I've always loved watching Dr Who but recently I grew up. Sort of. A bit. Perhaps.
I started to watch the show in a different way and for one very simple reason. When the show returned courtesy of Russell T Davies and Co. at BBC Wales it came complete with solid writing, great acting and the best special effects that the Beeb could afford. When I was growing up Who didn't have such blessed gifts and I noticed this horribly when I started watching a few DVDs of the original show in the last year or so.
At first I thought 'stuff this' I'll give all the DVDs I've bought over the years away. But then I grew to appreciate the rubbish in a whole new way. My new mission is very simple: To discover when or if Dr Who was ever truly great television and to critically assess it all in the process.
I want to look at the wider picture: How long would a casual viewer carry on watching an episode; was the story / episode comparable to other TV drama at the time of its transmission; did Dr Who set the standard; could a viewer get the same experience watching anything else; Was it any good? That's the question that needs answering. And as fans we've been getting it wrong for decades (maybe).
Fans often say something is 'good' when they mean 'I enjoyed that'. I'll be looking for the genuinely good regardless of whether I enjoy watching the stories or not. I'm hoping that I'll find that some of the stories really are good...
Wish me luck.
The Undefinable Magic of Dr Who
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1 comment:
Keeper,
Good luck with this task. Sounds great... how long would an "ordinary" member of the public watch an episode before tiring. And I guess, the morals are worth investigating too: did people who only saw Green Death once in 1973 pick up on the green issues? Or would the wobbly sets have put them off seeing the moral of the story? Sadly, my vote goes for the latter. Dufflecoat
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