Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 104

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plot revolving around Doctor Who movers and shakers such as John
Nathan-Turner, then the producer o f the program. MUM videos,
poorly produced and amateurishly acted, parody the low-budget
camp of the source program. The videos recreate the TARDIS console
by using a spinning turntable topped with Dixie cups. The TARDIS
roundels are made of paper plates stuck to the wall. Silly jokes and
ridiculous costumes abound. Still, MUM members found themselves
minor celebrities after their videos were shown at science-fiction
conventions and, later, on public-access cable.
MUM'S interpretive activity is typical of fan groups, though
instead of writing fanzines or editing together new stories out of
existing clips of the original program (activities Camille BaconSmith outlines in her analysis of media fandom), they create new
texts by donning Doctor Who costumes and, as actors, becoming the
characters they represent. By appropriating an original text, MUM
members "remake programs in their own image. Fandom is a vehicle
for marginalized subcultural groups . . . to pry open space for their
cultural concerns within dominant representations; fandom is a way of
appropriating media texts and rereading them in a fashion that
serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into
popular culture" (Jenkins, Star Trek 174). By including Doctor Who
producers, comptrollers, critics, and other people connected with the
show in capacities other than actors, MUM rewrites a program that
has a fannish reputation for ignoring the voices of its fans.
Making Videos to Valorize the Fan Experience
Making original videos with fan actors is not a particularly
common fan activity, though I know of at least two other groups who
have made Doctor Who fan videos, most notably members of a
Chicago fan group. The Federation, who distributed their regular
productions as "vidzines." Videos are a valid way of expressing
appreciation for the fans' chosen media program because they
valorize the fan experience and require fannish information to
decode. Because all the MUM members have a conunon interest-Doctor Who, and, to a lesser extent, other British television
programs—m V6