TARDIS Eruditorum

Aka “A Psychochronography in Blue.”

TARDIS Eruditorum is a critical history of Doctor Who and, more broadly, of British history starting in the latter half of the twentieth century. Its structure mirrors that of an episode guide, though this is not to say it is one. Essays on every televised Doctor Who story are presented sequentially, interleaved with various other essays. These include Pop Between Realities essays, which look at things that are not Doctor Who, Time Can Be Rewritten essays, which look at Doctor Who stories set in a different time period from when they were written, and both Outside the Government and You Were Expecting Someone Else essays, which look at things that aren’t quite Doctor Who.

Its goal is to tell the story of Doctor Who as a cultural phenomenon. It is written for an intended audience of people who are familiar with the broad strokes of Doctor Who, but who have not necessarily seen every episode, or indeed any of the classic series. It does not contain episode summaries, and readers interested in given stories are encouraged to go seek them out, but it is no more obtuse to a reader who has not seen a given episode than an average movie review is to someone who hasn’t seen the film. It is not primarily a blog about how good a given episode is or isn’t, although such opinions may creep through. Its primary goal, however, is to tell one particular history of a half-century of British culture through the idiosyncratic but terribly useful lens of an at times ropy but always clever sci-fi program.

TARDIS Eruditorum is periodically edited and collected as books. These can be found here. If you enjoy the series, please consider buying them. Below is a chronological index of the original blog posts.

William Hartnell

Patrick Troughton

Jon Pertwee

Tom Baker

Peter Davison

Colin Baker

Sylvester McCoy

Paul McGann

Christopher Eccleston

David Tennant

Matt Smith

Peter Capaldi

Jodie Whittaker