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The New Series of Doctor Who: Fleeing From Format?
An anonymous reader sends in this thoughtful article about the format of Doctor Who:
"The New Series has given itself two basic tasks. One, to put back and keep on our screens a program by the name of Doctor Who that maintains substantial visible continuity with the classic series in many ways. Two, and this is where conflicting elements start to come in, to seek to define this resurrected program against many aspects of the classic series, even fundamental aspects, in pursuit of task one. In itself this is neither good nor bad. If anything it is on balance probably a good thing to seek to redress the shortcomings of the classic series, but what matters, ultimately, is the choices involved and their execution."
So little to say, so many words to say it.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Keep the Doctor Who series the same quality show that I have come to love, it is the very last show I can bear. You have to love a show where the main character's weapon, is his mind.
I'm thinking a HBO Special series like game of thrones and sparticus where doctor who battles for humanity and aliens while banging hotties and space sluts.
Basically taking Dr. Who and Americanizing it. Thats not just a SONIC SCREWDRIVER in your pocket....
The nice thing about Doctor Who is if they screw up, it's just a one minute visual effect and a new actor away from being fixed. So relax people, have some custard and fish sticks.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
This seems to me like someone doing lots of talking but not actually saying anything. I get the impression that the author likes the sound of his own voice.
This article is nothing more than flamebait.
Those stupid angel statues, for God's sake! How utterly lame is that? And this obsession with Amy Pond and Rory and their family. And a floating spaceship where some carnival clown in a glass box controls everybody? What were the writers smoking that day? Lame! This is no way lives up to the classics from the likes of Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee.
The new Doctor Who is at risk of being what Enterprise became to the Star Trek franchise -i.e., so bad that no self-respecting Trekker/Trekkie will acknowledge it.
>> good thing to seek to redress the shortcomings of the classic series
Special effects, check. What else?
>> (Doctor tries to get into his companions' pants.)
Sex, really? I thought you were British.
can I just say this. The sonic screwdriver is meant to be a literal fucking screwdriver, not Harry Potter's magic wand.
Sonic Screw Driver Fixes everything is to Moffat as Running & Screaming was to Davies.
there I said it.
flame on you crazy whovians.
I'm probably burning Karma here, but, I've heard alot of people say Dr. Who is becoming 'Atheist Jesus'. In the Classic series the Doctor was an Alien detective/investigator who merely lived a long time with a set number of Regenerations. He didn't always save the day. (Up until the latter part of David Tennant, he didn't save the day either.
But with Matt Smith, he's become like, a Demi-god or an Apollo type god. (River/Melody calls him 'an ageless god'. Now it's the case there are no limits on how many times he can regenerate, and he can use his regeneration abilities to heal others. The series doesn't make contiguous sense the way it did under Tennant and Eccloston. Basically, it's non-sense after non-sense plot. (The last Episode with the Angels is quite good really EXCEPT THE ENDING SUCKS.
I'm a long-time Doctor Who fan. I like the new series, but maybe not as much as the classic series. The actors are good, but I think the writing and stories aren't as strong. I've heard Lalla Ward mention in classic episode commentaries, for example, that it would do a world of good in the new series to cut their budget in half, so they learn to focus on making the stories tight (and not rely on special effects as much). The linked blog also mentions that some stories in the new series did really well because they had small budgets and had to keep the story tight and within that budget.
Now that we're coming up on the 50th anniversary season, I'd really like to see some hard references to the classic series. I came up with a great idea a few weeks ago that I'd love to see. With 7 Doctors in the original series, you can have 7 episodes to use as references. (Or 8 if you include McGann.) Imagine a series arc like this:
Story 1 : The episode starts with the Doctor, Clara (the new companion they'll introduce at the Christmas episode), and "Colin" (new companion .. see later) discovering a strangely quiet space museum on the planet Xeros. Exploring the museum, they discover themselves on display in the museum, with the TARDIS nearby!
The Doctor realizes the TARDIS must have jumped a time track when they materalised. Thus they temporarily occupy a fourth dimension. This lets them be simultaneously in the cases in one reality and standing, looking at themselves in the fourth dimension. The Doctor adds that is why everything seems familiar, yet unfamiliar - for example, why he can remember meeting Clara but is fuzzy on meeting Colin - they're experiencing time out of order and things are all mixed up.
From there, the rest of the story is a one-hour version of 'The Space Museum' (1st Doctor). It was a good story, and would translate well to the current series, but needs editing down.
(The "Next Time on Doctor Who" trailer is not actually from the following story, but a re-cut trailer from a classic story. Same for the rest of the season.)
Story 2 : The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the year 3000 and the travellers quickly discover a base where scientists commanded by Leader Clent are using an ioniser device to combat the advance of a new Ice Age. The scientists uncover Martians (Ice Warriors) frozen in the glacier ice. The Doctor warns that the Ice Warriors are dangerous enemies. He also comments how similar this is to the first time he met them, also in Earth's future, but Colin suggests this is deja vu from jumping time tracks from the earlier episode.
This story re-introduces the Ice Warriors from the classic series, and in fact is a one-hour version of 'The Ice Warriors' (2nd Doctor).
Story 3 : The Doctor and his companions make a test flight in the TARDIS, trying to jump back to their original time track, and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for an Earth dignitary (Clara and Colin as his aids) summoned to act as Chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.
The rest of the episode plays out similarly to 'Curse of Peladon' (3rd Doctor) but edited down to one hour. Sort of a cheesy episode, but can be improved through editing and some minor re-writes. I'd change the antagonist to one of the delegates, probably Alpha Centauri. The Doctor believes he knows who was causing trouble, but would end up being wrong. Instead, Colin and Clara ferret out the bad guys. The Doctor is really confused by now, especially since things seem familiar, yet unfamiliar (a theme repeated throughout this season).
Story 4 : The Doctor, Clara and Colin arrive on a desolate and apparently deserted Earth in our far future. They soon find a group of shipwrecked astronauts from a human colony in the Galactic Federation, lured there by a fake distress call. The astronauts suspect the Doctor of luring them. One of
This was interesting and well written in many ways. However, the author makes assumptions about the classic series which are unlikely to be shared by a broad audience, as the comments here so far demonstrate. The "classic" version ran for 26 seasons, and was under constant revision. Originally, there were supposed to be no B.E.M.s. Then, Daleks came. Newman wanted 50 percent historical stories. That lasted maybe a season. The concept of Time Lords wasn't even jelled until season 5 or so, during "The War Games". I could go on for pages, but I won't. The series is similar to a long running superhero comic book, in that the content changes to reflect what the producers feel the audience of the day desires. The author of this article really has a problem with the modern audience (meaning most of you), but he's turned it into a faux critical comparison so he doesn't have to be a hater. That said...you know what? I'm not afraid. I'll be a hater. Holmes and Hinchcliffe rule the Who universe, and those who disagree will one day be exterminated!
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
Its ENTERTAINMENT, not real life, real science, real people. You know?
I've always enjoyed Dr Who. I have vague recollections of the early Doctors, I definitely hid behind the sofa when the Daleks appeared and the creaky sets/rubber monsters/that sand quarry they always shot outside Alien Planet action in didn't make the show any less thrilling. The so called "classic" era ran out of steam and ideas a while before the BBC shelved it, the fact that it came back is to be applauded.
Things had to be rethought, there were too many inconsistencies (some dating back to the original series) where plot decisions coloured the programme up to 1989 - it makes you think, 26 years of rubber monsters! Its no wonder that the BBC pulled the plug and gave the format a rest.
Just don't try to read too much into what is, after all Saturday Evening entertainment.
Doctor Whom
I see (for all its good points) that the revival edition suffers from its episodic format. We have discrete 45-minute programmes (occasionally 2-parters) within a series which often has a loose story arc. Great for the MTV generation, perhaps, but for those of us who were brought up on classic DW, a bit of a let-down.
Back in the day we had each series consisting of (usually) six stories spread over sets of 4 episodes many of which ended on a cliff-hanger. This was great drama, well and tightly scripted. The special effects may seem crude in hindsight but they were cutting-edge then and kitcsh now. Most importantly there was a story and key to this was the Doctor who was on the side of the moral good. The zenith of the whole canon was surely the Key to Time series which gave a classic quest storyline over the arc with 6 quintessential plots for each part of the key and a reveal of superb quality. I doubt we'll ever see its like again, but I dearly hope the beeb will prove me wrong.
In essence, a return to a medium-length plot within a series-long story would be best, but I fear those in control won't countenance it.
Burns: We're building a casino!
McAllister: Arrr. Give me 5 minutes.
I don't think I've ever seen so much waffling outside an IHOP.
The "classic" episodes are so dry, long and drawn out, and so dialog heavy. I've tried watching episodes from every Doctor and they all bore me to death. I know they had limited budgets back then but come on. Bubble wrap with green spray paint is supposed to be a giant insect arm? High school plays have better effects than that.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
The author has, almost verbatim, described my thoughts about the new series. And why I just finally stopped watching it and moved on to other things.
always made me laugh
that the darleks survived but not the time lords.NO offiense but ya just send a world buster back in time to the darkek home system and make it into a black hole
problem solved.
Agreed Blink was brilliant, but I find Moffat is really trying too hard these days. Too many plot twists in the 50 minutes. You don't get the slow moments that make the fast plot twist more of a contrast. Still far superior to the previous guy. But I wish he'd distill the episode down, remember the slow moments in Blink that *made* the story line, and ask if himself if he really needs this third or forth plot twist, or yet another series thread.
I find River Song is always explaining every micro-detail just to close every plot 100.0000%, answering questions only nerds on forums would ever ask or care about.
My favorite of the last series was Two Streams (The girl who waited). It struck the right balance between slow and fast paced. It wasn't a Moffat episode.
I think Rory and Amy have had their time, I'm glad they go because the writer writes them out, and not because they get sick and won't renew their contracts. A problem that has plagued previous Dr Whos' where a regeneration is written in, whenever someone has enough of their role.
But I'd also stop that 'River Song' emotional side garbage. "Don't ever age, don't ever let him see the damage', P-L-E-A-S-E, that crap belongs on Desperate Housewives. Also the "what's the doctors name" stuff, too often, too many times, yeh we get it, the big reveal relates to his name, but do you really need to put the series thread everywhere in the series???
Calm it down Moffat, you're doing fine, but need to focus and remove some of the noise.
They turned him into a trickster God some time before the Pandorica episodes and then really rubbed it in with those. The one where he spent a while human rubbed that in a bit around the end of it as well (imprisoning people in mirrors etc).
Hardly, most of his shows ended with the doctor flipping a switch and the problem is solved. Or were a simple *problem* *shoot problem* *problem fixed* format.
No plot as such, just a story that ends with a switch being flipped, when it could equally have been flipped without the story. Doctor arrives, flips switch, problem solved.
It's a pity, he did some good ones, Planet Midnight, I thought was clean, simple and a well written play. But they were few and far between. The best episodes in his time was Hollow Child, Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, there's a reason they chose Moffat for the next lead. IMHO The Impossible Planet, maybe the second tier. And Planet of the Dead, but that was cowritten with Gareth Roberts who writes for the current series too.
Where I credit RTD was with getting the show recommissioned.
"English MotherF***er, do you speak it!?"
Sorry Pulpfiction fan. Seriously could you be anymore vague or ambiguous with your language. You've basically said noting, while catering to both those that like and dislike the new doctor who.
Honestly, the old doctor who and the new doctor who are the exact same, they've just changed through the times, based on who directs them, what demographic there aimed against and what story they're trying to convey. You expect a series spanning 60 years with numerous producers, directors and writers to remain consistent? good luck!
I always preferred Dr. Who: The Original Series because it was both campy and science fiction at the same time. Now get off my lawn!
Honestly, I think the 45 minute episode is a terrible fit for Who. Assuming four episodes per serial in the old series, you'd have five minutes out of one episode devoted to plot setup, with thirty seconds or so of cliffhanger recap at the beginning of each following episode. I realize that there are reasons why they use the one hour story format now, but it's really narratively confining. Someone in a rubber suit pops up, says 'Hi, I'll be your monster of the week", and the opening credits roll. Then there's a lot of running, the Doctor waves his sonic screwdriver around like a magic wand (ironically, the reason they wrote the thing out of the original series) to magic some exposition up, there's some more running, and finally a denouement. There are episodes that break that mould, but they've sadly been few and far between.
mr. Betteridge has the answer to this crapfest of a submission!
I haven't watched Doctor Who in a while. The reason why? Too much bad melodrama. Melodrama is tricky to get right, do it well and you end up with something comparable in quality to "The English Patient", do it badly and it can result in something unwatchable. More coherent storylines spread over more episodes would be good too.
The Doctor has dealt with crises from a little girl with a psycho-active imagination, to genocidal extinction and universe-threatening cataclysms. He looks like a little, fussy man in a bowtie, but is a 1,000 year old alien with vast storehouses of knowledge and a very non-human perspective.
There are many ways this could be explored; where the Doctor has to do the right thing, which isn't necessarily the good thing. I also wish that the plot line they had in mind for Colin Baker's Doctor could have been done properly, instead of being mangled about by writer's strikes etc. For its time, it was quite revolutionary - the idea that the Doctor's regeneration had gone subtly wrong, leaving him more like the Master than the Doctor. The Sixth Doctor's arc was meant to be a slow descent into hell for the character, and any companions unfortunate enough to get caught up in his self-destruction, before his realisation that it had all gone wrong, and his deliberate suicide, in the hope that the next regeneration would correct the problem, because he was too dangerous to leave running around.
That arc would have made the Sixth Doctor a damaged and tragic figure in the Who mythos, not just the 'bit of a twat' he's generally regarded as, which I feel is a bit unfair to Colin Baker.
Lately I've been enjoying CBS's take on the BBC's take on Sherlock Holmes as someone in the 21st century. But I wasn't sure why.
Then I realized they were basically writing it as Doctor Who episodes. Episodic with developing back-story (New DW), and with none of the standard DW tropes like time travel (Pertwee didn't), the TARDIS, a magic wand sonic screwdriver (and fortunately no magic-wand story endings so far either), and wobbly monsters. But he does like his dusty old jacket.
But it was when I realized that Lucy Liu as a female Watson is really filling the role of a Companion (he drags her around, she chases him to keep up) that it clicked. He seems to have a lot of the personality traits of a Doctor, in particular being rather barmy. I think Holmes in this show is rather an Eccleston-style Doctor, very bold about sticking his nose into things and pontificating. (not that the other Doctors don't, but which one kept saying "Stuuuupid humans"?)
Or maybe it just shows that Sherlock Holmes was one of the many influences on DW.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I liked David Tennant best so far of the new series though.
Especially the episodes:
---
1.) "Doomsday", "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" (my favs so far) - "Because if you're going to escape, THEN I'VE GOT TO STOP YOU!" - the Doctor + "I'm going into that blackhole... & YOU'RE RIDING WITH ME" - the Doctor, & quoting Rose "That's what the doctor would've done" & "The stuff of legend" - The Doctor...
2.) "The Girl in the Fireplace" (just a well done concept & good overall episode)
3.) "Silence in the Library"/"Forrest of the Dead" (the ending of the little girl being preserved was what got me most).
4.) "Smith & Jones" (plasma vore episode).
5.) "DALEK" (yes, a Christopher Eccleston/Rose episode, but a DAMNED good one) - "You would make a GOOD Dalek!"
---
You're RIGHT though - "BLINK" kicked butt too, & it was sort of a "radical change" from the norm, for lack of a better expression here!
You're also spot on regarding getting rid of Rory & Amy, FINALLY - I haven't watched it recently, but they're STILL around?
Man... they had their day, but are "played out" (but it's probably NOT THAT EASY in the 'real world', since they are actors & doubtless with contracts for so many episodes & what-not) - but, the "Girl who waited" was a good episode too though.
Part of what makes Dr. Who great, is that they change who the doctor is (due to 'regeneration', smart move by the makers of the series really - allows for fresh face, or from their possible pov, getting rid of a prima donna actor that *might* cause hassles too (bonus for them maybe, but maybe NOT for the viewership)), AND, his partners!
For variety/freshness, for lack of a better expression here.
Trade offs abound!
APK
P.S.=> I thought "Love & Monsters" were 'ok', & sort of funny (The ABSORBALOV, lol) & good old "Elton" too (& his "bit o' ELO", lol)...
... apk
This isn't Doctor Who but a crazied homosexual, beastiality loving freak that will have sex at the drop of his name. There is nothing redeeming about these shows with every show a 5-10 chase scene, dialog for the common piddler, and story lines written by a drunken over the hill idiot.
The problem is the same with many larger than life characters. You need them to have an epic conflict to shine. You need a bigger and bigger conflict to make it relevant. So the larger than life character must get larger and larger until things get absurd. Doctor Who was a man with a time machine on adventures. Now he is a God who protects the universe. Same type of thing happened to Superman. In order to come up with a worthy adversary, the stakes must constantly be raised. The Doctor needs to be wrong. He needs to lose. And not something that turns out to ultimately be wiped away or part of a bigger plan. He needs to be an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. Some one commented that he is MacGyver with a time machine, but I disagree. He is more like the story writer in his own story.
If you look at my handle here on slashdot, you'll see I've been a fan for years. it was my online handle in the 80s, and I took the identity seriously. I haven't seen much of the new series. And now...from what I've read...I don't want to. I am afraid I might have to hurt someone badly if they destroy my idea of what Doctor Who is. Perhaps it's time to end this blasphemy now, and save our souls from the eternal fire.
Now Jo, I want you to pull that lever.
Personally I have really been enjoying the stories which Big Finish have been doing with the old doctors, they have even got Tom Baker doing some now. They've been exploring some of the different doctors' personalities in some interesting ways. You can find some on BBC Radio 4 Extra from time to time, if you don't want to shell out the cash for them...
Moffat is a tool.
He's single-handedly destroyed my enjoyment of DW; with maybe one or two exceptions, he has made every episode he's been involved with since Davies departure a depressing joke.
Davies wasn't perfect; he created his own shite, but he also created some truly fun and engaging TV. Moffat, when he was under Davies rule produced a scattering of awesome episodes. Then he took command and it became clear that his clever plot workings were heavily augmented by other writer's understanding of human emotions. Either that, or his brain crashed. Not sure which.
Apparently, according to Moffat's vision of the the Doctor, everybody's favorite Time Lord has the sexual maturity of a repressed 14 year old. What does that say about Moffat? (That he's a straight, awkward and emotionally stunted, "we don't hug in this family!" English twit).
Give me a gay Davies with a mature understanding of human emotions, family and love any day.
Also, Gaiman is an ass. I hated his Tardis episode. What an arrogant jerk.
The Oncoming Storm stuff comes from the Doctor Who Expanded Universe. Stuff like comic books and radio shows that were outside of, but based on, the TV continuity.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
One of the best parts of Dr. Who is the thought and care that is put into the show. The multi-episode story lines that draw you and a true narrative to be built and the over arching story lines of the season draw you in and make you wonder how it all ties together are what made me love new Dr. who. This season they have killed the stories, depth and my interest in the show. Their move to smash a 3-5 part show into a single episode a week has created an unwatchable abomination with no depth or true creativity.
I have started watching all the Dr. Who episodes from the beginning and they are wonderful. I am now up to the 19th season. Even the worst parts of the first 20 years of the show are better then this past season. If you can call 5 episodes a season.
Buffy was watchable by young adults. Dr Who came close under Ecclestone but fell back to handwaving and deus-ex-machina under Tennant, and is now about as rational and believable as Scooby Doo. Reading decent hard-SF novels as a kid I discovered an abundance of stories seemingly compatible with the known laws of physics, causality, probability, logic and human behaviour. I cannot fathom other adults being satisfied with such switch-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-the-ride nonsense, and must confess it saddens me. Please cheer me up and explain what I am just not getting about the psychology of adult Dr Who fans; I'd rather discover it was me who's missing out and not you.
Just a quick one - I have to smile at the 'belittling' comments left by some of you.
Little trolls who hide behind their computers. If you don't agree, that's fine...but comments like "Reading the review has ruined my brain " is just ridiculous. I happen to know for a fact that the site in question is very open, willing to consider content from all submissions.
Ultimately...put up or shut up.