Thursday 31 December 2015

Why we love Doctor Who… according to a psychologist

How and why do we get so attached to a show, a character and a world that isn’t real? 

“The reason science fiction in general works is it explores psychological and societal themes, but in a fantasy world where you can explore them in ways that’s more difficult in real life. So you explore gender identities, ideas of aging, ideas of death, all in ways that allow a different angle by not being tied by realism,” Paddy O’Donnell, Professor of Psychology at the University of Glasgow, explains.
For children, they’re struggling for independence from the parent and to explore, but as O’Donnell explains, “they’re worried about safety. So what they need is a safe place in which they can explore those issues.

“Doctor Who starts with a police box, which isn’t really a police box. It’s coloured blue, which is the colour of calm and motherhood. So it’s a kind of mother. It is the mother ship. It protects while allowing exploration all of these dangerous universes. The Tardis itself is a safe base in which to explore the world,” O’Donnell adds.

On the Doctor himself, O’Donnell notes the importance of his asexual characteristics.
“The Doctor is interesting because he manages to combine excitement with security. The first thing about the Doctor is that he’s not going to sexually attack you. One of the reasons he’s not going to exploit you is because he’s not even really human – he’s a Time Lord and we don’t know if Time Lords even have sex at all. That device is actually quite important as it takes him out of the sexual competition game.

“The Doctor combines both masculinity and warmth – they’re attractive but not in an aggressive masculine way. It used to be more of a father figure, but more recently they’ve gone for a younger but slightly vulnerable male. He doesn’t dress in a very sexy way. It’s not kind of medallion and a hairy chest and all of that kind of stuff. He doesn’t leer at you. His body language is non-sexual. All of them adopt certain mannerisms that make him appear a trifle weird, just a little bit robotic or other-worldly,” O’Donnell adds.

Both adults and children seek an attachment object, which the Doctor himself offers.
“The Doctor meets your basic needs. You project yourself into this world and he meets your basic needs. Those basic needs are to provide excitement while protecting you. The attachment object is the Doctor.
“The easiest way to activate an attachment need is to put someone under threat. New horror movies frighten you but provide no attachment, or they frighten you and give you an attachment object that you move towards which then destroys you. Doctor Who stops at that point. It always reassures that the attachment object is there. The attachment objects aren’t just there to reassure you, but to allow you to continue to explore,” O’Donnell explains.

Once you’ve set up this environment in which fear can be explored, you need to introduce fear, which traditionally has been the Cybermen and the Daleks. Doctor Who explores fears that are to do with children’s own deep psychological needs.

“The childish fear is that you’re suddenly being brought up by aliens. There is an emotional base in that for children, an angry adult is a terrifying object – they become a monster. Being suddenly confronted with something that was human and suddenly seems alien and abhorrent is actually a very childish fear and the Daleks and Cybermen are a representation of this fear. They get put in their place because you can escape this fear.

“I suppose the need is to be reassured that the world is human, that bad things in the end don’t happen. Of course one of the features of the Time Lord is that he never dies, he might go away but he always comes back. The attachment bond is never fractured,” says O’Donnell.

One of the advantages of attracting a range of viewers is that Doctor Who can offer different things to different viewers.

Adults can identify with the Doctor as somebody who is a super-human child protector. “All parents think they have superhuman powers to protect their children. In the fantasy we all believe that – our children will suffer no serious fate because we can stop the world getting to them. It’s a delusion that I think every mother and father has.”

Full article here

Tuesday 29 December 2015

Doctor Who Extra Christmas 2015 - The husbands Of River Song

Do you want to be in Doctor Who - Greg Davies



Never sneak onto the set of Doctor Who



The creepiest thing ever



River the bad girl



Christmas presents galore!




Friday 18 December 2015

Star Claus: Snow Hope


Oh no he didn't! Oh yes, he did! David Tennant went to The Dark Side for a Star Wars panto this morning – and had quite the laugh about Doctor Who while he was at it.

The Jessica Jones actor and former Time Lord took to the stage at London's Leicester Square Theatre this morning to thrill lucky fans who'd managed to nab a ticket to the live broadcast of Absolute Radio's annual Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show radio panto, Star Claus: Snow Hope.

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The production saw Tennant – a veteran of the breakfast panto – making his Star Wars themed panto debut as Dave Vader, who was hosting a Christmas bash, attended by his son Dick Skywalker (EastEnders' Shane Richie). He'd come all the way from 'EastEndor' to be tormented by his Sith Lord father's jokes about his mechanical hand.

Full article here

 

Friday 11 December 2015

Capaldi Would Happily Make More Episodes Each Year

Peter Capaldi has said he would happily make more episodes of Doctor Who each year, if he was allowed.

Speaking in the new issue of DWM #494 : “I’m shocked at the speed at which it’s going. I’ve done 26 episodes already, and I don’t know how that happened".

“I’m amazed that people ask me all the time, when I am going? It makes you feel very unwelcome! ‘Please, when are you leaving?’ Or…someone said this morning, ‘You’re only doing six episodes next year because you’re too tired?’ I don’t know where they’ve made this stuff up from. Six episodes?! That’s not what I’m contracted to do. And I would do 20 episodes if they let me. I could do Doctor Who all the year round, quite happily.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVjw9pdWsAASXrF.jpg:large 

Peter Capaldi surprises young Doctor Who fan in hospital

Peter Capaldi recently visited a young Doctor Who fan in his hospital room dressed as The Doctor and remained in charcter the whole time.

14 year old Danny, who is a bit of a Whovian, missed the Doctor Who Festival in November; was taken by surprise when the Doctor turned up for one of his consultations. 


Sunday 6 December 2015

Doctor Who fan's hand drawn animation

Doctor Who fan Adrianna Ojrzanowska has drawn an amazing animattion as a tribute to the last Ten years of New Who, titled Running Through Time. There are 307 hand-drawn pictures, and the video features the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors with companions Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Rory, River and Clara.

 Link to her youtube channel





More promo images for The Husbands of River Song

The BBC have released more images for this year's Christmas special - The Husbands of River Song. It will be shown at 5.15pm. 





































The BBC have released 30 more images from The Husbands of River Song - See more at: http://www.combom.co.uk/#sthash.893nYnW9.dpuf
The BBC have released 30 more images from The Husbands of River Song - See more at: http://www.combom.co.uk/#sthash.893nYnW9.dpuf

Doctor Who Extra Series 2 Episode12 Hell Bent

Ashildr - The ultimate immortal



The Doctor's new Sonic Screwdriver



Jenna Coleman looks back at the her time in the TARDIS

 

Jenna Coleman's funniest moment

 

The flying drone #MaisieCam

 

The truth behind the TARDIS #MaisieCam

Clara and Ashildr in their TARDIS

 

The Christmas trailers for The Husbands of River Song


Friday 4 December 2015

Christmas Special 2015 - Promo images and title



The BBC have released a couple of images featuring Matt Lucas (Nardole) and Greg Davies (King Hydroflax), who guest-star in this year's hour long Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song. The episode will air on BBC One at 5.15pm
.

 



 The Doctor - Peter Capaldi

 Flemming - Rowan Polanski

Ramone - Phillip Rhys

River Song - AlexKingston






 King Hydroflax - Greg Davies