Doctor Who's 80's Post-Punk Aesthetic

In 1987, Doctor Who gained a new script editor in the form of Andrew Cartmel. He brought with him a brand-new look for Doctor Who - one inspired by comic books and the post-punk movement...

Lee Binding's artwork for the Season 26 blu-ray boxset. This season was the televised culmination of Andrew Cartmel's vision for Doctor Who.

Throughout the 1980's, alternative comics such as "Watchmen" and "Swamp Thing" were taking the world of geek culture by storm. Often, these took familiar concepts and ideas, and took them in new directions that their creators hadn't previously thought of, or had been viewed as too radical or controversial previously. This wave was heralded by a new wave of creatives entering the industry: people like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons redefined what was possible, what could be done and what fans wanted from their favourite comic book characters. And, much like the comic industry, Doctor Who underwent a similar transformation in the late 1980's, with a flurry of new writers bringing a whole new voice to the programme. And this renewal of the show was heralded by one man: Andrew Cartmel, Doctor Who's new script editor. He brought the same desire for fresh, offbeat ideas that had fuelled the revival of comics, and brought the show much more up-to-date than it was being viewed. In this post, I intend to look at this new wave of thought regarding Doctor Who, and the lasting effect it has on the show today.

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace
(Sophie Aldred) were at the forefront of Andrew
Cartmel's new vision for the show. He redefined
what the roles for the Doctor and companion were.

In 1987, Doctor Who needed a new look. After several years of steady, slow decline, the show needed a new creative spark, and that came in the form of 29 year old Andrew Cartmel. A computer-programmer who originated from Canada, Cartmel had little to no knowledge of the show, and, as such, brought fresh influences to the series. He had a love for the alternative American comics I mentioned above, and he wanted to bring that influence onto Doctor Who. As such, he brought on board a new group of writers, and tasked them with telling stories unlike anything seen in Doctor Who up to that point. To start with, that was quite a tall order, as the writers were going in directions they believed would appeal to Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner (that is, traditional tales steeped in past continuity). However, Cartmel encouraged the writers to resubmit, and soon, tales like "Paradise Towers", "Battlefield" and "Delta and the Bannermen" were born. These stories all look at familiar ideas to fans of the show, but looks at them in new, unexpected ways. Take "Delta and the Bannermen" - while the base beats are the sorts of things you would have expected to see in any classic Doctor Who story, where writer Malcolm Kholl takes them is completely new. It's this re-appropriation of ideas that both alternative comics and this period of Doctor Who share. Ultimately, this approach can be seen most clearly in the way Cartmel redefined the roles of the Doctor and the companion. Up to this point, the Doctor had generally been a wise explorer of the universe, while his companion was there to ask questions, get captured and generally be 'plucky'. The only time this hadn't been the case was the show's earliest episodes, where the Doctor had been a mysterious enigmatic figure, and this was the approach that the show went back to. The Doctor became the centre of some cosmic game we were never really aware of, and was making plans to take down his enemies. This was in vast contrast to the 'accepted' role of the Doctor, which was to fight evil as he came across it, and to help the civilisations of the universe that he came across. Like alternative comics of the era, Cartmel and his team of writers (particularly Ian Briggs, Ben Aaronovitch, Stephen Wyatt and Marc Platt) developed the Doctor in new ways: deepening the mystery of the character and bringing more light and shade to the surface than that which we had witnessed previously. Ace, meanwhile, takes a lot of inspiration from the aftermath of the punk movement that swept pop culture in the late 1970's and early 1980's. She's a young teen, who's desperately railing against the world that she has been brought up in, and wants to be free to express herself. That's surely the whole ethos of the punk movement, right there. Like the Doctor, Ace's complex backstory and character journey were heavily inspired by alternate comics: her character arc with Fenric, for example, and her eventual growth into joining the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey all share hallmarks of the alternative comic movement. These comics really influenced the show in these last few years, and laid down a benchmark for the show to come, especially during the Virgin New Adventures novels and when the show returned in 2005.

One of the most notable stories from this era was
"The Happiness Patrol", which saw the Doctor going
up against the villainous Helen A, ruler of the planet
Terra Alpha. Helen A was a thinly-veiled caricature
of then-Prime Minister Margret Thatcher.

The punk rebellion spirit continued into the show's storylines. This was the era in which the Doctor battled space Margret Thatcher, where the Dalek civil war was a parable for racial tensions in 60's Britain and where the final story of the classic series saw Ace form a implicit lesbian relationship with one of the Cat People. This era took punk's freedom of expression and destroying of social conventions to new levels for what was, ostensibly, a children's programme. Urban legend has it that, when Andrew Cartmel was interviewed for the job of script editor, he responded to the question 'what do you want to do with Doctor Who?' with the (possibly glib, possibly serious) 'I want to overthrow the government'. And its not hard to see that approach in the finished show: take something like "Ghost Light", which is scathing in its criticism of the British Empire and its imperialist attitude. Nowadays, Platt's script would be derided as left-wing, 'woke' millennial drivel, especially by the same people that argue that 'Doctor Who was never political in the classic series'. Both "The Curse of Fenric" and "Survival" touch upon LGBTQ+ issues in a way I don't recall the show ever doing before, a common theme in punk media. And, yes, "The Happiness Patrol" features space Margret Thatcher - something that was only really noticed by the mainstream media twenty-five years later, when it became the subject of a scathing Newsnight feature. I would say well done to papers like the Daily Mail or the Sun, but it did take them twenty-five years (which is a pretty good hit rate for the tabloids). Of course, though, Doctor Who's transition to punk was coming at a time when the movement was passing its prime: while "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" is more of a parable of the hippy movement, and Doctor Who itself, there's no denying that one could read it as a commentary on punk as well. "Paradise Towers" is actually much the same; it's urban tower setting bringing to mind not just the Northern wilderness of Thatcher's Britain, but the concreate brutalism of the 1970's, birthplace of the punk movement. Of course, the Kangs might be part of the Punk spirit, but they've stagnated, much like the once radical, ground-breaking Psychic Circus from "Greatest Show in the Galaxy". The show in this period kicks back against the old order: the Doctor and Ace are chaos machines, that come into the world of the story, and cause anarchy. Sure, the show had done this a lot in the past: stories like "The Sun Makers", "The Sensorites", "Vengeance on Varos", "Frontios" and "State of Decay" see the Doctor changing the whole of a world's history in a single story, but this era made that this Doctor's MO. If any Doctor would walk holding the anarchy flag, then, honestly, it would be the Seventh Doctor. He doesn't pull any punches, and he and Ace make the team that smash governments, tyrants, warlords, monsters and gods. This era is full of free spirits, who we root for; capitalists and imperialists who we despise; and a Doctor and companion who fulfil renewed roles in a rejuvenated show that was getting back on its feet. That had a new voice and a new sense of identity. A show that was cruelly cut off, just as its punk roots were becoming more prominent. That being said, all was not lost. Ever since the show returned in 2005, the anarchic comic books and punk culture that influenced Cartmel have become part of the show's very DNA. Episodes like "Aliens of London/World War Three", "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion", "Rosa", "Oxygen", "The God Complex", "Kerblam!", "The Beast Below" and more all owe their existence to this era, and the ethos of showrunners Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies is a direct result of what Cartmel and his team put on screen in the late 1980's. That slightly anarchic, kicking back against the system vibe that Doctor Who is famed for was defined in this era, and ever since the show has been at the forefront of mainstream punk. And all thanks to a Canadian computer coder from Canada.

A special Titan Comics cover for the third issue of their Seventh Doctor
mini-series "Operation Volcano", focusing on "The Happiness Patrol",
one of the most radical, most daring stories of the era. The cover is an
homage to the noir style and tone of the story. Cover designed by Will
Brooks.

While the 1980s was a tough decade for Doctor Who, the final few years of the decade saw a resurgence in the show's fortunes, thanks to a whole new spirit and direction from a new wave of talent, both in front of, and behind, the cameras. It was such a shame the show was cancelled when it was, because, given a few more years and more BBC support, it could have been a huge part of 90's pop culture. However, the ethos and spirit of the era lives on today in the revived series, and it helped launch it to the stratospheric success it has enjoyed today, so, hey, it can't be all bad? And this era of course continued in the Virgin New Adventures and the still-ongoing Big Finish audios with Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred. And I suspect the show's post-punk, alternative comic inspiration has been a key part of the success of the Seventh Doctor, and the show, ever since.

All pictures copyright to the BBC. The final picture is also copyright to Will Brooks and Titan Comics. Thank you very much for reading. You can subscribe by clicking the link at the top of the page to be notified of new content.