Abstract
This paper analyzes the status of televised character overhaul from the angle of material corruption through the study of three semi-serial TV series : Sliders, Angel, and Doctor Who. The first section analyzes the episodic figures of corruption. Firstly, the manner in which a character is downgraded via the figure of the mannequin in Sliders and Angel. Secondly, the first section examines the material and ideal corruption in Angel and Doctor Who via the figure of “costume identity”. A link is made with the “Body Snatchers” movies from the motif of the fall of the “Human Figure”. The second section studies the serial oscillation of individuation in Doctor Who with a genealogy of the "viscous paste" figure in the first Doctor Who series (1963). Finally, this genealogy helps to interpret the "viscous paste" as a survival of “camp” imagery in Doctor Who (2005).