Mediatizing the 50th Anniversary — Cinematic Liveness and the “Developing Art” of the Doctor

Abstract

This chapter addresses how Doctor Who navigated the “mediatic system” via its anniversary paratextual array. Part of constructing “The Day of the Doctor” as a popular media event involved releasing it in ₃ D in cinemas. A series of BFI screenings also built up to the big day, adding an aura of “liveness” to Who’s celebrations. TV Studies has thought of television’s relationship to cinema as one where TV aspires to become “cinematic” and legitimize itself. Exploring how3D TV was used as an “event”, I argue that there are signs of “cinematization” in play. However, Who’s media anniversary also aligned notions of liveness and fan communitas with movie screenings in order to unusually enact a valorizing “televisionization” of cinema and a “technologization” of TV.