Wednesday 7 March 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a publication date

and prices, ISBN numbers and everything

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Manchester University Press (31 Aug 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 071907682X
ISBN-13: 978-0719076824
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Manchester University Press (31 Aug 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0719076811
ISBN-13: 978-0719076817
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches

This is the academic book on 'Doctor Who' which I wrote a chapter for some time back. It's got through all the hoops at last. I'd buy the paperback if you feel a yen for it (the hardback is extortionate...), unless you're a library- get the hardback then, eh?

Further details below -

Time and relative dissertations in space
Critical perspectives on Doctor Who
Edited by David Butler

"Time And Relative Dissertations In Space adds to existing scholarship on Doctor Who in important ways … the book brings together the work of an impressive range of writers that collectively present an engaging, thought-provoking and complex analysis of the texts of Doctor Who. "
Cathy Johnson, Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London

Time and Relative Dissertations in space takes the reader on a rich and varied study of one of the greatest television programmes of all time: Doctor Who.
This book is the first study of Doctor Who to explore the Doctor's adventures in all their manifestations: on television, audio, in print and beyond. Although focusing on the original series (1963–89), the collection recognises that Doctor Who is a cultural phenomenon that has been 'told' in many ways through a myriad of texts. Combining essays from academics as well as practitioners who have contributed to the ongoing narrative of Doctor Who, the collection encourages debate with contrasting opinions on the strengths (and weaknesses) of the programme, offering a multi-perspective view of the Doctor and the reasons for his endurance.

Contents
Part I: An earthly programme: origins and directions
1. How to pilot a TARDIS: audiences, science fiction and the fantastic in Doctor Who – David Butler
2. The child as addressee, viewer and consumer in mid-1960s Doctor Who – Jonathan Bignell
3. 'Now how is that wolf able to impersonate a grandmother?' History, pseudo-history and genre in Doctor Who – Daniel O'Mahony
4. Bargains of necessity? Doctor Who, Culloden and fictionalising history at the BBC in the 1960s – Matthew Kilburn
Part II: The subtext of death: narratives, themes and structures
5. The empire of the senses: narrative form and point-of-view in Doctor Who – Tat Wood
6. The ideology of anachronism: television, history and the nature of time – Alec Charles
7. Mythic identity in Doctor Who – David Rafer
8. The human factor: Daleks, the 'evil human' and Faustian legend in Doctor Who – Fiona Moore and Alan Stevens
Part III: The seeds of television production: making Doctor Who
9. The Filipino army's advance on Reykjavik: world-building in studio D and its legacy – Ian Potter
10. 'Who done it': discourses of authorship during the John Nathan-Turner era – Dave Rolinson
11. Between prosaic functionalism and sublime experimentation: Doctor Who and musical sound design – Kevin J. Donnelly
12. The music of machines: 'special sound' as music in Doctor Who – Louis Niebur
Part IV: The parting of the critics: value judgements and canon formations
13. The talons of Robert Holmes – Andy Murray
14. Why is 'City of Death' the best Doctor Who story? – Alan McKee
15. Canonicity matters: defining the Doctor Who canon – Lance Parkin
16. Broader and deeper: the lineage and impact of the Timewyrm series – Dale Smith
17. Televisuality without television? The Big Finish audios and discourses of 'tele-centric' Doctor Who – Matt Hills
Afterword: My adventures – Paul Magrs
Index

David Butler is Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester


There you are, it sounds more thrilling already, doesn't it?

In unrelated news, I've been contacted today about two possible mystery projects, neither of which may come to pass... More later, but how much more and how much later I've no idea yet.
See, a mystery to me too.

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