Dr. Who and Mythology: Rosie Allimonos at TEDxTransmedia 2011

Rosie Allimonos has pioneered the development of online drama and narrative gaming, overseeing the strategy and delivery of the BBC's most successful transmedia brands. She is currently responsible for commissioning the next generation of connected TV, mobile, online and IPTV platforms for BBC Drama, Films and Acquisitions.

Have you ever dreamt

you had the power of magical flight?

As a child I was exposed

to two very beautiful
and extensive mythologies.

I grew up immersed in the classical myths
of ancient Greece,

and the dreamtime
of the Australian aboriginal people.

So I developed an addiction

for grand, interconnected narratives

that involved magical flight
and time travel.

I was inspired by these stories
of gods, heroes and spirits,

facing and conquering
terrifying monsters,

travelling across the landscape,
singing the world into existence.

My childhood was one long road trip
through antiquity.

So these stories were passed down
to me orally

in the very sacred places
where the stories took place.

Here I am having a family picnic
on Mount Olympus,

where the Greek gods lived –
Well, they weren't actually real,

but for me as a child,
they felt so close and so alive.

So I learnt from a very young age
the importance

of being able to elegantly
blur fiction with reality.

Mythology is important.

Every culture has their myths
to dream and live by.

Every culture has this.

So beyond entertainment and spectacle

the function of myth
is to teach us to cope with loss.

But what I loved most about myth

is that it prevented me
from thinking in a linear way,

and an ideological shift
took place for me,

from the contained and finite story

with a very distinctive beginning,
middle and end

to infinitely expanding story worlds,

that force you to see
the inter-connectedness of everything.

So with a childhood of being addicted
to these infinite worlds,

you can imagine my delight
when jumping forward 25 years in time

and I've landed at this job at the BBC,

where I'm given responsibility
for commissioning transmedia

for the BBC's most iconic show:
Dr Who.

As a child when I watched Dr Who,
I found it really scary,

I used to watch behind the sofa.

And occasionally
I still have to avert my gaze;

the monsters still terrify me.

That's because
the essence of Dr Who

has stayed constant
across its 48-year history.

It's the longest running
science fiction series ever created

and its longevity is due to the fact that
it's more than just sci-fi:

it's an anthology show.

It crosses all genres
from drama to horror to comedy

and it's created to thrill
the child in all of us.

And of course, who doesn't want
to take a magical time ride

to save the world as indeed
the Doctor does in every episode.

Who is the Doctor?

He's a Time lord
who travels back and forth in time

in a police box Time Machine,

tiny on the outside, massive
on the inside, called the Tardis.

The first time I visited
the Dr Who's setting in Wales,

it was definitely a career highlight.

There I was in the Tardis
with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver,

amazing,

such is the magical sway of the story.

I knew I was on a set

but at that moment, once again,
fiction and reality blurred

and I thought to myself,

"How fantastic would it be
to give all Dr Who fans

this experience of not
just watching the show,

but being able to step into this
deep mythological space for themselves.

What if you could actually be the Doctor
and save the Universe?"

So this is the motive
that led us to design

the Dr Who adventure games.

In 2010 the BBC created
17 episodes of Dr Who.

13 TV episodes and 4 extra episodes
that were actually games,

3 hours of extra game play
within each.

This has been,
I think, a very unique moment

in television and transmedia history

to finally have this type of seamless
TV transmedia story world integration.

One of my favourite moments

was when I took
the game's designers to the Tardis

to collaborate with the show's team.

Charles, the game writer, asked,

"What's that door over there?",

and they replied,
"That's your door. Take it, use it

do what you like with it,

take the Doctor to places that
we can't take him on the telly".

So, in that moment, after years
of working across the silos,

traditional media organisations,

desperately trying
to get people to understand

how transmedia
couldn't reach their stories,

In that moment we'd finally achieved,
what we thought was impossible,

to get into the very DNA of a production

and create stories and characters
on par with the rest of the franchise.

With these games we've managed
to future-proof the audience

for the new generation of kids,

but also to give the die-hard fans

the ability to step into a Time Machine.

I know I've been gushing in a very
Dr Who geeky manner right now

about this show.
It's an occupational hazard!

But, I think all the most amazing
and effective transmedia

is born out of connecting
with your inner fan.

Without the feverish passion of a fan,
you can't deliver the best experience.

You've got to tap into
the collective unconscious,

the muse, the universe, whatever
you want to call this unlimited energy

that is the origin
of all grand narratives.

I tried to get to
this non-verbal place.

At the core of the story, where I'm not
thinking but feeling.

It's like learning a new language.

Once you start
dreaming in a language,

you know you've finally mastered it.

As story-tellers we need to we need to tap
into mythology

to reach into this collective unconscious

and tell the stories that matter,

the stories that help people deal
with the secret pains of life,

that no one is immune to

the things we all have to face
at some point of love and loss,

and love and loss,

this never-ending dance of life.

It's in the most recent
episode of Dr Who:

the Doctor is lamenting
his impending death,

for even Time lords
can't avoid this very real pain.

We can use transmedia to try
ideas out in a game space

before the real world

to understand consequences,

to connect with each other through
magic travels through time and space.

Magical mythologies are an essential tool

to helping people through the cycle of life.

It's the perfect way to ease people

through beginnings,
endings and transitions

in a way that leads
to actual change in their life.

At the beginning of my life,

my mother told me stories

to help me cope
with the years ahead of me;

of the Greek gods and how
they dealt with life's traumas.

At the end of her life,

I told her stories that helped her
confront her last days with courage.

What if we could comfort, inspire and
encourage each other with transmedia?

What if we could take
that Dr Who approach,

that successful recipe
of 48 years of entertaining,

and find a unique way

to add a magical layer
onto our very real world stories?

(Applause)