Doctor Who: Identity, Time and Terror

This study considers the complexities of the Doctor’s identity through physical and gender regeneration, and the darkness within oneself. Furthermore, although free to roam through time, the Doctor’s involvement is limited, moving from being an observer to an active participant, yet constrained in the knowledge that certain events cannot be changed. Key components of the “Whoniverse” are the threatening monstrous or apparently demonic aliens which often drawn on folk motifs. More terrifying, however, are the ways the series explores childhood anxieties, such as fear of the dark, silence and solitude, as well as making commonplace items and instinctive actions terrifying.