ABSTRACT
A continuing juxtaposition of ordinary and extraordinary is embedded in the Doctor Who cosmology. If one believes that the new Doctor Who is interested in the “inner worlds” of its characters, and in some unconscious dimensions of their relationships with one another, the issue of what psychoanalysis calls the transference arises. There are many examples one could give of the range and depth of expression which Doctor Who’s actors and directors have achieved, which indeed provide many moments of pleasure for its audiences. Many narratives of personal development, of social as well as emotional significance, are explored by Doctor Who within the inter-generational frame within which its stories are situated. Weddings play a prominent role in Doctor Who. The wedding is the ritual end-point in many kinds of theatre. Marriage signals social and emotional resolution in the shorthand language of television. In Doctor Who it is typical for weddings to be disturbed in some way.
