode.

- social class is a division of a class of money. In the episode, we didn't see any lower-class people but only saw middle-class people and higher-class people. this is somewhat surprising because you would normally put in a homeless man just to make the scene more realistic but it seems like in the 1960s, nobody appreciated the lower class people.