LEGO Dimensions meets Doctor Who: Transbranding and New Dimensions of Transmedia Storytelling?

Abstract

This article explores how the ‘toys-to-life’ videogame LEGO Dimensions (Warner
Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Traveller’s Tales/The LEGO Group, 2015) mashes up
many different franchise storyworlds and brands. Specifically, I focus on how Doctor
Who (BBC, 1963—), the British TV science fiction series, is licensed and transmedially
engaged with in Dimensions. I consider how the transbranding of LEGO Dimensions
appears to co-opt children’s “transgressive play” (Nørgård and Toft-Nielsen, 2014)
by combining intellectual properties, but actually continues to operate according to
logics of shared corporate ownership where many of the combined storyworlds are
ultimately owned by Time Warner (placing Dimensions in competition with Disney’s
own ‘toys-to-life’ game). Considering what value might accrue to the brand of Doctor
Who by participating in LEGO Dimensions, I identify this as a particular example of
“What If?” transmedia (Mittell, 2015), arguing that LEGO Dimensions’ Doctor Who
nevertheless fluctuates in terms of its brand (in)authenticity. The Starter Pack remains
closer to LEGO Games’/Traveller’s Tales’ established format, subordinating Who, whilst
the separate Level Pack engages more precisely with Doctor Who’s history, albeit still
displaying some notable divergences from the TV series (Booth, 2015). Although LEGO
Dimensions challenges influential theories of transmedia storytelling (Jenkins, 2006;
Aldred, 2014), its transbranding and child/adult targeting accord with established approaches
to transmedia licensing (Santo 2015) and fan-consumer socialization (Kinder
1991).