Work in Space: The Changing Image of Space Careers in the TV Series Doctor Who

Abstract

Work and careers in space have been portrayed in many episodes of the British TV series Doctor Who. By analysing a selection of the 300 Doctor Who stories (made up of almost 900 episodes) being broadcasted since 1963, this chapter clarifies how their representation has changed over time. It uncovers a decline from the research and exploration-focused safe, clean, utopian, technocratic and glamorous space stories of the 1960s to the more labour-focused dangerous, dirty, dystopian, steampunk and unattractive space stories in the 2010s. This trend is remarkable as it potentially affects viewers’ ideas about space careers. Doctor Who is known to influence audiences’ understanding about space; and television—like pop culture in general—is a powerful medium in which collective ideas and meanings about our futures (and future careers) are reflected, shaped and imagined. So, what can we learn from this changing pop cultural image of space careers in Doctor Who?

1 Introduction

Possible selves—or imagining oneself in a possible future role—are important because they can act as strong motivators for choices related to participation in, for instance, science.

DeWitt and Bultitude 1945¹

In 2018, Garner and Dudley identified several problems with getting young people into space careers: (a) a lack of awareness of the space sector, (b) limited opportunities to develop experience, (c) limited to no access to appropriate space related software, and (d) skills needed across multiple disciplines. According to their study, this results in students dismissing a career in space.² In 2020, the Space Skills Alliance (SSA) conducted a survey of 1,552 people across 250 organisations in the UK on “What motivates people to join the space sector?” They discovered that the two main attractions are: “A love of space (42%) and a desire for interesting work (44%).”³ The SSA also shows that 30% of respondents said they were influenced by TV. If a science fiction TV show engages viewers, then the career or research it portrays may encourage them to pursue it.⁴ In other words, if viewers can see themselves in a space career, through a representation of someone like their future self in a TV show,⁵ they are more likely to believe it can happen and consider a future in the space sector.

In fact, Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison credits her pursuit of a space career to the space exploration sci-fi TV show Star Trek,⁶ as do astronauts Terry Virts, Tom Jones, Mike Massimino⁷ and Chris Hadfield.⁸ A similar TV show—Lost in Space⁹—encouraged Charles Justiz, astronaut trainer, to follow a space career¹⁰; and it was the British sci-fi and fantasy family TV show Doctor Who that inspired Marek Kukula to become a space scientist¹¹ and Anita Sengupta to envision herself as a NASA jet propulsion engineer.¹² Patrick M. Smith and Malte C. Ebach were also inspired to be scientists after watching Doctor Who.¹³ With these luminaries citing TV shows as their inspiration for pursuing a space career, then an argument can be made for positive representations of space careers in Doctor Who.

However, of the estimated one million space industry employees worldwide,¹⁴ limited studies have been conducted on the influence of Doctor Who, let alone science fiction, on space sector career choices. In astrophysics, particularly, Elizabeth Stanway argues that the “anecdotal connection between an interest in science fiction and career aspirations (…) is well established”, but points out that there is no statistical evidence or “quantitative assessment of its prevalence” in scholarly research.¹⁵ Even so, research has been conducted on possible influence through positive career reflections within the Doctor Who series. In their 2016 study on scientist characters and gender in Doctor Who, Lindy A. Orthia and Rachel Morgain show that “contributors to Doctor Who have consistently expressed a positive view of women’s scientific credibility” and that “Doctor Who encourages individual women to succeed in scientific careers just like men.”¹⁶ A 2019 survey of Doctor Who viewers even highlights that “engagement with a fictional television program can have a significant impact on some people’s education and career choices”.¹⁷ This suggests that it is within the space sector’s interest that Doctor Who portrays attractive space career roles for humans in its narratives.

While some publications examine the impact of Doctor Who beyond the fictional universe, there is a dearth of research on space careers within the series. It therefore seems timely to take a closer look at the representation and dynamics of space work in the Doctor Who TV show itself. How is working in space portrayed in Doctor Who? In its 60-year history, with 300 stories revolving around different storylines across almost 900 episodes—some broadcasts of which achieved in excess of 12 million viewers in the UK alone¹⁸—Doctor Who included 37 stories specifically set in the near future of human space exploration. In this chapter, by means of a distant analysis, we explore how they represent space careers, before focusing on five of these stories—The Wheel in Space (1968), The Invisible Enemy (1977), Dragonfire (1987), 42 (2007) and Oxygen (2017)¹⁹—through comparative textual analysis. Our aim is to better understand how Doctor Who stories define space careers, how these stories might have changed over time and what we can learn from them.

2 Who is the Doctor?

Doctor Who is a British science fiction and fantasy TV series that has been in production, with the occasional hiatus, since 1963.²⁰ The main character of the show is an alien ‘Time Lord’ from the planet Gallifrey known as the Doctor, an elite scientist of many disciplines. The Doctor travels the universe, and occasionally the multiverse, in a space/time ship, usually with companions from various Earth eras. Stories explore the human condition through both human and alien lenses, with many of the adventures that the viewers experience taking place on twentieth and twenty-first century Earth. The original plan for the show was to be an educational programme for children and the scripts initially reflected the effort to represent history as accurately as possible.²¹ In the late 1960s, the writers wanted to move away from the historical stories and feature more speculative science, so they began hiring science advisors such as Kit Pedlar.²² This led to a few stories in the late 1960s of future humans working together in space—The Moonbase (1967), The Wheel in Space (1968), The Seeds of Death (1969)—usually communities of scientists and academics, military and civilians collaborating. This meant that many viewers were exposed to science and space careers at an early age, with several space stories featuring prophetic extrapolations of science within advanced, harmonious and even glamorous utopian futures following a technocratic ideology.

However, in recent years, Doctor Who has generally avoided visiting these kinds of technocratic futures, instead broadcasting episodes that show the seedier side of future life—such as Turn Left (2008)²³ and The Lie of the Land (2017)²⁴—with a focus on people struggling for survival in a dystopian future. These are not the kind of stories likely to engender hope for opportunities in humanity leaving the planet and creating space jobs. This change is more prominent in the ‘new’ era, though this aspect did begin in the ‘classic’ era, and we will explore both eras to determine when this change was most likely to have occurred and why there has been a decline in positive representations of space careers in Doctor Who in recent years.

The ‘classic’ era ran from 1963 to1989 consisting mostly of 25-min episodes of Doctor Who, broadcast in letterbox format, with those episodes within a story ending in cliffhangers. The main production structure was that four episodes made up one story, with occasional longer stories running up to 14 episodes, and some stories having two episodes broadcast as one in various locations. While not classed as an era, from 1990 to 2004, Doctor Who continued, in books, comics, magazines, cartoons, audio cassette and CD adventures, radio adventures, and a single 90-min telemovie in the style and structure of classic era stories. The ‘new’ era began in 2005 and is continuing in a widescreen format of 40-to-77-min episodes with the occasional 2- or 3-part story, with not as many stories per year as in the classic series. While the Doctors are decidedly different—William Hartnell’s early 1960s’ Doctor being an angry old man compared to Jodie Whitaker’s early 2020’s Doctor being a young compassionate woman, for example—an unchanging trait in the narrative is that space should be explored. As of mid-2023, most of the 300 stories feature the Doctor and companions traveling in space at some point.

3 Work in Space: Space Careers in Doctor Who—An Overview

To focus our inquiry on space careers for humans generally, we discarded Doctor Who stories where the only humans featured were the Doctor’s companions, and disregarded those that predominantly featured an Earth- or alien-planet-bound story that did not focus on space careers. This reduced the number of stories to a collection of 37 human-space-focused stories, consisting of 122 episodes (see Table 1). To set the frame for our discussion and interpretation of the space-career theme and its dynamics, in this section we provide a space-career-related overview of each story, followed by a close reading of our five selected key episodes.

In many of the earlier space stories (1960s to 1970s) the Doctor visits a human space outpost such as a space station or wheel, a rocket or other kind of spaceship, and encounters groups of human scientists, engineers and personnel collaborating on space research. These stories—such as The Moonbase (1967), The Wheel in Space (1968), The Seeds of Death (1969), The Mutants (1972), The Ark in Space (1975), Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) and The Invisible Enemy (1977)—feature friendly characters, with diverse accents, working in space-related environments. These episodes, while consisting of scenes of death and destruction as is de rigour for a Doctor Who story, usually end on an upbeat note, and reflect an unspoken ideal that these space researchers live in a future technocratic utopia. While other stories—such as The Space Pirates (1969)—are more about space police fighting space criminals, and Frontier in Space (1973) is predominantly about a potential false flag space war, the idea of working in space seems generally positive in that the characters do not complain about their work and do not talk about wishing they were somewhere else. The Doctor and companion(s) also visited generational or public transport ships such as The Ark (1966), The Nightmare of Eden (1977) and Mummy on the Orient Express (2014) and early colonies, or small groups on distant worlds—for example in The Power of the Daleks (1966), The Macra Terror (1967), Colony in Space (1971), Planet of Evil (1975), The Robots of Death (1977), The Sunmakers (1977), The Leisure Hive (1980)—which featured humans performing their responsibilities, sometimes even excitedly. Comparing all these stories, we can see similar traits that define these as affirmative representations of space careers including obvious teamwork in fighting the narrative threat, wit and friendly sarcasm, a diverse crew treated equally and gender neutrally within their stations, science represented in helpful and positive ways, working in space being perceived as safe, and the space careers that the characters followed presented in an appealing light.

From the 1980s, the future human space research groups all but disappeared. While space stories continued with Four to Doomsday (1982), Earthshock (1982), Terminus (1983) and Frontios (1984), the storylines focused more on the Doctor and companions rather than the characters around them. While some of the traits above appear in these stories, splintered groups or conflicts between humans became more common. Utopian and technocratic ideologies were shown in a negative light, and in these particular examples, space seemed unsafe. It is not until Trial of a Timelord episodes 9 to 12 (1986), later gaining an additional title of Terror of the Vervoids, that we get to see groups of researchers working in space again on a holiday space liner. Scientific discussions about research, characters passionate about their work, some humour, and near a black hole, not to mention a beautiful futuristic space liner to explore, implied it was created by an advanced future technocratic empire. This story was the last relatively positive representation of space careers in Doctor Who for a while. Dragonfire (1987), set on an ice world inside a city-sized spaceship, featured limited teamwork, a lack of safety, the only careers available being retail work or slave, and many of the holiday visitor characters shown to be selfish. Not to mention that a contemporary 20th-century girl found herself in this far future dystopia and expresses her dislike of working there. Ace, one of the Seventh Doctor’s future companions, says, “Oh, I’m fed up being a waitress” and “Ended up working as a waitress again, only this time I couldn’t dream about going nowhere else. There wasn’t nowhere else to go.” While the lines are simple actions within the show, like pouring a milkshake on a customer, and wanting to go on an adventure rather than work clearly shows a dislike of the retail job Ace had on the alien spaceship.

The series was rested from 1990 to 2004, and apart from a 90-min telemovie set on Earth simply called Doctor Who (1996), with the only space travel a quick orbit of our planet, the series was not regenerated until 2005. With the advent of the new series, it seems that negative space career stories are here to stay. While the new era of Doctor Who has better special effects and more adventurous storylines, an underlying negative to space work seems to be common. The End of the World (2005) set the tone with aliens gathering to ‘enjoy’ the spectacle of the destruction of Earth in five billion years’ time with no human technofuture or large groups of collaborative human researchers there to study the event, with part of the plot focusing on some of the selfish remains of the last human. In The Long Game (2005) most of the characters on the space station conduct basic broadcast work in almost slave conditions, unable to fight for their own views, having been subconsciously subjugated years ago with brain chips. The two-parter Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways (2005) features unwilling contestants beamed to the station from Earth to fight in games or die. While these were written by the showrunner, Russell T. Davies, all in the same year, it is interesting that the hundreds or so crew that also worked on it, were not able to make the stories more positive. The stories are missing space-work-endorsing traits such as teamwork, humorous banter, the demonstrated appeal of the work positions featured, and utopian and technocratic ideologies.

This idea of space being more dangerous than it is worth continues in the two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (2006) with a group of researchers on a planetoid drilling for an unknown energy field that is preventing it from falling into a black hole. The potential for a story exploring the positives of science in a utopic future, where researchers are investigating a strange space phenomenon, soon devolves into takeovers of the mind and characters crazed and possessed by the devil. Space is not only shown as deadly, but with the additional fear that something from superstition might also kill. Not to mention the fact that the researchers were using aliens ‘servants’ who behaved more like slaves, to help them. 42 (2007) continues the trend with the crew of an aging spaceship grabbing energy from a sentient star that is killing them off one by one. While teamwork is needed to fight the threat, this is far from a utopian world with technocratic ideologies and a love for work, as expressed by Riley, “The job doesn’t lend itself to stable relationships,” and Erina, “Whatever you say, boss. Go there. Come back. Fetch this. Carry these. Make drinks. Sweep up. Please, kill me now.”

The Waters of Mars (2009), even with the entire narrative suggesting that it will be about the indomitable human spirit in establishing the first Mars colony, quickly devolves into a showcase for the Doctor and his control of time, and how alien bacteria might kill you in space, with the entire colony almost wiped out. Even some of the characters were talking down their jobs and the facilities, and acting less trained than they should be for such an important mission, projecting negativity about the concept of a Mars base. This is shown through the space station leader, Adelaide, complaining about her staff. “You’ve deserted your post. Consider that an official warning. Now get back to work” and “I expect better of you, Ed. Now get back to work, all of you.” with Ed later saying “This bloody job. You never gave me a chance. You never could forgive me,” before blowing himself up to help protect Earth. Having said that, this story has some positives, such as the Doctor changing time to save a couple of the crew, and some of the science behind the base is discussed. However, it is nowhere near the positiveness of earlier stories such as The Wheel in Space discussed previously.

While The Waters of Mars could have been the first step in reversing the trend, The Beast Below (2010) shows everyone living in fear of the automated services on a spaceship. Kill the Moon (2014) has the Doctor and companion encounter the dead occupants of a Moon base, and astronauts planning to sacrifice themselves to blow up a creature growing inside the Moon. Science is thrown out completely with this episode in that the Moon is described as an egg, the creature growing inside is somehow increasing gravity, and large creatures that survive in the vacuum and are eating astronauts are described as bacteria. While teamwork is featured—a joint sacrifice—it is anything but safe, or even believable. Sleep No More (2015), set on a research satellite with only one remaining researcher also does not show a space career in a good light, with his experiment having escaped and killed everyone, and the chance of a spread of the infection. Smile (2017) is about a colony that has been destroyed by its own microrobots due to the compounded grief of the deaths, suggesting that humans are too emotional to live in space, and Oxygen (2017) features miners on a space wheel that are being deliberately killed off by a suit command to save money for the corporation. At almost every turn, every space story portrayed space to be too dangerous to live in, missing most of the traits we consider show space stories in a positive light.

The exception to this is The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018). The Doctor and companions end up on a spaceship hospital and work with accomplished people to save the ship from being destroyed by a space intruder. The story even ends upbeat, with a positive outlook not only on the surviving occupants of the craft but also in that their passion for the careers will continue. Featuring teamwork, humour, a diverse crew, gender neutral equality, prophetic extrapolations of science (miniature antimatter drive explained in the story) and utopian and technocratic ideologies, The Tsuranga Conundrum draws from the 1960s and 1970s era of Doctor Who in that it is an affirmative representation of working in space, along with how that work positively impacts people. While this story has humans and aliens working together, unlike earlier stories that usually just showed humans in space, the overall theme suggests a positive future for humanity.

To summarise, while early Doctor Who stories (1960s to 1970s) showed several positive space fiction storylines set in the near future of human space exploration, with a “deliberately global” crew²⁵ and a technocratic future,²⁶ stories from the 2000s onwards, while more cosmopolitan,²⁷ seem to represent space for humans in a more negative light. At the time of writing in mid-2023, while there have been space diversions since, such as trips through space to a destination as is common in Doctor Who, there has yet to be another story that focuses on humans working together on research in space, or other utopian, technocratic ideal. Without detailing the 24 episodes that follow The Tsuranga Conundrum, there continues to be a lack of positive space stories for future humans (and their viewers) in the TV series. But why does the new era of Doctor Who, along with the latter part of the classic era, wish to portray working in space in a negative light? More to the point, why have Doctor Who adventures in space in our near future, featuring highly trained humans, mostly disappeared from Doctor Who? To investigate this change further, we will conduct a comparative analysis on five stories from Doctor Who in more detail, taken at approximately ten-year intervals.

4 Space Work Through the Ages

4.1 The Wheel in Space (1968)

There are several main characters pursuing space careers, including technicians, engineers and doctors, and all are represented positively, before the narrative threat begins. The actors portray their characters as performing their jobs professionally and calmly. They are shown as highly trained, and any conflict is discussed carefully, with consideration for the other characters. Conversations are civil and there is banter between the diverse characters. The atmosphere seems welcoming as characters sit close together, even in wide shots, and the place is well lit, indicating a safe environment. Women are in important positions, and discussions between them usually focus on science or medicine, the same as the men. Characters are also seen smiling and laughing. There are no complaints in the dialogue about working on the space station, unless it is related to the narrative threat and the challenge to overcome that. It is also implied that all characters have studied hard to be there. Tanya says, “Like small meteorites hitting our outer rim.” Jarvis replies, “Objects of small mass and high density.” Gemma adds, “Then these objects would be clinging close to the rocket, not descending on us!” Gemma describes the gravitational pull of matter in space, not only demonstrating that her multidisciplinary training goes beyond being a Doctor of Medicine and psychiatry, but also indicating the scientific impossibility of small matter leaving one large mass in space and traveling to another without any aid—the beginnings of the narrative threat. Some of the later dialogue also covers how well protected from various threats the wheel is, implying that the crew feel secure there. The dialogue and the portrayal of the characters indicates a positive representation of a future in space.

The Wheel reflects a technocratic utopian future with technology featured in almost every scene, and people knowing how to not only use that technology, but also discuss how it works. It is spacious as characters are seen in large rooms and walking down wide corridors. Walls are adorned with orderly signs, directions and other information that reinforce the idea that working in space is safe. This aspect, where characters explore and work in their spaces without giving it a thought, indicates a positive view of the equipment humanity will use to help keep them safe in the future. Prophetic extrapolation of science is believable and can be easily traced back to science and theoretical science of the time, thereby projecting confidence in the ability for humanity to progress along the line of scientific achievement towards space careers. These traits indicate positivity in representation of space careers in this story. Let us now look at a story broadcast just under ten years later, conducting a comparative analysis to see what traits have changed in the representation of space careers.

4.2 The Invisible Enemy (1977)

Some changes to how a story is presented is noticeable, compared to The Wheel in Space, in that there is less time spent describing the characters. Of the locations, a spaceship, the Doctor’s space/time ship The TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), the asteroid hospital, and a base on Titan, there are multiple characters and limited time to get to know them. However, again, there is not any suggestion of these characters not enjoying their space careers. There are pilots, doctors and nurses, administrators and a receptionist. With the narrative threat appearing in the first few minutes, only those at the space hospital are initially seen to be performing their work carefully and considerately until the invasion starts and people begin being taken over by an intelligent virus. Only Professor Marius, the main medic on the station, and his assistant Parsons share banter, along with the Doctor and companion. Marius is also very excited to do his job. Marius says, “Interesting. Most interesting. It isn’t every night that we come up with a brand-new infection, is it, Parsons?” Until the narrative threat is over, viewers do not see much of the other characters in their normal space careers, though for those not taken over by the sentient virus, teamwork and training is evident. The place is also well-lit indicating a usually safe environment. Unfortunately, for a story set 5,000 years in the future, it seems that equality and diversity has been lost as the majority of characters are white men, with the few white women, apart from the companion, having limited on screen time. Even so, overall, for white men at least, with relatively unplaceable accents, the working environment indicates that far future space careers are represented positively in this story.

The space hospital reflects a technocratic future with technology featured in almost every scene, and people knowing how to not only use the medical technology, but also discuss how it works. The hospital is spacious, similar to The Wheel in Space, as characters are seen in large rooms and walking down wide corridors, and walls are adorned with orderly signs, directions and other information that reinforce the idea that working in space is safe. Like the story before, this aspect indicates a positive view, reinforcing the viewers’ confidence in an advanced future where a space career is a good option for people looking for work. While some of the prophetic extrapolations of science seem unbelievable (instant photocopied clones complete with clothing and memories), most technological advances featured could be seen as likely in a near future space hospital, perhaps in 2077. However, for science fiction aficionados, the hospital seems a bit retro and low in future technology for something that is set 5,000 years hence. Even so, for those that miss the ‘5,000 years’ reference, it would still be a compelling enough story to attract viewers into considering a space career due to its overall positivity. Let us now jump another ten years to Dragonfire (1987).

4.3 Dragonfire (1987)

This story has several failings, including being too short to explore the full narrative, a poor ending and a childish dialogue in the first episode. However, a lot of effort has been put into the sets, humour and action, and the actors portray their characters convincingly. There are some joys in the Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, and Sabalom Glitz, played by Tony Selby, searching for the dragon’s treasure. However, Glitz is portrayed as a space pirate, a jocular and over-the-top character hiding a killer streak, whereas the Doctor continually puts himself in childish scrapes. Compared to serious The Wheel in Space and intellectually humorous The Invisible Enemy, Dragonfire is nothing but pantomime that would have been best executed on a stage.

Pulling away these layers shows a very dystopian future. Iceworld is supposed to be a place of leisure, but space pirates like Glitz sell their crews into slavery to pay debts and is chased by the villain’s slaves for further payment. Pudovkin says angrily, “I remember how you sold our entire crew to Kane to be frozen as mercenaries.” Glitz replies, defensively, “Oh now, come on, old son, don’t go jumping to conclusions.” The retail environment reflects 20th-century milk bars, complete with complaining customers and an angry waitress. The only scientist there, apart from the Doctor, is the villain hellbent on taking over the twelve galaxies, with his mercenary army almost complete. Other characters are trying to escape their slavery. When the villain’s mercenaries begin their killing spree, customers rush to the nearest ship open which turns out to be Glitz’s. Selfishly escaping Iceworld without waiting for anyone else, all occupants are then destroyed by the villain, with Glitz only upset at his spacecraft exploding, not the large population of people on board it.

This is not a positive reflection of the future. While there is the possibility of serving the villain and being involved in his conquest of galaxies, if a character wishes to pursue an aspirational calling bigger than themselves, this is not a story that in any way encourages a space career or might even inspire a child viewer to go out into space. Ultimately, as amusing as some of the scenes in this story are, Dragonfire fails at the basics of encouraging space exploration. No highly trained, professional characters, friendly banter only among the main cast, limited discussion about science and mostly from the Doctor, constant obvious and implied dislike of the work area, and most characters fearful of their future. This can be read as a negative representation of a future in space.

Iceworld is later revealed in the script to not be a city but a huge alien crystalline spaceship. With slippery surfaces, freezing temperatures, the villain’s nazi-like security guards patrolling everywhere, and a deadly dragon-like biomechanoid creature firing lasers from its eyes, not to mention frequent ice blockages of various doors in the centre, it is anything but safe. While tourists seem blissfully unaware of the dangers, everyone else is concerned. Even the Doctor ends up in a cliffhanger situation trying to go to one of the lower levels, and Glitz is almost killed by falling ice crystals. There is danger everywhere. While there is evidence of advances in technology, these are attributed to the aliens that trapped the villain there, rather than anything humans might have developed in the future. The fact that humans had somehow become involved with this alien villain in a kind of symbiotic relationship and uses the alien’s facilities for tourism rather than any kind of research, not to mention the character of Glitz surviving in this reality as a space pirate, indicates a negative representation of future space careers for humanity. It is prudent to note that this season of Doctor Who rated one of the lowest in its history with around four million viewers per episode²⁸ and that the series went into indefinite hiatus just two years later.

4.4 42 (2007)

The story 42 opens with our main characters entering the narrative danger on a ship that is overheating and falling into a star. While characters are successively introduced in the 42-min episode, most are killed off in the first half and we do not get to hear much about their jobs or lives. Science figures prominently in this episode with the Doctor asking science-related questions and getting science-related answers back; done in a fast, almost indistinct way which quickly shows not only the scientist nature of the Doctor, but also the highly trained skills of the characters. Characters are diverse and, welcomingly, also include one middle-aged person, a rare thing in Doctor Who for a space-based story. The captain is female and the crew, to the most part, follow her lead.

However, even though the crew is highly trained and good at what they do, they are simply transporting cargo for credits. Comparing this to The Wheel in Space and The Invisible Enemy it seems that the utopian future suggested, where there is no mention of money, has been replaced with the expectation that money will still be needed for many more centuries, even when humans are trying to make a living in star systems far away from Earth. They are also not happy about working there. One of the crew does not even like being told what to do by the captain, while others question the Doctor’s knowledge unless he explains it. While it seems that these characters have chosen to help run this ship and transport its cargo, it is a survival choice rather than a life goal. Also, the job seems hard, the ship rundown, laws are being skirted to get the cargo where it needs to go in time, and the dangers of space are mentioned several times. Riley says, “The wonderful world of space travel. The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you.” While there is some teamwork and camaraderie, and we learn that it is a husband-and-wife team running the ship, suggesting a family atmosphere, ultimately this is a negative representation of space careers and is unlikely to attract young viewers into pursuing a future off Earth.

This ship does not reflect a possible utopian technocratic future as many of the controls are dials, levers and switches. It reflects steampunk with limited evidence of technology. Even a device that looks like an MRI scanner but can somehow generate different temperatures looks retro and lacking in technological advancement. To increase the steampunk imagery, throughout the ship are inexplicable spurts of steam at various points in the narrative. Even the medical centre seems grungy, and for a story likely to be at least 500 to 1,000 years in the future, though this is not stated, the tech looks like something cobbled together in a garage from contemporary times. While there is a computer voice, indicating that the ship has warnings and support technology, simple keypads can open and lock; screens as well as communication systems seem backward. For those interested in pursuing a career in space, looking for reassurance that high tech environments would keep them safe, this ship does none of that and looks like a death trap, with doors shutting and locking automatically and crazed killers hiding behind them. This ship is a negative representation of a future working life in space. This brings us to one of the least positive Doctor Who stories set in space, probably setting back popular culture’s encouragement for pursuing a space career by several years.

4.5 Oxygen (2017)

Most of the characters on the space station are already dead but their corpses are being carried inside their autonomous spacesuits, their deaths later found to have been arranged by the conglomerate that owns the space station. The surviving humans are labourers with skills in mining, engineering and science, though portrayed as victims desperate to survive against the suit virus. The job is something they had to do to live rather than one they aspired to do. Also, there is limited camaraderie as they are only together because they are survivors. Disagreements are frequent. While a diverse crew, including a humanoid alien with blue skin, they take advantage of a death of one of them so that the rest can find a way to survive for a few more minutes. Some anger but no grief at death. There is humour, as a common trope of the series is for the Doctor to say something funny to lighten a dark scene, although, this time the humour is also dark. The Doctor states, “I’ve got no TARDIS. No sonic. About ten minutes of oxygen left and now I’m blind… Can you imagine how unbearable I’m going to be when I pull this off?” Bill replies, “Don’t do this… You always do this.” The Doctor asks, “Do what?” Bill replies, “Make jokes to distract me from whatever’s about to kill us.” The Doctor responds, “What else are jokes for?” Also, in this one, Bill, one of the Doctor’s companions, ‘dies’. This representation of space as unsafe is emphasized several times, and though the death of a companion in any episode is distressing for Doctor Who fans, the idea that the Doctor knew she was only stunned and could be brought back with a touch of a suit button, dismissed the 36 or so dead humans in suits that could not be brought back the same way.

Unlike other space stations in Doctor Who, this one does not have any oxygen. The corporation that owns it charges the occupants for suit oxygen. This is emphasized when the Doctor fills the station with oxygen from his TARDIS and the space station AI detects the illegal gas and pumps it out, forcing the Doctor and companions to occupy space suits from the repair facility, which they soon realise may kill them. With other space suits containing corpses attempting to transfer the elimination suit command to every other suit, the characters find the only way to escape is to cross the station through the vacuum. But the corpses can follow them outside the station in the vacuum, making both sides unsafe. Darkly lit, efficient-looking yet not at all friendly, the starkness of the place as the most efficient space factory suggests a dystopian future, one where those with money own all the technology and those who do not must work like slaves. Ultimately, unfriendly characters, dangerous space and even the organisation that those pursuing a space career need to trust with their lives, turning on them and essentially murdering them, make this the least positive portrayal of future space careers in the history of Doctor Who.

5 Career Lessons from the Whoniverse

Our comparative textual analysis of five stories—The Wheel in Space (1968), The Invisible Enemy (1977), Dragonfire (1987), 42 (2007) and Oxygen (2017)—uncovered several factors that define work in space: levels of teamwork, humour, a diverse and ‘global’ crew, gender neutral equality, prophetic extrapolations of science, utopian and technocratic ideologies, and perceptions of safety. These characteristics of space work have changed over time. Space exploration stories from the early 1960s portrayed positive and glamorous aspects such as future-stylishly dressed, highly trained international human teams collaborating in a friendly and academic manner, with the ability to defend themselves against any threat, with the Doctor’s help, essentially showing space careers in a positive light. However, most space stories from the 1980s onwards feature defenceless humans with limited training in dangerous situations unable to collaborate or defend themselves without the Doctor’s help, essentially showing a space career not only in a less attractive light but also a lot more deadly. By the 1980s positive connotations of work had partly disappeared, with emotions and death and the lack of accurate representations of science being more common.

While Oxygen lowered the bar further in negative representations of space careers, it should be noted that, just one year later, a relatively positive space fiction story, in comparison to all that have appeared in new Doctor Who so far, appeared—The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018). If Oxygen is at the bottom of the bell curve, then The Tsuranga Conundrum might be the start of the upward swing towards more positive space stories. Featuring a spaceship hospital, with friendly patients and collaboration to get the narrative threat off the ship; it also features the first female Doctor linearly in the series, played by Jodie Whittaker, as well as a diverse main cast. Not only that, the ship is brightly lit and, until the narrative threat appears, feels safe and seems like an attractive and aspirational place to work. While it is set in the sixty-seventh century, so not as advanced as might have been expected for something 4,600 years in the future, it seems like a possible near future for children watching.

Perhaps what Doctor Who needs is a friendly space hospital on the dark side of the Moon, set within the next 100 years, that he/she/they regularly visits in one episode every year to help promote space research and exploration in a positive light. Or a sequel to The Wheel in Space updated for the twenty-first century, appealing to long term fans, new viewers and future space career employees might be even better.

6 Spaced Out—Conclusion on the Changing Image of Space Careers in Doctor Who

Science fiction TV shows are influenced by the real world. Not only does the real world influence the creation of a science fiction series, but it also decides its evolution. Not long after US President’s John F. Kennedy’s announcement in 1961 that he will put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade,²⁹ Doctor Who, Lost in Space³⁰ and Star Trek³¹ appeared on our screens around the world. Not to mention lesser-known serials such as Fireball XL5,³² The Interpretaris,³³ among many others, all featuring spaceships exploring space and, more often than not, meeting aliens. The public had become excited by the idea of landing on the Moon, and broadcasters were happy to oblige with related entertainment. But, while this was reflected in the mass of science fiction that appeared on TV screens during that decade, this excitement did not last long. Of all the series listed above, not counting decades later reboots of series or a return in the form of a movie, only Doctor Who continued past 1970, due to the programme evolving to meet the needs of its viewers.

Interestingly, a number of these TV series ended before the Moon landing, suggesting that the long lead up to it (eight years) meant viewers had by that time lost interest in the idea of living in space. The UK Government even withdrew funding for European launch vehicles in 1968³⁴ and cut back its spending on space exploration. The 1970s are “often interpreted as [a period] of decline for the UK in outer space, as in other areas.”³⁵ With the UK withdrawing most funds from space projects, it is inevitable that the general culture of the day would also withdraw their interest. “The [UK] public rapidly became bored with the technology of space travel [in the 1970s].”³⁶ This suggests that successive Doctor Who stories might have been influenced by the public’s perception. After 1977, stories set predominantly in space with research communities mostly disappeared from Doctor Who.

Indeed, Stanway suggests that representing human careers in near Earth space have disappeared simply because they are no longer needed. In discussing the Doctor Who episodes The Moonbase and The Seeds of Death she states: “The rise of commercially viable artificial satellites, many in more useful geo-synchronous orbits, rendered the Moon’s use as an Earth observation and communications platform redundant, and this is reflected in the absence of such stories from the Doctor Who canon since the 1960s.”³⁷ While this is an interesting observation, other space-based near-future Earth stories were not focused on Earth observation and communications. The Space Pirates featured refuelling stations for spacecraft and The Invisible Enemy featured a space hospital. And, in the ‘real’ world, we still have not properly investigated the dark side of the Moon, a place in near Earth space that could be perfect for several Doctor Who stories focused on academic, technocratic bases. Doctor Who can still find a way to bring back near Earth research centres.

There is another possibility besides the decline in interest in space in the UK: the superior special effects in the Star Wars³⁸ and Star Trek³⁹ movies. Doctor Who could not compete—and so focused more on characters, situations and humour, rather than hardware.⁴⁰ While during the 1980s the show gained a “new, shiny look designed to compete in the Star Wars sci-fi market”,⁴¹ this did not mean a noticeable increase in visits to space research centres. The lack of a suitable budget—and computer graphic technology still in its infancy—might have contributed to less scenes in expensive satellites and spaceships. This limitation did change in 2005 when Doctor Who was given a bigger budget and had access to modern special effects equipment. However, as stated previously, unfavourable representations of space careers were the norm.

This change of the image of space careers is significant as Doctor Who has been shown to influence future career choices (see introduction),⁴² and the current series, with its focus on how deadly space is and lacking in real scientific explanations, is less likely to encourage viewers to support or pursue a space career in the future. This is important as those who pursue space careers can raise awareness of the idea of humanity becoming a space-faring species and living on other worlds⁴³ to help us survive asteroid impacts, solar flares, pandemics and human-made disasters. Encouraging people to choose space careers today can help usher in a more cosmic perspective⁴⁴ for humanity and greater consideration for ours and other species as a whole on our planet and beyond. Without Doctor Who’s positive contribution to space careers, with students studying science and engineering classes reducing and older space career enthusiasts retiring, it may be decades before we can begin spreading out into the stars, and by then it might be too late. What is needed, it seems, is an active mandate encouraging Doctor Who to go back to doing what it did best: the occasional educational story that inspires generations to pursue aspirational careers in the space sector.

7 Who Works in Space—Food for Thought and Future Research

While Y for ‘yes’ and N for ‘no’ have been used here for quantitative distant reading purposes, the detail is more nuanced. Where the difference between Y and N is close, such as in the attractiveness overall of the location across episodes, we have chosen Y to give the story the benefit of the doubt.

Table 1 Distant analysis of 37 space-focused doctor who stories