Continuité, canonicité et complétude dans Doctor Who

Abstract

This article explores the complex relation to continuity in the British show Doctor Who (BBC, 1963-1989, 2005-), by looking into its multi-auctoriality from a diachronic and then synchronic point of view, and by detailing a fictional world dispersed between multiple media following a process that does not conform to the strict definition of transmedia storytelling. The most recent period of production of the program (since 2010) is also analyzed, in that it reveals a tension between respect and reconfiguration of the continuity. The degrees of canonicity of the various works related to the mother-seies, its reception by audiences, and the program’s process of production are reviewed in order to establish the most complete portrait of a transmedia work that finds its dynamic in ellipsis via the technique of retroactive completeness, in a development that evokes the rhizome rather than the tree, and in a constant and fluid renewal of its aesthetic and economic stakes.

Keywords

• Doctor Who
• transmedia
• ellipsis
• multi-authoriality
• reception