Abstract:
At the time of Margaret Thatcher’s election in 1979, British science fiction television
changed its focus and style. It replaced the traditional moral standards and collectivism of the
so-called consensus era (discussed at length in chapter 2) with individualism and a
Machiavellian style of operating, applying Realpolitik solutions to problems. There was a
strong sense of fatalism and futility to the various series, which usually ended in despair.
Replacing the future-focused modernity of science fiction series before them, they presented
either dystopian worlds, or total inertia.
In this thesis I will be focusing intensively on these series: Blake’s 7 (1978-81), Sapphire &
Steel (1979-82), as well as Doctor Who (1963-89, discussed both before and during the
Thatcher era), alongside the rise of Thatcherism. I investigate how the series are responding
to, and anticipating, the tropes of Thatcherism. In 1979 Thatcher was in her first term as
Prime Minister. Blake’s 7 had been on the air for a year and Sapphire & Steel was just
beginning. Thatcher was a deeply unpopular Prime Minister in this era, dogged by hunger
strikes in Northern Irish jails, and unemployment reaching a record high, building up to the
riots of 1981. It was not until the Falklands War in 1982 that her fortunes reversed. The
neoliberal policies and Victorian social outlook of the Thatcher administration became
ingrained in British society, and late-era Doctor Who critiques these developments.
No thesis-length academic research has directly focused on this connection—between science
fiction television series and Thatcherism—or teased out the many, often contradictory, ways
it actually plays out in the series. This thesis is, therefore, the first to look in-depth at the era
of science fiction television in question and its connection to Thatcherism.
