Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 109

Doctor Vi/ho Fans

105

as experts who have little control over either the
conditions of production or reception of 'their' show.
(TuIIoch and Jenkins 145)
Though Tulloch is not referring to American fans, his analysis
regarding the fans' powerlessness rings true: American fans have
even less say in the program's continuation than British fans and are
further at the mercy of regional PBS schedules and budgets. The BBC
does not care if a program is popular abroad; when renewing
programs, they look only at the ratings in Great Britain. Keith
Heiberg summarizes the BBC's position on the cancellation of Doctor
Who as, "No show, no fans to bug us about the show" (Heiberg 6).
MUM seizes power by recontextualizing the program to bring
about a preferred result. MUM moves beyond simple acceptance of a
primary text. The Doctor/Sarah Jane Smith dialogue quoted above,
for instance, shows the Doctor wrestling with a decision to kill
"Mikey" Grade. This approach uses this primary text to suggest that
within the purview of MUM's own creation. Grade will get what he
deserves. MUM creates preferred interpretations of events, using the
broadcast episodes of Doctor Who as only the loosest guide. By doing
this, MUM expresses its desire to control the means of production,
which it articulates in two ways. First, of course, is the making of
the video itself. Second is the inclusion of Doctor Who behind-thescenes players, notably producer John Nathan-Turner, script editor
Eric Saward (played by a puppet in MUM videos), and comptroller
Michael Grade. Also app>earing in many videos as an ominous figure
was Mary Whitehouse, of the British children's television watchdog
group National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, a group '
unaffiliated with the BBC. Whitehouse's protests about excessive
violence in children's television programming turned Doctor Who to
comedy-temporarily, as it turned out. These people, responsible for
the program's direction and ultimately for its demise, appear in most
MUM videos. MUM wants to control the controller and does so by
rewriting the source program and inserting those who really do
control the production and direction of Doctor Who, which allows
them to be manipulated by fans.
Some MUM members, however, see the inclusion of this kind
of specialized information as a drawback. Tom Keenan remarks of
the audience.