Doctor Who

Do You Think Doctor Who is an Inter-medial Text?

When it comes to Doctor Who there is an endless supply of merchandising and media etc, the majority of which seems to be aimed at younger children, EG:
· Magazines
· Toys
· Books
· Posters
· Website
A lot of this merchandise however does not seem to be very relevant to Dr Who in the sense of it being an inter-medial text.

The Magazine
The magazine itself appears to be aimed at younger children as its very bright and eye catching. It features games and puzzles, Dr Who stories, posters, cut out masks and occasional other freebies, competitions and colouring in activities. The majority of which would all be more appropriate for younger children and it comes across as being the sort of merchandise released just to make money. Therefore it does not give Dr Who the appearance of an inter-medial text.

The Toys
The toys again appear to be merchandise created with the soul intention of making money. There are numerous toys available, a lot of which are replicas of tools and gadgets used by the doctor during different episodes. There are however some games that may appear to older generations such as the board games and DVD games such as the Dr Who edition of ‘Scene it?’ Other things such as pencil cases and pen sets would come under this category too, none of which however are referred to in any episodes of Dr Who. Therefore the toys do not give Dr Who the impression of being an inter-medial text.

The Books
I could not find many examples of Dr Who books; however the ones I did find all seemed to be sticker or magnet books. There were also spiral bound plain books, to be used as diaries etc, however none of which give Dr Who the features of an inter-medial text.

The Posters
The majority of the posters I could find featuring Dr Who or any of it’s characters were not relevant to the programme itself as they are all mainly designed for children’s bedroom’s walls, therefore they are merely pictures of the characters in different poses and situations, which are not relevant to the programme or give it the features of an inter-medial text.


The Website
This is the main part of the Dr Who merchandise/secondary media that is aimed at older generations and not children. It is too the only piece of media that has any relevance to the programme itself. It features a trailer of the upcoming Christmas episode, the past episodes on ‘iplayer’ for fans who have missed them being broadcasted and a small amount of information on what is currently happening with the change between Doctors. Other than that it features puzzles and online games and activities which are again aimed at children. However none of the information would actually be needed for a watcher to understand the plot of a series.

Conclusion
Given that none of the above pieces of Doctor Who media show any features of an inter-medial text, I do not think that Doctor Who is one. It is a single media text in itself, the programme, and all the rest of this is simply secondary media.