It's now official: this course will be offered again, December 26, 2013-January 8, 2014. Write David Lavery (david.lavery@gmail.com) to be put on an e-mail list.

Clockwise from the far left: Dr. Lavery, Eric Hall, Tim Reitnouer, Lauren Magee, Lindsey Alley, Crysta Simms, Lauren Black, Dawn HallJustin TaylorLondon, Christmas 2013 (12/26/13-1/8/14)

Cooperative Center for Study Abroad

London Winter Website

Dr. David Lavery, Middle Tennessee State University

 

 

 

 

 

Syllabi [in PDF]

Undergraduate | Graduate

The Hotel Where We Stay

Websites/Links

Doctor Who Episodes

Whoers from the 2011 offering of this course at the BBC Television Centre: clockwise from the far left: Dr. Lavery, Eric Hall, Tim Reitnouer, Lauren Magee, Lindsey Alley, Justin Taylor, Crysta Simms, Dawn Hall, Laura Black

Dr. David Lavery is Professor of English at MTSU (1993- ), where he won the University's 2006 Distinguished Research Award. The author of one hundred and fifty published essays, chapters, and reviews, he is author / co-author / editor / co-editor of twenty three books, including Joss Whedon, A Creative Portrait: From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Avengers, TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural, The Essential Cult Television Reader, and The Essential Sopranos Reader. The organizer of international conferences on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos, a founding co-editor of the journals Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association and Critical Studies in Television, he has lectured around the world on the subject of television (Australia, Turkey, the UK, Portugal, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany) and has been a guest/source for the BBC, NPR, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The New York Times, A Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Publica (Portugal), Information (Netherlands), AP, The Toronto Star, USA Today. From 2006-2008, he taught at Brunel University in London. In the Fall of 2013, he will become the Director of Graduate Studies in English. In September 2013, he will be a keynote speaker at Doctor Who: Walking in Eternity, a fiftieth anniversary Who conference at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

Calendar
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
12/23/13
 12/24/13 12/25/13
Christmas Day		 12/26/13
Depart for London

12/27/13

400 pm: Orientation (400 pm); 530: Dinner

12/28/13

London Sightseeing

12/29/13

Breakfast Meeting; Trip to Forbidden Planet and  Alexandria Palace

12/30/13

1000-1200: Classroom Meeting; Trip to Canary Wharf

12/31/13

Group Excursion to  Stonehenge & Bath

1/1/14

100 Lounge meeting

1/2/14

Breakfast Mtg.

1/3/14

100-400: Classroom Mtg.-- Presentation by Dr. Steven Peacock

1/4/14

Group Excursion to Cardiff; Visit to The Doctor Who Experience

1/5/14

Breakfast Mtg.
1/6/14
Breakfast Mtg.; Tour of the BBC Television Centre		 1/7/14
100-200:  Classroom Mtg.--Evaluations		 1/8/14
AM: Class Departs for the US		        

 

Location for the Class:

The Washington Mayfair Hotel in London

 

One of the longest running television series in the world, Doctor Who (BBC, 1963- ) chronicles the adventure of an ageless, extraterrestrial time-lord, the last of his race who travels the universe in The TARDIS, his spaceship/time machine, which appears from the outside in the guise of a 1950s British police call box. The Doctor (we never learn his actual name) has always exhibited a profound interest in the UK, which needs frequent rescue from a wide variety of cosmic threats. A series originally intended as educational (hence the Doctor’s frequent visits to moments in history and encounters with famous Brits) but also capable of scaring children for several generations, Doctor Who rebooted in 2005 under the control of Russell T. Davies, who, under the influence of American cult TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, brought the series into the 21st century and extended Who’s global reach.

Focusing primarily on the new Doctor Who (2005- ), we will: 
  • Examine the history of Doctor Who.
  • Track the Doctor’s many reincarnations/transformations.
  • Compare and contrast the British and American television industries.
  • Compare and contrast British and American series.
  • Trace cultural and media influences on the Who reboot.
  • Compare and contrast the new Who under the control of its two showrunners: Davies and now Steven Moffat.
  • Explore Who’s key themes.
  • Understand the nature of the Doctor’s many “companions.”
  • Investigate the Who fandom.
  • Consider Who as science fiction television.
  • Consider Who as an example of cult television.
  • Explore Who’s Britishness.
  • Map Who’s locations (visiting several settings in and around London).
  • Apply the latest insights of methods like semiotics and narratology to Doctor Who.
  • Place Who as an example of a “multi-platform” popular culture phenomenon.
  • Consider Who as an international television phenomenon.

Undergraduate students will read two books:

Matt Hills. Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-First Century. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.

Graduate students will read both the Hills book and . . .

Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. Doctor Who The Writer’s Tale: The Untold Story of the BBC Series. London: BBC Books, 2008.