BBC To Ditch "Tomorrow's World"

Pipsicola writes "The BBC news site reports their decision to ditch the Popular science show, Tomorrows World , after 30 years. It may not have had the most bleeding edge content (we often dubbed it 'Yesterdays World' ...), but it was one of the few programmes which fired the imagination of young British nerds. Several generations of Britain's scientists and technologists grew up watching TM. Lets hope the BBC fulfills its promise to replace it with more science-based shows using a different format. Which formats have worked in other countries I wonder?"

Comments

do you get techtv?

[SHEENmaster]

While its future shows may suck, "Big Thinkers" will make you think. I would actually PAY for this on dvd (unencoded of course!)

I'm not sure whether or it's shown in Britain, but you should look into it.

the Internet killed it

[NixterAg]

With the Internet, it becomes more and more difficult to keep shows like this on the air. Once upon a time, 'Tomorrow's World' gave you a glimpse of things you'd otherwise never know existed (at least at the time of viewing). With the Internet, anything heralded on television has been already discussed on the web a thousand times.

Re:the Internet killed it

[jkcity]

Not just that but there is lots of documentry channels these days in the UK, and you can get you science fix easily, although not everyone can get these channels I would guess that alot of people who used to watch it do.

Re:new formats

[Bonker]

Sex and Sci-fi?

Look at Anime. A great deal of the action anime boils down to guns, robots, tits, and ass.

Now which country is it again that is famous for pioneering work in robotics, minaturization, and embedded computers?

Ahem. If you need me, I'll be busy watching my 'Bubblegum Crisis' OAVs for the 392nd time.

Based on what comes in on my cable

[Waffle Iron]

Which formats have worked in other countries I wonder?"

Here in the U.S., most science shows have switched to the "MTV generation attention span format". This involves taking 10 minutes of content, then stretching it out to 45 minutes in length with attention-grabbing fillers.

These typically include things like cheesy, inaccurate and endlessly repetitive computer simulations of explosions, ancient pyramid tours or space probe flybys. Also popular are sad attempts at creating a "suspensful" plot, such as a melodramatic voicover accompanying the same tired scene: a computer monitor reflected in the eyeglasses of a scientist pecking at keyboards in a strangely lit office. Time-elapsed shots of radio telescopes at sunset are another sure-fire time filler.

I often wish they'd bring back the "old guy standing in a field giving a half-hour monologue" format. Those guys usually knew a lot about what they were talking about, and they worked to cram it into the time available, not the other way around.

The decline of Tomorrow's World

[marm]

From my point of view what killed TW was a gradual, slow change in the kind of stories they showed. When I used to watch TW religiously, back in the mid-late 80's, the vast majority of their items were to do with either consumer technology inventions (CD's, home computers and so on) or physical sciences (string theory, birth of the universe, or, more paractically, the first mention I ever heard of quantum computing and quantum encryption back in 1988 or so). During the 90's, in what seemed to me to be a misguided attempt to win ratings, the show gradually changed to a more human-interest type show, all about biology, genetics, medicine, until by the late 1990's that was all there was: no inventions, no physical science news, no astronomy, just item after item of medical discoveries, biotechnology, with the odd reference to the BBC's 'Webwise' project to get people hooked up to the Internet.

That was when I stopped watching it, it just didn't interest me any more. I appreciate the importance of medicine and the biological sciences (although these interest me less than the physical sciences and associated inventions), but there just wasn't anything else on TW, and it got boring because of this.

I don't think I'm alone in feeling this - I've met quite a few geeky Tomorrow's World ex-fans who say the same thing, they just stopped running the stories that interested them. It's quite a tragedy - in an attempt to make the programme trendier and gain mainstream audience share, they completely killed off their core audience, and the production team seemed to have absolutely no idea what the problem was. It's entirely the BBC's own fault.

Oh well, here's hoping they'll wake up one day, realize their mistake and revive it, just like they have with Doctor Who.

N.B. The last sentence used a technique known as irony. Some of you may wish to study and attempt to understand it.

Re:The decline of Tomorrow's World

[Anonymous Coward]

You are completely correct. The show lost its way badly.

Not only did they stop featuring broad science and technology news stories, they also broadcast some items that were actively insulting to the intelligence. One example - The "Pay us good money to phone-in and predict who will escape first from the burning plane exercise while we desperately try to think of a reason why this has anything to do with anything, let alone science" edition. I found it embarrassing to watch.

I also think the quality of the presenters went downhill quite badly. I have nothing against Peter Snow at all, but he lacked any credibility as a science journalist. Adam Hart-Davis was better (you get the idea that there is some cerebral activity going on in there), but I find his style of delivery patronising. It's as if he pictures his audience as a room-full of mildly retarded twelve-year-olds.

TW needed a good dose of hard science coverage and a kick up the arse. Instead they've killed it.

I hope the people responsible learn from their mistakes.

Re:The decline of Tomorrow's World

[tcoady]

I agree with your analysis, and also the comments by AC about the presenters. I also stopped watching for the same reasons. What concerns me is that the slant towards bio-science is symptomatic of the way the BBC treats news about technology in general. I doubt there is a particular agenda for this, probably just a reflection of the lack of nerdiness amoung their editors. One example of this is the way they keep re-running the story about the clone babies even though there is not yet any evidence to prove this, the subject interests them so the story runs. On the rare occasions they do attempt to cover nerdy stuff they are often hopelessly out of date or off the mark. Such a pity.

Re:The best episode..

[daveewart]

That's the reason TM failed - when Phillipa Forrester stopped presenting it, together with Peter Snow, the entire personality of the show died.