Ebook: Watching Doctor Who: Fan Reception and Evaluation

This book looks at the nature of reception history, and how fannish perceptions differ from the perceptions of the general audience. It examines not just the affective work that fans do to create value within a canon, but also the way the “value” of Doctor Who changes over time. As a show with an over fifty-year history, Doctor Who and its fandom can explore the changing nature of value and quality. There have been many Doctor Who guidebooks published, as well as collections of information about the series, and there are a number of books that look at “best” episodes of Doctor Who, but this volume explores the (changing) definitions of “quality” as they apply to Doctor Who specifically, and to “quality television” and fandom more generally. This book will examine the thin line between fandom specifically, and reception more generally, as it moves to interrogate the way Doctor Who fans and audiences re-interpret and re-assess the value of particular episodes, Doctors, companions, and eras of Who.