Doctor Who: Language and Representation; An Unearthly Child

 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:  establishing shot- junkyard to Colehill , editing dissolves into each characters face from visual effects to show how each character reacts to development. 1960s pop music , ominous music when Susan is entering junkyard.

Mise-en-scene:  Actor movement: poor acting when Tardis its taking off , reflects early days of TV, Susan dancing and dress/hair when first introduced. Quite alien like/ different compared to teachers.  

Narrative and genre:  Shadow in final shot; enigma/action code and cliffhanger fro next episode , Binary opposition ; dark junkyard to bright white Tardis.

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

Todorov's Equilibrium: episode starts off normal and nothing wrong , then gradually there becomes a disequilibrium when the teachers find out that Susan house doesn't exist and that she's an alien and the audience is then left in a sate of disequilibrium, a cliffhanger. 

Propp's character theory: the heroin are Barbra and Ian ,the teachers. the helper is Susan to The Doctor and the anti-hero/villan is The Doctor in this case.

Barthes's enigma and action codes:  One example of an enigma code is when the characters ask the questions that bthe audience are also asking eg. What planet? why can't they get back? Will the teachers escape? 

Levi-Strauss's binary opposition: One example of  binary opposition is       how many times the Doctors age is emphasised in the ep when he continuously refers to Ian as "Young man".

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

   

    I think the most important scene in the ep is when Ian say "It's bigger on the inside!" and keeps reiterating how he went all around it. This is because throught the entire show everyone who enters the Tradis is flabagasted by the size of it on the inside.

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

    An Unearthly child is Si-fi genre I can tell this by the fact that it presents themes of outer space and aliens eg. when Susan tells us the acronym of Tardis(Time and Relative Dimension in Space).

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

The historical context of this episode conveys the way women and men were treated compared to each other, how age impacted the way people were treated/ talked to and they up and coming music scene of the 1960s.

Representations

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

   The stereotype that men were leading and not afraid of anything is reinforced in this ep when Ian sates in the car to     Barbra that he sees things as it is'. 

2) What stereotypes of women/girls are reinforced and subverted in Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child? How?

   Some stereotypes of women/girls  that a reinforced are in the opening scene when the girls in the opening scene were giggling and the boys interupted them. This showed the relationship between boys and girls and ho throughout time they have mostly always been "enemies". Another stereotype is they way women were ignored and dismissed during those times and even today eg. when Barbra is dismissed of her feelings by Ian until hes sees her suspicions himself and the way shes completely ignored by the Doctor when they meet and he talks to Ian the entire time. 

3) How do the representations of young people and old people in An Unearthly Child reflect the social and historical context of the 1960s? 

The stereotypes of young teenagers in the 60s are also portrayed, their music taste, as seen in the scene where Susan was listen to music on the radio, their dress sense and their hairstyles. Also the way the doctor's and Susan's relationship is portrayed conveys the way the older generation would treat people younger then them. The doctor continuously dismisses Susan and the thoughts that she has. Some may even say this is the same today.

  

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?

   When doctor who was released , in the 60s , the entire show only consisted of white people, this was because segregation only ended in 1964. Despite this the first person of colour companion only appeared in 2006 as "Martha Jones" and technically the first black doctor appeared in 2020 as "the fugitive doctor". This is quite unsurprising as its believable as having people of colour on a traditionally white show takes quite a while for people. However there is now going to be an official black doctor, Nucuti Gatwa, who starred in the Netflix show Sex Education. Which doesn't make much sense as the type of actor he is doesn't correlate with the type of actor needed for doctor who. He's known for comedy whereas doctor who is a mixture of seriousness and comedic relief.

5) How is social class represented in An Unearthly Child? Think about how education and knowledge is presented in the episode.

Susan is presented as smart and even gifted, even called a genius, she is also portrayed as a middle class brit. Barbra also refers to her as "one of us" when Susan reveals that she's not form this world. This shows the way that Barbra thinks of her is similar to the way she thinks of the other people she's surrounded by and herself, once again portraying how the way you look and talk can impact the way people treat you and show your class or at least assumed class.