Watching Doctor Who: Fan Reception and Evaluation

Through a richly detailed account of fan cultures and media over the over fifty-year history of the show, Watching Doctor Who explores fandom’s changing attitudes towards this much-loved TV series. Why do fans love an episode one year but deride it a decade later? How do fans’ values of Doctor Who change over time? As a show that's featured as part of the shared landscape of home entertainment since the 1960s, Doctor Who helps us understand the changing nature of notions of ‘value’ and ‘quality’ in popular television. Through a series of in-depth case studies of fan polls and debates, Paul Booth and Craig Owen Jones interrogate the way Doctor Who fans and audiences re-interpret the value of particular episodes, Doctors, companions, and eras of Who. With a foreword by Paul Cornell.

Paul Booth is Professor of Communication at DePaul University, USA. Booth's research interests include fandom, new technologies and media, popular culture, and cult media. He is the author of Time on TV (2012), Digital Fandom (2010), and Playing Fans (2014). He has edited Fan Phenomena: Doctor Who (2013), and has published numerous articles on fans, social media, and technology. He is currently enjoying a cup of coffee.

CRAIG OWEN JONES is a lecturer at San Jose State University, USA, and an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Music and Media, Bangor University, Wales. He has written three books and over thirty
articles on TV and film studies, music, history, and literary criticism.