A Doctor for Who(m)?: Queer Temporalities and the Sexualized Child

Our analysis of the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who explores how the program has queered the figure of the child by playing upon tropes of innocence and sexuality. Incorporating readings of the televisual text, classic children’s texts, and the production history of the show, we argue that Doctor Who presents two competing models of sexuality and the child. One privileges collective family viewership, emphasizing traditional family values and a sentimentalized vision of the child, and the other addresses child and adult viewers separately, presenting images of the knowing, sexualized child.