Walking with the TARDIS through “entertainment supersystems” or how a blue police box rescues (?) researchers from oppression

Abstract

Contemporary reflection upon the category of entertainment supersystem proposed by Marsha Kinder can be combined with the concept of transmedia storytelling (Henry Jenkins) applied in numerous academic publications in various contexts and understandings. The subject of the author’s reflection is the functioning of the BBC TV series, Doctor Who, and its media extensions. This BBC TV series is considered to be the most complex model example of transmedia storytelling. Both the classic series (1963–1989) and the 2005 Doctor Who reboot make researchers conduct a textual an-alysis which is inextricably linked to the research on television production practices. The new series of Doctor Who’s adventures can be best described by the culture of convergence and its practices. While tracing the development of the brand, its historic and contemporary contexts inscribed in British cultural studies, as well as relations of the anchor product with the categories of transmed-iality and remediation — the author concludes that nowadays studying supersystems requires the application of much more complex research tools.