Is Doctor Who Steampunk?

Over on his Red Rocket Rising blog, Tony Jones asks if Jago and Litefoot (and Doctor Who itself) is Steampunk?

It’s an interesting question. Steampunk, according to Jeff Vandermeer, author of The Steampunk Bible is best summed up in this equation:

STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man / baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot.

Still confused? Well, in essence, Steampunk is a literary and cultural sub-genre where folk re-imagine the Victorian age with added science fiction and fantasy elements. It’s a world where the Victorians had anachronistic technology; computers powered by steam, clockwork robots, chrome-plated bionic limbs. Quite often there are lovecraftian monsters, zombies and ghosts to deal with too. And goggles. Lots and lots of goggles.

Well, sometimes. The problem defining Steampunk is that is doesn’t always follow defined rules. As www.steampunk.com points out, Steampunk may:

• Take place in the Victorian era but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology (e.g. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling);
• Include the supernatural as well (e.g. The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger);
• Include the supernatural and forego the technology (e.g. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, one of the works that inspired the term ‘steampunk’);
• Include the advanced machines, but take place later than the Victorian period, thereby assuming that the predomination by electricity and petroleum never happens (e.g. The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling); or
• Take place in an another world altogether, but featuring Victorian-like technology (e.g. Mainspring by Jay Lake)

Then there’s Steampunk costuming, model building and music. It’s a sub-genre, with its own sub-genres.

So, how does Doctor Who fit in with all this. Well, let’s ignore Big Finish’s rather wonderful Jago and Litefoot series (which I do class as a form of Steampunkery, by the way) and focus on Doctor Who itself. What was that original equation?

• Mad Scientist Inventor? Well, there’s the Doctor himself, of course – a man who has been known to cosplay as a pseudo Victorian / Edwardian himself (Yes, number eight and eleven I’m looking at you!)
• Invention with baroque stylings? An alien time craft disguised as a wooden Police box. Controls that are, at times, a ramshackle collection of anachronistic tech (Number eight and eleven again!). Souls stored away inside pocket watches. The list goes on and on.
• Victorian setting? Sometimes but certainly not all the time. But when the Doctor does visit the 19th Century it largely has Steampunky / Jules Verne / Conan Doyle trappings)
• Progressive or Reactionary politics? The show has examined both. Imperialism and authority are constant themes and the sexual politics of the recent seasons are either progressive or reactionary depending on your point of view.
• Adventure plot? Naturally.

There are also monsters, robots and even a few ghosts. Oh, and goggles too.

But does this all make Doctor Who steampunk? Maybe not. You could expect a lot of crossover in a venn diagram, but there’s more to Doctor Who than all this.

I would say, however, that while Doctor Who isn’t inherently Steampunk but there’s certainly a lot of Doctor Who in Steampunk itself…