The Concept of Horror in The Doctor Who Universe Part 1

A few years ago I wrote a multi-part article for the Gallifreyan Gazette, a Doctor Who Fanzine put out by The Whoosier Network a Doctor Who Fan Club I helped start back in the mid 1980s.

Since then I have presented the material in a lecture at Inconjunction, a local Fan produced Science Fiction Convention here in Indianapolis. I will try to reproduce the material here for those who may be interested. The majority of the material concerns the Classic Years of Doctor Who. Eventually I will write additional parts with emphasis on the recent years.

The Concept of Horror in The Doctor Who Universe

(Part 1- An Overview)

Horror films have changed considerably over the past 20 years. Tales of the Supernatural gave way to Slasher films which have now developed into the Torture Porn sub genre films we are inundated with today. Thankfully, Doctor Who hasn't followed the same path. (Torchwood however did give us the episode Countryside, a story which would please most readers of "Fangoria" magazine.)

Doctor Who has traditionally leaned more toward the Gothic elements of horror, particularly during Phillip Hincliff's reign as Producer. Russel T Davies has also included horror related material while he headed the series. We have seen werewolves, zombies and Satan himself. From the pen of Steven Moffatt we have been entertained with new classic episodes including The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances a tale which didn't rely on traditional monsters but did exude an incredible since of horror throughout, and Blink a tale which gave viewers chills and introduced the very frightening Weeping Angels.

Doctor Who has always relied on monsters to frighten young children and send them scurrying behind the sofa, but monsters including Daleks and Cybermen are better relegated to Science Fiction than Horror. In fact, most horror icons particularly those dealing with the supernatural are nearly always rebuked with a "scientific " explanation. After all, Doctor Who owes more to Quatermass than it does to Hammer.

In the Quatermass and the Pit, Demonic creatures are explained as visitors from outer space, probably Mars. Quatermass theorizes, the visitors abducted humans in the distant past and returned them with psychic abilities. Poltergeists, ghost sightings and witchcraft were all explained as originating from these visitors and the pentagram found in the space ship is simply a symbol of the alien race.

In the classic The Daemons, the opening shot focuses on a pub sign titled "The Cloven Hoof" during a stormy night. This episode sets the stage for satanic ritual, taking horror to its roots... the devil. In the town of "Devil's End", a giant horned beast, Azal is sleeping beneath a burrow called "Devil's Hump." Azal turns out to be an alien the Master, disguised as a satanic priest, is attempting to awaken and control. In one scene the Doctor explains "No not magic, Jo- science, the science of the Daemons." Anyone who has seen Quatermass and the Pit can't help but see the similarities.



Though Doctor Who has mostly excluded supernatural elements of horror, it has languished in the trappings of horror. Dualism, old dark houses (including castles and lighthouses etc.) tombs, physical incarceration, curses, antiquated codes and rituals, apparent supernatural phenomenon, mad doctors in addition to monsters have all been utilized to create an atmosphere of horror throughout the history of Doctor Who. Words such as Horror, Terror, Evil, Death and Doom permeate the myriad titles of Doctor Who serials.

Obviously, the writers took the seed of many previously screened horror tales and transformed them into stories of the Doctor Who universe. Phillip Hinchcliffe was quoted in Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text with this statement:

"What we went for was a very powerful concept. So we borrowed from science fiction...and we borrowed from horror themes and gothic... Planet of Evil originally grew of an idea to have a Jekyll and Hyde planet... In fact we also pinched a bit from Forbidden Planet because we had sort of a monster of the Id... We did another gothic thing with a mummy story, about mummies that wake up and take over-- robot mummies... And we did a Frankenstein story, The Brain of Morbius... and we did a Jack the Ripper story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang.. We did quite a few gothic ones, because I like the trappings."1

Borrowing from horror films and stories of the past was not exclusive to Hinchccliff and Holmes. This practice can be seen as far back as Tomb of the Cybermen. "It is often said Doctor Who is at its best when its roots are showing and certainly the roots of this four-part Cybermen story can be traced all the way back to Universal's Mummy films." 2

Chris Boucher wrote for Graham Williams The Image of the Fendahl which conjures up recollections of Robert Bloch's story "The Skull of the Marquis Desade" which was made into the film The Skull. Parallels can be drawn between The Phantom of the Opera and the Peter Davison vehicle The Caves of Androzani. There are many more examples of borrowing from the past in order to send the Doctor Who viewer behind the sofa.

1. John Tulloch and manuel Alverado, Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text (St. Marten's Press, 1983) p112

2. Peter Haining DOctor Who A Celebration Two Decades Through Time And Space (W.H. Allen & Co. 1983) p. 186

Part 2 - Duality