Doctor Who and Gay Male Fandom

A Queer(ed) Transmedia Franchise

Mike Stack

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
01 December 2025

Humanities; Popular culture

Series: Transmedia

Doctor Who is a BBC transmedia franchise that has lasted over sixty years. Its fanbase boasts a substantial following of gay men. This book asks why this should be. Through examining four core components, the Doctor, the TARDIS, the companion and the Daleks, this book traces the trajectory of queerness from wider culture to paratextual media and finally into the parent text, resulting in an inclusive brand. In doing so, it argues that fandom provides a space to mediate between personal identities and the wider world. Drawing from interviews with fans, the book demonstrates the complexities and contradictions of queerness, and proposes an alternative theory of gay cultural formation. This is the first book-length study to use queer theory to understand Doctor Who. It will be of interest to students and teachers of media theory and fan studies, psychosocial studies, queer theory and history, as well as Doctor Who fans. • First book-length queer theory analysis of Doctor Who • Contributes to fan studies debates on non-productivist fandom • Draws upon case studies of real-life fans, as well as quantitative data.

By: Mike Stack
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041178286
ISBN 10: 104117828X
Series: Transmedia
Pages: 258
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Mike Stack is currently an independent scholar. He previously authored The Black Archive #68: The Happiness Patrol (Obverse Books, 2023), as well as pieces on Arthur C. Clarke, The Tomorrow People, and the science of sex within Doctor Who.

Reviews for Doctor Who and Gay Male Fandom: A Queer(ed) Transmedia Franchise

“Stack examines Doctor Who from the perspective of queer fandom, deftly uncovering its queer resonances…. He wisely grounds his argument in early statistical analysis showing that Doctor Who fans are likelier to be gay than the population average. What could have been reductive or essentialist instead remains attentive to complexity… The interviewees’ voices add a human depth… Stack’s chapter on the TARDIS is the book’s pinnacle… His textual analysis is dizzyingly expansive… superb….” Tom May, Northumbria University, UK, in Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies 20(3)