Doctor Who: Language and Representation blog tasks

 Language and contexts

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: It has slow and clunky camera movements; has ominous and mysterious music to signal that something bad will happen- turning point in the story. It may signal a beginning of discovery. The music also causes tension. Has different kinds of shots like medium close up shot to present the doctor as a villain

Mise-en-scene: there is a mysterious and tense atmosphere in the junkyard. Susan is first presented as a typical 1960 teenage girl

Narrative and genre: Has a variety of genres like sci-fi and futuristic. Includes a lot of enigma code and science fiction that strengthens the 1960 space race and how curiosity it caused around that time 

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

Todorov's Equilibrium: 

Equilibrium- The teachers are concerned and intrigued about Susan; how she is smart in some ways but not in others.
Disequilibrium- Since the teachers don't know anything about Susan's mysterious background and decide to follow her.
New equilibrium- The teachers discover the shocking truth about TARDIS and also have a moment of realisation that something and had happened.

                          

Propp's character theory: The character of the doctor is presented as a villain because of his ominous background and that he wanted to kill the two teachers.

Barthes's enigma and action codes: 

Enigma code- mystery of Susan's home and French Revolution book: "l'll have finished it" and "That's not right" suggests time travel

Enigma code- Police box/ TARDIS "it's alive!"

Action code- some kind of conflict/threat linked to TARDIS

Levi-Strauss's binary opposition:  Light/dark - lost torch and flashbacks of the dark car and the school classroom

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

I think the most important scene in the episode is when the two teachers discover the TARDIS and that the tense and ominous atmosphere shows us that Doctor Who is presented as a villain; susan and the doctor are aliens. This scene is also very important because it strengthens the 1960s space race and how everyone was very curious about space.

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

I think the genre is Sci-fi and futuristic because of the TARDIS; how it can go anywhere in space and also time. The TARDIS is very white and has a lot of technology such as control panel that controls the TARDIS and can choose where it can go like it did at the end of the episode.

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

The episode links to the space race that occurred in the 1960s and was reflected on the episode by inputting key features of the sci-fi genre

Representations

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

Gender: When Ian is in the driving seat which reinforces the stereotype however in the TARDIS when Ian discovers the shocking truth, he is confused when the doctor tries to explain things and but Susan understood every thing which subverts the stereotype.

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 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.