I was delightfully surprised to
read your opinions on the current state
of Doctor Who. I feel exactly
the same, possibly stronger, though your
justification and defense of
yourself obviously had to be worded
carefully and perhaps disguised how
strongly you feel. Before you get
the idea that I am an extremist you
can put it aside, I'm not, your
essay pretty much covers most of
what I feel on the matter. The New
Adventures never ever will be Dr Who
-- in my eyes anyway. Any FOX or
American movie or series of WHO will
not be Doctor Who. Again this is my
own personal judgement on the
difference between British and American
shows, a difference that is quite
distinct.
Funny, I was in the shower and
thinking about how Dr Who seemed to be
classified as Sci-Fi, and having
just watched the two Peter Cushing
movies earlier that day, and
thinking of other Dr Who adventures,
particularly the historicals -- ones
I enjoy immensly -- I came to the
conclusion that Doctor Who would be
better labelled as Fantasy Adventure
Series. Not Sci-Fi. It
really shouldn't be placed amongst the likes of
Star Trek TNG, Babylon 5, and
others.. its a telefantasy, somewhat like
the original Star Trek show, which
often had the crew going back in time
if I remember a few episodes
correctly. I'm no Star Trek fan, in fact I
avoid TNG, Voyager and others, but
the original show is a lot more
enjoyable I beleive, simply because
I prefer that sort of thing to a
soap opera in space.
I agree with all you've said, and
can only really add my bits to it.
Regarding the Doctor's sexual
inclination and such themes in the Show
and new adventures... it doesn't
belong here, not in WHO. For 26 years
we didn't have these themes on this
sort of scale, because it was
primarily a kids show, family at
least. Actually, the show went from
kids show - 60's, whole family show
- 70's, and with the 80's it slowly
became more and more a fan boy's
show. And this was a bad thing, and I
beleive it is what brought an end to
Dr Who. It started taking itself
far too seriously, and trying to
compete with Sci-fi shows, when in
essence Dr Who wasn't fully one
itself. The word "fantasy" is such an
important word in Dr Who, as is
"suspension of disbeleif", ok thats a
phrase, my bad.
My favorite stages of Doctor Who
were the 60's and 70's and to a lesser
extent the 80's. In fact
William Hartnell is my favorite Doctor, I
don't know too many people who feel
the same with me on this, but
there's something about him that I
like, most likely his Yoda-esqe
nature. I also enjoy Troughton
who is without a doubt the friendliest
of all the Doctors, he's the Doctor
of all the Doctors that I'd like to
meet. But I think the 4th
Doctor really hit the right balance, he was
commanding, energetic and zany,
confident and often fearless in the face
of some ridiculous monster,
brooding, and deteched. Most of the
Doctor's had a little of all these
factors, to some degree, probably the
most lacking are Davison and
Pertwee, but Pertwee on the other hand was
very commanding, and had a
friendlier side to him. Davison not only
didn't look like he fit the
description of the Doctor, but he was
vulnerable, often very upset, and ..
well a lot more, he just wasn't
right in my book. The only
time for me, that he began to show through
some real doctor characteristics was
in his last Story "Caves of
Androzani". And I think
what you said about marketing over who and what
Dr Who is comes into effect here.
"but an unfortunate logical
progression of the money-making scheming is
that the
people in charge know more about
business than Who. "
Nathan really took the show away
from the family fantasy adventure
element, and tried to do things with
the show that weren't what it was
about. But since JNT is
another massive topic in itself I'll drop it
here and now.
I have felt very alone on this
subject for a long time. Virtually
everyone I meet loves the FOX movie
or the New Adventures. I can see
why with the movie, most of them
seem to love Star Trek TNG as well, and
that style of TV. Me? I
like Chronicles of Narnia, Medieval Fantasy,
Kids Sci-fi books, adventures and
mysteries and make believe
(roleplaying). I felt a strong
element of mystery in a lot of Doctor
Who, and it helped me get drawn into
it more. I have been pretty
bottled up on the subject, most of
the time not wanting to get into huge
raging debates with what seemed to
be the vast majority that enjoy the
NA, yet don't see any probs with the
swearing, sex, and general adult
themes. I was never keen on
the 7th doctor's era because it was the
furthest away in feel from all the
previous Doctor Who "eras" as they
are so called. It showed signs
of going that way, and it certainly
leapt forward with the NA's.
While I'm not crying blasphemy, I
don't think Dr Who will ever return,
because it has been so stereotyped
into a sci-fi show and so
concentrated with fanatics, rather
than general folk who can sit down
and watch the show. I feel
this with a lot of other things too. You
can tell when fans are doing the
writing, because they start putting in
unnecessary yet interesting and cool
facts and details. Stuff that
doesn't need to be there, and sticks
out like a sore thumb, well to me
anyway, but then there aren't many
people like me around it seems. I've
seen the organisers of the DW fan
club, I belonged to once, move with
these changes, loving every minute
of it, while I sit and wonder what is
so wonderful about Ace.
I don't own all the existing
episodes on tape -- I admit I have a lot,
around 2/3rds -- I think this might
also help contribute to the fact I
continue to love the original 26 yr
old show so much, because there's
still new material for me out there.
Anyway. That's the way I
feel on it. Not quite so alone anymore. I'm
very happy to have come across you
guys.
Good luck.
Regards,
Rod Hannah
