A Syracuse professor of digital and social media is offering a class based on the long-running British science fiction series “Doctor Who.” Professor Anthony Rotolo plans to take an exhaustive look at the wildly popular British series, which started in 1963 as a children’s show and was relaunched in 2005.
How’s this hypothetical incentive for class participation: At Syracuse, if you answer a trivia question about “Doctor Who” correctly, you could net yourself a 3-D printed TARDIS or a miniature Dalek (one that won’t destroy everything in its path, of course).
For non-Whovians: The Dalek are a particularly pernicious alien race set on destroying everything. They hate Doctor Who. The TARDIS is the vehicle, disguised as a 1960s London police call box, the Doctor uses to travel through space and time. Also worth knowing: The Doctor is able to die and regenerate himself in a different body, a detail that’s allowed 12 actors to play him in a 50-year span. The show is currently on its 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi.
According to Rotolo’s course description:
“Students will consider and reflect on how Doctor Who has reached audiences from children and families to young adults and lifelong viewers through a wide array of broadcast, print and digital media, as well as describe how Doctor Who has applied elements of many media genres — sci-fi, horror, action, comedy and many others — to form a style that is unique to the series. The class will also learn about the series’ original producer, Verity Lambert, and director, Waris Hussein, and their impact on the show, including the circumstance of a woman showrunner and a British-Indian director at the helm of a television series in the early 1960s. The contributions of Lambert, Hussein and other early influencers will be analyzed, along with each successive showrunner, writer or director from Terry Nation to Philip Hinchcliffe and later Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat. Along the way, students will also learn to identify and discuss cultural, social and political issues that have been addressed in the series over five decades, and how “Doctor Who,” like many science fiction series, applies futuristic and alien concepts to deliver social commentary on current affairs.”
