Splitting this off from another thread.
For those unfamiliar Doctor Who was a science fiction TV show started... long enough back that some of the episodes have been lost as nobody in the BBC seemed to predict the arrival of home video. While nominally aimed at younger audiences it pushed limits and gained fans among adults and parents alike, and earlier ones also served as a place for up and coming writers to cut their teeth (Douglas Adams, who wrote a little thing called Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, having a notable stint on there) as well as some serious hard hitters in the literary and TV writing world.
It petered out in 1989 and was brought back first as a 1996 TV film that was generally regarded as awful before making it back in earnest in 2005 where it has done the usual UK TV setup of short series (seasons if we are to use US parlance) in a somewhat (though hardly the worst example) staggered manner -- if you are used to the US style returns in September, sweeps week, break around November-December and returning in March to finish off before the summer starts routine, all in all making for 23 episodes then not that.
As part of this I guess I am seeking your opinions and experiences of the show in general, and also of the current series (and doctor, more on that in a moment for those unfamiliar). In general while I can recognise its importance and appreciate some kids having a nice intro to some fairly hard scifi concepts (the show is by no means hard sci fi but at the same time is not usually a space setting for a normal story) as a whole it has never particularly clicked for me despite some efforts to do so (fantasy and scifi very much being in my wheelhouse otherwise). Individual episodes might do things, usually those sorted by writers I otherwise like, but I have never found myself remotely invested in the concept as a whole.
The first one seems immaterial; while something of a handwave for writing staff the character is an quasi immortal being that occasionally experiences death of the current body, only to regenerate with much the same memories but maybe a different personality.
Still the rest could be a reasonable basis for one of those fun character board writing exercises*, and maybe has a few nice flaws to overcome or cause problems within a story and prevent a little bout of Mary Sue which is always nice.
*there any number of techniques and approaches here, many of which somewhat overlap, but the following is one I kind of like
However for me at least there has to be an execution of all of said same really as this is not dungeons and dragons character sheet critique but a TV show, when I see nonsense like the following then I have to question things
While that was picked for the one above as a particularly good example of a low point it also seems to be born out by viewership figures and critical/user ratings which seem to be dropping rather fast
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436992/episodes?season=11&ref_=tt_eps_sn_11
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/doctor_who/s11
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-11-2018-uk-ratings-accumulator-88397.htm (though possibly nominally up on some earlier efforts http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-7-ratings-accumulator-2013-46939.htm )
That maybe all those claims of it is only the sexist arsehole component that wouldn't know good writing, acting and direction if it walked up and bit them on the arse (haven't particularly seen it as a concept in the world in general, especially not since about 1980, enough that it would overcome those things already noted but I am fine with hypotheticals) are true. Sell it to me and the world at large. Get a decent arc or two from some previous series and choice episodes/arcs from the current one** and make me care about it.
**if you are indeed something of a super fan that would have watching it as something of a ritual it can be interesting to see if you have just not been there, or it has all been dispersed enough, to notice a potential slide in quality. As such if an earlier arc is picked maybe have a rewatch too to see if it holds up or paints the current stuff in a lesser light. Despite liking to picture myself as a cynical bastard that is also capable of critiquing media (despite not having any particular ambition to create fiction or otherwise do any creative works I still routinely watch stuff like the character trees video above) I have found myself falling into traps like that before, only to rewatch earlier stuff or get some kind of shock to the system (we watched The Wire, and then had no hope of watching most police procedurals that we had otherwise enjoyed for some time before then. Every few years I might go on holiday and not bother to keep up with TV, such things usually cull a few shows.).
For those unfamiliar Doctor Who was a science fiction TV show started... long enough back that some of the episodes have been lost as nobody in the BBC seemed to predict the arrival of home video. While nominally aimed at younger audiences it pushed limits and gained fans among adults and parents alike, and earlier ones also served as a place for up and coming writers to cut their teeth (Douglas Adams, who wrote a little thing called Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, having a notable stint on there) as well as some serious hard hitters in the literary and TV writing world.
It petered out in 1989 and was brought back first as a 1996 TV film that was generally regarded as awful before making it back in earnest in 2005 where it has done the usual UK TV setup of short series (seasons if we are to use US parlance) in a somewhat (though hardly the worst example) staggered manner -- if you are used to the US style returns in September, sweeps week, break around November-December and returning in March to finish off before the summer starts routine, all in all making for 23 episodes then not that.
As part of this I guess I am seeking your opinions and experiences of the show in general, and also of the current series (and doctor, more on that in a moment for those unfamiliar). In general while I can recognise its importance and appreciate some kids having a nice intro to some fairly hard scifi concepts (the show is by no means hard sci fi but at the same time is not usually a space setting for a normal story) as a whole it has never particularly clicked for me despite some efforts to do so (fantasy and scifi very much being in my wheelhouse otherwise). Individual episodes might do things, usually those sorted by writers I otherwise like, but I have never found myself remotely invested in the concept as a whole.
The first one seems immaterial; while something of a handwave for writing staff the character is an quasi immortal being that occasionally experiences death of the current body, only to regenerate with much the same memories but maybe a different personality.
Still the rest could be a reasonable basis for one of those fun character board writing exercises*, and maybe has a few nice flaws to overcome or cause problems within a story and prevent a little bout of Mary Sue which is always nice.
*there any number of techniques and approaches here, many of which somewhat overlap, but the following is one I kind of like
However for me at least there has to be an execution of all of said same really as this is not dungeons and dragons character sheet critique but a TV show, when I see nonsense like the following then I have to question things
While that was picked for the one above as a particularly good example of a low point it also seems to be born out by viewership figures and critical/user ratings which seem to be dropping rather fast
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436992/episodes?season=11&ref_=tt_eps_sn_11
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/doctor_who/s11
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-11-2018-uk-ratings-accumulator-88397.htm (though possibly nominally up on some earlier efforts http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-7-ratings-accumulator-2013-46939.htm )
That maybe all those claims of it is only the sexist arsehole component that wouldn't know good writing, acting and direction if it walked up and bit them on the arse (haven't particularly seen it as a concept in the world in general, especially not since about 1980, enough that it would overcome those things already noted but I am fine with hypotheticals) are true. Sell it to me and the world at large. Get a decent arc or two from some previous series and choice episodes/arcs from the current one** and make me care about it.
**if you are indeed something of a super fan that would have watching it as something of a ritual it can be interesting to see if you have just not been there, or it has all been dispersed enough, to notice a potential slide in quality. As such if an earlier arc is picked maybe have a rewatch too to see if it holds up or paints the current stuff in a lesser light. Despite liking to picture myself as a cynical bastard that is also capable of critiquing media (despite not having any particular ambition to create fiction or otherwise do any creative works I still routinely watch stuff like the character trees video above) I have found myself falling into traps like that before, only to rewatch earlier stuff or get some kind of shock to the system (we watched The Wire, and then had no hope of watching most police procedurals that we had otherwise enjoyed for some time before then. Every few years I might go on holiday and not bother to keep up with TV, such things usually cull a few shows.).
