'Every story ever told really happened...' (The Doctor, 'Hell Bent',
2015)
Stories are, fundamentally what Doctor Who is all about. In Once Upon
a Time Lord, Ivan Phillips explores a wide range of perspectives on
these stories and presents a lively and richly-varied analysis of the
accumulated tales that constitute this popular modern mythology.
Concerned equally with 'classic' and 'new' Who, Phillips looks at how
aspects of the Time Lord's story have been developed on television and
beyond, tracing lines of connection and divergence across various media.
He discusses Doctor Who as a mythology that has drawn on its own past
in often complex ways, at the same time reworking elements from many
other sources, whether literary, cinematic, televisual or historical.
Once Upon A Time Lord offers an original take on this singular hero's
journey, reading the unsettled enigma of the Doctor in relation to the
characters, narratives and locations that he has encountered across more
than half a century.