Is Doctor Who considered fantasy or science fiction?

[Overmind One]

Okay, I made this thread because I want to read some comments on this issue and try and understand why people would put it in which category. Since it is the OP, I will respond with my opinion on it later in the thread.

Here is the wiki: Note the first sentence - "Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC from 1963 to the present day.

 

[Overmind One]

Doctor Who is sort of in a genre "neutral zone". It started out with it's foundations in science fiction, but it has mostly fantasy elements at it's core. In many ways, it defines it's own genre. If I had to name the genre, I would call it Science Fantasy. The Tardis itself which is both a spaceship and a time machine in a phone booth is obviously fantasy. But where the Tardis goes and what the characters do and who they encounter has lots of actual science in there.

 

[Errant of Patha]

The old Who is scifi while the new Who can be said it's more fantasy. Steven Moffat did bring Who back from a child geared program.

 

[Joelist]

But the TARDIS has a scientific type explanation for it, so is it fantasy?

 

[YJ02]

The old Who is scifi while the new Who can be said it's more fantasy. Steven Moffat did bring Who back from a child geared program.

do you know that the Disney XD (teens audience) has recently begun airing DR WHO?

 

[Overmind One]

But the TARDIS has a scientific type explanation for it, so is it fantasy?

Good example. Things like that prevent it from being completely fantasy (or scifi). If you have an 3 eyed, 8-armed, animated creature in a video, but it is talking about actual particle physics and drawing actual equations on a chalkboard, is that fantasy or science fiction...or both?

 

[Bluce Ree]

I'd say it's sci-fantasy. The whole TARDIS existing in two distinct dimensional planes simultaneously is a concept that has always intrigued me.

I like how they go the extra mile often throughout the series to give geeks their tech porn by way of giving the "scientific" explanations behind certain things regardless of how much or how little it resembles anything in real science.

 

[Bluce Ree]

Good example. Things like that prevent it from being completely fantasy (or scifi). If you have an 3 eyed, 8-armed, animated creature in a video, but it is talking about actual particle physics and drawing actual equations on a chalkboard, is that fantasy or science fiction...or both?

... or neither. The beast you describe is not impossible in the vastness of the universe.

 

[Bluce Ree]

The old Who is scifi while the new Who can be said it's more fantasy. Steven Moffat did bring Who back from a child geared program.

Old Who during the Pertwee and Baker eras was more gothic-horror-sci-fantasy, IMO.

 

[Joelist]

Besides, we saw hard sci fi on display more than once this season, even including the Doctor breaking the fourth wall to explain how the solution the audience sees is a demonstration of actual theories about time travel scenarios - in this case the Bootstrap Paradox.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Doctor Who is sort of in a genre "neutral zone". It started out with it's foundations in science fiction, but it has mostly fantasy elements at it's core. In many ways, it defines it's own genre. If I had to name the genre, I would call it Science Fantasy. The Tardis itself which is both a spaceship and a time machine in a phone booth is obviously fantasy. But where the Tardis goes and what the characters do and who they encounter has lots of actual science in there.

It is not a phone booth, it is a capsule that travels in time and space. It -looks- like a phone booth because the Chameleon circuit (an actual scientific device in the show) has been broken since the very start of the show.

 

[Gatefan1976]

The old Who is scifi while the new Who can be said it's more fantasy. Steven Moffat did bring Who back from a child geared program.

This is a -very- important point.

 

[Joelist]

It is not a phone booth, it is a capsule that travels in time and space. It -looks- like a phone booth because the Chameleon circuit (an actual scientific device in the show) has been broken since the very start of the show.

BINGO! This is a fundamental plot point of the show. Normally a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) can have its "real world" interface take any chosen form, which goes back to the TARDIS not actually existing in normal space time - it is a dimensional portal created and manipulated via a combination of TimeLord technology and block transfer computational mathematics. This even showed up in the finale of the most recent season.

The Doctor's TARDIS cannot do this because the Chameleon Circuit (which controls the process) has malfunctioned. At the time it failed the TARDIS was concealed as a London Police Box, which is what it is stuck as for now.

 

[Gatefan1976]

BINGO! This is a fundamental plot point of the show.

Yep.
It has been used and abused for years, yes. A way to explain why the TARDIS always looks like it does, and to shift blame from "BBC had no money for SFX, and SXF were crude when Who started" to a scientific, and Iconic part of the show. There have been -multiple- times when the Doctor could have got the circuit fixed, but at every turn, he chooses not to do it.

Normally a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) can have its "real world" interface take any chosen form, which goes back to the TARDIS not actually existing in normal space time - it is a dimensional portal created and manipulated via a combination of TimeLord technology and block transfer computational mathematics.

You don't mean............. Science Fiction do you Joe? OMG!!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!

This even showed up in the finale of the most recent season.

Yep.

The Doctor's TARDIS cannot do this because the Chameleon Circuit (which controls the process) has malfunctioned. At the time it failed the TARDIS was concealed as a London Police Box, which is what it is stuck as for now.

It's also a out of date type 40 P.O.S. that does not even register as missing on Gallifreyan sensors

 

[Joelist]

Actually he did repair it once (Colin Baker) in the episode "Attack of the Cybermen". The problem was the circuit started acting REALLY wonky, disguising the TARDIS as things that were totally out of place instead of properly blending in until the Doctor had to deactivate it again.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Aww man, it's Colin baker, the doctor who tried to murder his own companions, I try to block that out

(Sorry Errant)

 

[Joelist]

Aww man, it's Colin baker, the doctor who tried to murder his own companions, I try to block that out

(Sorry Errant)

A bit of an overstatement there

The "murder attempt" was one time in the episode "twin dilemma" where the Doctor was sort of deranged for a short time because of the unstable regeneration. Remember he finally seeks medical help later in that season to try to stabilize things and does largely succeed.

 

[Joelist]

On the main topic.

Doctor Who mostly operates in a semi-science fiction mode. But when they go science fiction they tend to go really hard science fiction, with the central points of episodes being concepts like the nature and structure of hyperspace, or the aforementioned Bootstrap Paradox, or pretty sophisticated ideas even in their "horror" episodes (like Image of the Fendahl). They also do satire wonderfully (like The Sun Makers).

I find it hard to say fantasy here simply because they do have scientific type explanations of everything used in their universe.

 

[Overmind One]

On the main topic.

Doctor Who mostly operates in a semi-science fiction mode. But when they go science fiction they tend to go really hard science fiction, with the central points of episodes being concepts like the nature and structure of hyperspace, or the aforementioned Bootstrap Paradox, or pretty sophisticated ideas even in their "horror" episodes (like Image of the Fendahl). They also do satire wonderfully (like The Sun Makers).

I find it hard to say fantasy here simply because they do have scientific type explanations of everything used in their universe.

Some of the older episodes had more science in them than some Star Trek episodes.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Some of the older episodes had more science in them than some Star Trek episodes.

So,is it sci fi yet?
Or are you still scratching your head?

 

[Overmind One]

So,is it sci fi yet?
Or are you still scratching your head?

It kinda is, and kinda isn't. Like I said earlier in this thread, it is sorta like science fantasy. It leans decidedly towards scifi, but it isnt really scifi. Its the Who genre!