Monday, March 29, 2004
Speaking as a fan, I have to say that opening the new series of "Doctor Who" without a regeneration scene is the correct move. Yes, it's annoyed some - but not all - fans, but for the general public this is the right decision.
I first started watching "Doctor Who" in the mid-1970s. I'm fairly sure that the first story I ever saw was 'Planet of the Spiders', but I can't remember enough of it to be 100% certain, and all of my earliest memories of the show are from the early Tom Baker stories. At that time we had no UK Gold and no videos or DVDs, so there were only the Target novelisations to introduce us to other Doctors, but even so I was aware that "my" Doctor wasn't the only one. However, not having seen him - or at least remembered seeing him - regenerate from Jon Pertwee, didn't affect my enjoyment of the show.
Of course, there will have been some viewers new to the series who saw a regeneration scene, but with the exception of the TV movie, "Doctor Who" was a known commodity whenever a previous regeneration took place. Many new viewers would have had access to someone who was at least vaguely familiar with the concept of regeneration, and it's unlikely that too many viewers would have first tuned in to see a renegeration episode. After all, the season had been running for weeks by then, so if they were going to watch it, it's likely that they would have done so before the final episode in a season.
But the new series wouldn't be ending its first season with a regeneration. It would be opening it with a regeneration. We'd either get the regeneration at the end of the first episode, in which case we've just spent 45 minutes getting to know a character who then gets killed off, have a half-hearted introduction like the Seventh Doctor in the TVM or kick things off with a regeneration scene a la 'Time and the Rani'.
Many fans seem to believe that even the rubbish regeneration scene that opened 'Time and the Rani' was better than no regeneration, but they're wrong. We didn't gain anything. We don't even need to have the Doctor suffering from the aftermath of a regeneration as in 'Spearhead from Space'. That episode was only shown 6 months after the end of 'The War Games' so most viewers would have been familiar with the concept of regeneration, and there was a (largely) familiar face in the shape of the Brigadier to help smooth the transition.
The new series is effectively starting from scratch, and that's just what it should do. Introduce us to a character calling himself The Doctor. Get him involved in the story, introduce us to Rose Tyler, and then let us see the TARDIS through her eyes, just as we first saw it through Ian and Barbara's in '100,000 BC'. None of that interior first stupidity that we got in the TV movie - show us the Police Box, then have the Rose walk through the door.
And, if you can keep the inside of the TARDIS a secret, then all the better. Many viewers will know what's inside the Police Box already, but we don't have to know exactly what's inside it until the last possible moment...
I first started watching "Doctor Who" in the mid-1970s. I'm fairly sure that the first story I ever saw was 'Planet of the Spiders', but I can't remember enough of it to be 100% certain, and all of my earliest memories of the show are from the early Tom Baker stories. At that time we had no UK Gold and no videos or DVDs, so there were only the Target novelisations to introduce us to other Doctors, but even so I was aware that "my" Doctor wasn't the only one. However, not having seen him - or at least remembered seeing him - regenerate from Jon Pertwee, didn't affect my enjoyment of the show.
Of course, there will have been some viewers new to the series who saw a regeneration scene, but with the exception of the TV movie, "Doctor Who" was a known commodity whenever a previous regeneration took place. Many new viewers would have had access to someone who was at least vaguely familiar with the concept of regeneration, and it's unlikely that too many viewers would have first tuned in to see a renegeration episode. After all, the season had been running for weeks by then, so if they were going to watch it, it's likely that they would have done so before the final episode in a season.
But the new series wouldn't be ending its first season with a regeneration. It would be opening it with a regeneration. We'd either get the regeneration at the end of the first episode, in which case we've just spent 45 minutes getting to know a character who then gets killed off, have a half-hearted introduction like the Seventh Doctor in the TVM or kick things off with a regeneration scene a la 'Time and the Rani'.
Many fans seem to believe that even the rubbish regeneration scene that opened 'Time and the Rani' was better than no regeneration, but they're wrong. We didn't gain anything. We don't even need to have the Doctor suffering from the aftermath of a regeneration as in 'Spearhead from Space'. That episode was only shown 6 months after the end of 'The War Games' so most viewers would have been familiar with the concept of regeneration, and there was a (largely) familiar face in the shape of the Brigadier to help smooth the transition.
The new series is effectively starting from scratch, and that's just what it should do. Introduce us to a character calling himself The Doctor. Get him involved in the story, introduce us to Rose Tyler, and then let us see the TARDIS through her eyes, just as we first saw it through Ian and Barbara's in '100,000 BC'. None of that interior first stupidity that we got in the TV movie - show us the Police Box, then have the Rose walk through the door.
And, if you can keep the inside of the TARDIS a secret, then all the better. Many viewers will know what's inside the Police Box already, but we don't have to know exactly what's inside it until the last possible moment...
