Popular Culture Review Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2014 | Page 119

_______ The Ever Expanding Universe of Doctor Who 115 reason for its initiating armed conflicts. Showrunners see gasoline, and America’s thirst for it, as a corrupting influence on the world, using gasoline, not petrol, to bum the body of the world-saving pacifist Time Lord. As well as having British characters use a few important Americanisms to emphasize a point, writers have also done the opposite, putting a British phrase into the mouth of an American character. Earlier in the series, Luke Rattigan, the American-sounding genius-billionaire insists that he’s “clever,” intending simply to mean that he is intelligent {Doctor Who “Sontaran Stratagem”). He continues to use the word clever several times throughout the episode, in each instance using the term in a traditionally British maimer. To Americans, the word clever implies cunning and even a bit of mischievousness. By choosing this more British description of knowledge and intellect, writers subtly suggest that British epistemology is superior to that of Americans. Another way in which showrunners have defined the Britishness of Doctor Who has been through the destinations of the traveling Time Lord. In the first five seasons of the revived series, despite having the ability to travel in both time and space, the Doctor and his companions spend the majority' of their time in Great Britain. These earlier episodes supply audiences with a huge dose of British culture, as the TARDIS travels to several significant moments in Britain’s past, present, and future, meeting many cultural and historical figures along the way. From meeting Charles Dickens in 1860’s Cardiff in “The Unquiet Dead,” to the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Idiot’s Lantern,” to the London Olympic Games of 2012 in “Fear Her,” Doctor Who uses each domestic voyage to remind its home audience of the fabric of its cultural and national identities. As well as serving as a patriotic portrait for British viewers, the show also serves as somewhat of a tourism advertisement for its global audience, featuring shots of the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and 10 Downing Street. Dr. Alec Charles, noted this side of the new series as well, commenting that To some extent this interest in London landmarks can be explained by a concern for global sales, in that the uniquely British character of the series may account for the program’s international success. Davies has admitted that “whenever we come [to London], we want to maximize it, so you get all the big