Dr Who, An Unearthly Child-Audience and Industry

 Language and contexts

1) Write a summary of the notes from our in-class analysis of the episode. 

Camerawork and sound: the camerawork is mostly over the shoulder when there are conversations happening. There are some close up shots as the directors wanted the audience to connect with the characters and be able to see all the emotion on their faces. 

Mise-en-scene: Susan is represented as a typical 1960s teenager who listens to pop music and wears casual clothes. She also has a "tantrum" close to the end where she is trying to get her grandfather to let her teachers go. The junkyard is seen as dark and has a lot of weird strange objects scattered around within it.

Narrative and genre: The genre is SCI-FI. This is clear because Susan often mentions space and we also see the TARDIS. There are uses of an enigma code throughout most of the scenes.

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

Todorov's Equilibrium: at the beginning of the episode everything is normal until they find out where Susan lives and meets her grandad.

Propp's character theory: The teachers are represented as false heroes as they're trying to save Susan but Susan doesn't actually want to be saved because she doesn't need saving. Susan's grandad is represented as a villain.

Barthes's enigma and action codes: Action code- the TARDIS taking of and the effects after that. Enigma code when you meet the grandad and he doesn't make a move to stop the teachers calling the police.

Levi-Strauss's binary opposition: good v evil, old v young, human v alien.

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

in my opinion the most important scene in the episode is when we meet the grandad because we the beginning of the episode is leading up to meet him. He is the main focus of the show and when we finally get to meet him we get to see what kind of guy he is.

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

Sci-fi, its got the TARDIS in it and Susan makes inhumane hand movements and references to the past/future.

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

the hair and makeup represent the time era, the bad camera angles and overexaggerated acting suggests how low budget the show was.

Representations

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

The stereotypes of men being more powerful than women  is reinforced as the lady teacher asks the man for help and the grandad also has control over Susan because he is older. The doctor also ignores Barbra and pulls Ian to the side so he can talk to him.

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

the stereotype of women being weak is reinforced because Barbra asks Ian for help, Susan is also told by her grandad not to have a tantrum.

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

In the 1960s women were very dependent on men however young people had more freedom which is shown in the beginning with a background character who is wearing makeup and jewellery. 

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?

There are no coloured people in Dr Who which is not surprising as racism was very very big in the 1960s and you wouldnt usually see a coloured person on  TV.

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

Everyone in episode is middle class and all the kids we see go to school meaning that the education was average but Susan is more knowledgeable due to her ability to time travel.