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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.
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.
That's Torchwood, except it's male 'hotties' who get banged by Harkness, and the 'Americanizing' of it sucked.
Even Kirk banged more aliens than Harkness... would have been nice to see him with a girl though: "Harkness... Captain Harkness."
soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
That would have to be on Skin-a-Max...
Nothing to see here but us trolls...move along...
They tried something like that. It was called the 4th season of Torchwood (Miracle Day).
Everyone agreed it was god-awful, and that it was never to be spoken of again.
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.
Miracle Day started out well, but when the big reveal of the problem came about, it just seemed...stupid.
Ironically, season 3 of Torchwood also suffered the same thing. It's...it's...it's freakin' drug-addicted aliens? That's it, just another alien?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I really enjoyed the two seasons of Torchwood but don't care much for the mini series.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
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.
Continuity sucked with "Miracle Day". After "Children of Earth" the CIA still didn't believe in aliens?
It was a similar waste as dragging Jackie Chan to the USA just to do "Cannonball Run".
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).
Good god, Torchwood was all around awful.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
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.
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; }
OK, just a few tiny points. Firstly, the Time Lords are not extinct. The Doctor is a Time Lord, therefore there is at least one. Plus The Master's fate is uncertain (as in "Heisenberg" uncertain), plus there are several part-time-lords (the "Doctor's Daughter", River Song etc etc) and Rassilon et al may still be out there.
Secondly, "just going back in time to kill all the Daleks" is the definition of a time war - both sides did this continuously, trying to outdo the other, until The Doctor did *something* which wiped pretty much all of both sides out. As the exchange recently went:
House: "Fear me, I've killed hundreds of Time Lords."
Doctor: "Fear me, I've killed all of them."
So he did *something* which resulted in the annihilation of both sides - there must have been a good reason - he had the chance to wipe out all the Daleks back in the Tom Baker days and he decided he didn't have the moral authority.
This is the big mystery of the modern series - what happened between McGann and Ecclestone? What did he do and why?
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Torchwood was generally unwatchable, you can't turn a children's show (Who) into an adult show simply by added sex and swearing, but that's what they tried with Torchwood. Atleast Miracle Day tried something a bit different, and I think was stronger for it.
you can't turn a children's show (Who) into an adult show simply by added sex and swearing
Sure you can. Tiswas --- OTT.
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...
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."
How about this: sometimes we actually **want** to feel like kids again and watch guys in rubber costumes chase a guy wearing a bow tie until he turns around, spouts off some silly time-wimey BS in a near-unintelligible British accent, waves a Harry Potter wand with a green crystal on the end, and saves the day. And we want to be able to watch that with our kids, too. Sometimes we want to escape the pressures of our boring lives and imagine hopping into a big blue box, pulling a few levers and twisting a few dials and going on adventures with a crazy person from the future.
When I feel like it, I pull out a good, thought-provoking novel, and when I don't, I pull out some "brain-candy" and just get lost. It's that simple.
I enjoy a good hard-SF novel as much as the rest of us here, but seriously, if you ever A) expected Doctor Who to be anything close to hard SF or B) ever expected *any* show of TV to be anything close to hard SF then you are on crack. Hell, the only channel to ever focus on even mildly good SciFi is now called SyFy and it has a 2 hour block of wrestling on every night.
If only "common" sense was actually that common...