Author Brian J Robb believes that the original run of Doctor
Who declined in the 1980s
because the programme
makers failed to engage with
the (ever dwindling) viewer-
ship, and 'fan's' producer
John Nathan Turner in
particular pandered to (an
ever influential) fandom.
The introduction of Robb's
Timeless Adventures: How
Doctor Who Conquered TV
(published by Kamara in
2009) established the whole
crux of the book, that the unique series "earned its place in the
affections of the British TV audiences because underneath its fan-
tastical adventures with a critique of contemporary social, political
and cultural issues".
Indeed, the the success of today's revived incarnation of the show
owes much to a thorough engagement with modern culture, initiated
by its first (and returning) showrunner, Russell T Davies.
Each successive production team positively engaged with those ideas
and events happening around them, until the reign of Graham
Williams when the show began it's retreat from any popular
engagement. Instead, JNT continued to "exploit the growing cultural
and interllectual phenomenon of postmodernism" by attracting
audiences with nostalgia, but became bogged-down with continuity.
I wholly concur with Robb that despite the seismic political and
social upheaval of the 1980s, it seems astounding that Doctor
Who - previously such a politically aware series - should abdicate
virtually all knowledge of Thatcher's Britain (even by 1988 the
implicit imagery of The Happiness Patrol appears past it's sell-by
date).
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