Hi folks! Gentle readers, learned friends, fellow fans!
I logged back in after a good night's sleep to find my humble thread was of at least a little interest to others. Yea, this church is a broad one indeed!
Very gratifying, and jolly nice to find we're all discussing things in such an amicable and considered fashion.
Beware Laurence, you might find yourself pink slipped if this sort of tomfoolery catches on!
Patrick, I appreciate where you're coming from - truly. And in recent days, some of you have been exploring such thoughts with me in other threads.
For mine, I have a worrying suspicion that what looks like (from Colin's recent media comments) to be a bait and switch of the 80s Doctors re the TDOTD and The Fiveish Doctors Rebooted is exactly that. In a golden anniversary year, that's not really good enough for the actors or the fans. Although the "any f-er with an Equity card" line was taken out of The Pitch Of Fear, looking at a lot of the New Series and Moffat's mean-spirited references to the Who past he stands on, I can't help but feel that sentiment, that disdain for and cringing about that decade is part and parcel of what's considered to be the modern way to present Who and how we are now meant to respond to it.
It didn't used to be this way. New brooms didn't go on about why the old days were rubbish, they got on with business and let the audience decide for themselves.
Could a new broom come again in Who, and succeed? The history of the series suggests that's entirely possible. Even if it's done on the hop, as it were. Think Sherwin to Letts, for instance.
The alternative, that we see now, has been seen before too. Usually this was brief and self-corrected, but a confluence of factors mitigated against this in the '80s, to everyone's detriment.
Yes, the series presently continues to make a nice sum for the Beeb. But as Laurence and others (including me) suggest, it doesn't follow that risk aversion is the best way to keep doing that.
Indeed, it wasn't back in '63. Nor does it suggest that people were different in the 70s, that quality with mass appeal is no longer possible, no longer desired by the viewer or the Sixth Floor.
I think the Beeb, who've been making drama for some time now, must in Who's 50th year, have a pretty sound awareness of what the series means to them, their reputation for excellence.
They can and did blend a extraordinarily technically complex and innovative niche programme on a shoestring budget into a world-beating recognizable icon of enduring appeal to all ages.
The competitors and pretenders try their best, but Who is something special, a true original. To keep it that way, evergreen and unmissable, it must stay ahead of trends - even its own.
Alas, almost a decade has been spent reheating the same old formula we saw in Rose. No matter how artful, it's hard to be impressed. The Beeb know this, they've been here before.
In the mid60s, when Hartnell's time drew to a close, even Pat thought the show might have been on its last legs, a dead duck. We know how that turned out!
And again, when it went to colour, and the concern was to be seen as something other than way out and silly, what were the odds a radio comedian would lead a bigger wave of success?
Here in the 21st century, a casual viewer could well suppose that Doctor Who a la Wales is now, at best, only a source for stylish tedium.
(Indeed, calling it New now is getting a bit silly, as it's been the same forever...
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I think we here are better placed to know that this need not be so, at all. And say so, publicly, to show support. Yet I don't expect this is an insight beyond the ken of the Beeb either.
Budgets rarely get as fat as one's dreams stretch to. To justify license fees, to keep remaining vibrant, the Beeb must continue to add value to all their mainstays.
That includes Who. And that's a job both long overdue and entirely appropriate to see take flight in the 50th anniversary. Will it happen for Capaldi? I don't know, but I hope so.
His Doctor needs to be his own man, his era needs to be an unapologetic break from the restrictions of '05+ that have brought over-familiarity to new depths, harming the brand.
When this sort of break happened in the past, as it did more than once, no on-air announcement or justifying story arc was needed.
It just got decided to make it a little differently to what had been done previously, and the strength of the stories and performances were considered reason enough for the change.
How enjoyable for Troughton or us would it have been to see him carry on exactly as Hartnell did, persona and story tone and all? Capaldi deserves that same kind of freedom.
There's no reason it cannot be so. The audience just needs to be trusted more, and we in turn need to encourage, coax and persuade the Beeb to regain their nerve, to revitalize the show.
I threw out a few ideas that seemed worth a look. I'd love to hear any others!
Similarly, a stretch more in tone to Season 7 (though not wholly Earthbound or devoid of pure historicals) seems to me a good place to start in cleansing the palate and to reignite attention.
Sooner or later, I'm confident it'll happen. Fans need not run it to bring it to pass. When it does, an appreciation of history and a memory of what happened in October will be the reason.
Only in October could we experience first-hand the worldwide phenomenon of Enemy and Web's iTunes sales.
Those few months surely have given the Beeb pause, to let sink in what this means, for the franchise's next half-century. The best days should be yet to come!
It's a good deal more significant than say, making a token TARDIS trip to a monochrome planet next season. Between then and January's filming, serious thought will surely be given to the best way forward for the series, on the basis of that incontrovertible global demand for old-style Who, to the exclusion of the highest rated and most critically acclaimed ongoing drama series.
As a sign of widespread audience desire for and acceptance of change, distinct from the old Wales formula and toward something a lot closer to Who's roots, it'd be wise to take on board.
I guess we shouldn't be too surprised in hindsight, that Pat's Doctor has worked his magic to remind us all of this - especially those who've forgotten the most.
After all, was it not he who told us, right back in his debut episode, that without renewal he couldn't survive?