Monday, October 27, 2003
So Lorraine Heggessy plans a series of Saturday night repeats of Doctor Who before the new series starts sometime in 2005.
Well, without wanting to sound like a party pooper, I have to say that this is a spectacularly bad idea.
For a start, there's the format of the new series. The most likely format is single-part 40-50 minute episodes, not the 4 x 25 minute episodes that most viewers associate with the series.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the likely episode format or length, and there's always the possibility of multi-part stories or longer arcs. The problem comes with repeating four part stories for a modern audience. Bolt them together - either as feature-length episodes or the sort of double-length episodes that UK Gold are currently running during the week - means the action will jar. Run them at the old one-episode-per-week pace and you risk viewers turning off. The last thing that the new series needs is to follow on from a poorly performing repeat series.
There's also the pace and style of the original episodes. Even if you don't run stories in an episodic format, viewers today will expect something faster paced and with better effects than Doctor Who managed. Don't forget, by the time the new series comes around in 2005, it will have been off-air - apart from the 1996 TV movie - for 16 years.
Continuity would also be a potential minefield. There's no need for the new series to explicitly reference the old one at all - don't contradict it, but build from the few facts that the general public are aware of - the Doctor is a Time Lord and he travels in a bigger-inside-than-outside spaceship known as the TARDIS that just happens to be stuck in the shape of a Police Box.
That's not to say that I'm totally against the idea of repeats. The Five Faces of Doctor Who season in 1981 was a good way of introducing viewers to a Doctor other than Tom Baker, so stripped repeats on BBC Two would be a good way of re-introducing the series to a wider audience that those buying the DVDs or watching it on UK Gold.
The one-story-per-Doctor format would allow for a decent retrospective, spread over a couple of months - longer if the multi-Doctor stories are also included in the run.
Assuming standard four-parters shown on consecutive nights, 100,000 BC would probably be the best story to kick off the run, even those this was shown as part of The Five Faces season. The Troughton era would be best illustrated by The Tomb of the Cybermen (rather than the only other surviving 4-parter, The Krotons), while for the Pertwee story I'd probably chose Terror of the Autons, although Day of the Daleks would provide an opportunity to use the series' most famous monsters.
Moving into the Tom Baker era, I'd probably go for The Brain of Morbius, although if the Master is to feature in the new series then The Deadly Assassin might be an option. Personally I've always liked Horror of Fang Rock, but it seems to be less well regarded by most other fans.
The obvious Fifth Doctor story would be The Caves of Androzani, but if that was deemed over-exposured it'd probably go for Earthshock. The Sixth Doctor doesn't have many classic stories - or indeed, many stories at all - so I'd probably opt for The Mark of the Rani, followed by Remembrance of the Daleks to showcase the Seventh Doctor and then the Paul McGann TV movie.
Run then on four nights a week on BBC Two and you've got a couple of months' worth of repeats (closer to three if you include the multi-Doctor stories), but unless the ratings completely tank it'll do the job. Run them on BBC One and you risk damaging the new series before it's even started.
Well, without wanting to sound like a party pooper, I have to say that this is a spectacularly bad idea.
For a start, there's the format of the new series. The most likely format is single-part 40-50 minute episodes, not the 4 x 25 minute episodes that most viewers associate with the series.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the likely episode format or length, and there's always the possibility of multi-part stories or longer arcs. The problem comes with repeating four part stories for a modern audience. Bolt them together - either as feature-length episodes or the sort of double-length episodes that UK Gold are currently running during the week - means the action will jar. Run them at the old one-episode-per-week pace and you risk viewers turning off. The last thing that the new series needs is to follow on from a poorly performing repeat series.
There's also the pace and style of the original episodes. Even if you don't run stories in an episodic format, viewers today will expect something faster paced and with better effects than Doctor Who managed. Don't forget, by the time the new series comes around in 2005, it will have been off-air - apart from the 1996 TV movie - for 16 years.
Continuity would also be a potential minefield. There's no need for the new series to explicitly reference the old one at all - don't contradict it, but build from the few facts that the general public are aware of - the Doctor is a Time Lord and he travels in a bigger-inside-than-outside spaceship known as the TARDIS that just happens to be stuck in the shape of a Police Box.
That's not to say that I'm totally against the idea of repeats. The Five Faces of Doctor Who season in 1981 was a good way of introducing viewers to a Doctor other than Tom Baker, so stripped repeats on BBC Two would be a good way of re-introducing the series to a wider audience that those buying the DVDs or watching it on UK Gold.
The one-story-per-Doctor format would allow for a decent retrospective, spread over a couple of months - longer if the multi-Doctor stories are also included in the run.
Assuming standard four-parters shown on consecutive nights, 100,000 BC would probably be the best story to kick off the run, even those this was shown as part of The Five Faces season. The Troughton era would be best illustrated by The Tomb of the Cybermen (rather than the only other surviving 4-parter, The Krotons), while for the Pertwee story I'd probably chose Terror of the Autons, although Day of the Daleks would provide an opportunity to use the series' most famous monsters.
Moving into the Tom Baker era, I'd probably go for The Brain of Morbius, although if the Master is to feature in the new series then The Deadly Assassin might be an option. Personally I've always liked Horror of Fang Rock, but it seems to be less well regarded by most other fans.
The obvious Fifth Doctor story would be The Caves of Androzani, but if that was deemed over-exposured it'd probably go for Earthshock. The Sixth Doctor doesn't have many classic stories - or indeed, many stories at all - so I'd probably opt for The Mark of the Rani, followed by Remembrance of the Daleks to showcase the Seventh Doctor and then the Paul McGann TV movie.
Run then on four nights a week on BBC Two and you've got a couple of months' worth of repeats (closer to three if you include the multi-Doctor stories), but unless the ratings completely tank it'll do the job. Run them on BBC One and you risk damaging the new series before it's even started.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
A rare thumbs up for Sky One from me this week. After moaning that they've dropped Dead Like Me for a pointless night of Scare Tactics, they've made up for it by scheduling back to back episodes the following week.
Except that means I'll have to adjust the TiVo season pass as Sky One has this annoying habit of starting programmes 30 seconds before the published start time. Grrr....
BBC Four is developing into a decent channel for anyone with an interest in archive television. After earlier repeats of Nineteen Eighty-Four, in the last couple of weeks we've had repeats of The Stone Tape (okay, already had that on DVD) and documentaries on Nigel Kneale and the Radiophonic Workshop.
Alchemists of Sounds (the RW docu) was mostly great. Top moments - the late Delia Derbyshire (who seemed awfully posh), the archive clips and Mark Ayres building up the Doctor Who theme. Also loved the coda with Mark Ayres demonstrating something that turned out to be the music from the end of John Craven's Newsround.
Unfortunately it wasn't all great. The director could at least have lowered Dick Mills' chair and done away with the unnecessary clocks displaying 19:58 (the year the Workshop was founded). However, worst of all was the bearded bloke sat in the background of all the interviews, which was a prime example of a director so far up his own arse it starting detracting from the programme. It got to the point where I was looking for him rather than concentrating on what the interviewee was saying, and judging by comments in various forums, I wasn't the only one who found his appearance annoying.
Except that means I'll have to adjust the TiVo season pass as Sky One has this annoying habit of starting programmes 30 seconds before the published start time. Grrr....
BBC Four is developing into a decent channel for anyone with an interest in archive television. After earlier repeats of Nineteen Eighty-Four, in the last couple of weeks we've had repeats of The Stone Tape (okay, already had that on DVD) and documentaries on Nigel Kneale and the Radiophonic Workshop.
Alchemists of Sounds (the RW docu) was mostly great. Top moments - the late Delia Derbyshire (who seemed awfully posh), the archive clips and Mark Ayres building up the Doctor Who theme. Also loved the coda with Mark Ayres demonstrating something that turned out to be the music from the end of John Craven's Newsround.
Unfortunately it wasn't all great. The director could at least have lowered Dick Mills' chair and done away with the unnecessary clocks displaying 19:58 (the year the Workshop was founded). However, worst of all was the bearded bloke sat in the background of all the interviews, which was a prime example of a director so far up his own arse it starting detracting from the programme. It got to the point where I was looking for him rather than concentrating on what the interviewee was saying, and judging by comments in various forums, I wasn't the only one who found his appearance annoying.
