Folks,
As Luke Harrison says, Let’s get some perspective here... David Mitchell has made this simple statement in his video blog. I am going to paraphrase here:
- I (David Mitchel) liked Classic Doctor Who better than Modern Who
- Classic Doctor Who was targeted towards the Children, it was a “Family Show”.
- Modern Doctor Who is targeted at the Adults (or Teens), but it’s a Family Friendly Show.
What’s wrong with this? Why are we even having to dissect this?
Doctor Who, when it started back in 1963, it was fully intended to be an educational children’s show, using what we now are calling Pseudo-Historical adventures. Adventures where the Doctor and Companions travel back in time to fix, change or otherwise mess with history. A good modern Pseudo-Historical adventure example, would be the Shakespeare Code, from Season 3…
The Tenth Doctor takes Martha Jones on her first trip in the TARDIS. Arriving in Elizabethan England, they meet William Shakespeare, who is writing his play Love’s Labour’s Won. However, evil, witch-like Carrionites plot to end the world by placing a code in the new play’s closing dialogue. Shakespeare will have to give the performance of his life in order to save the Earth.
The Pseudo-Historical adventures are set in the best, have real world elements, but often add Science Fiction / Science Fantasty elements, to make it uniquely Doctor Who. For example, in the Shakespeare Code adding “Alien” witches to the plot. In the Classic series, possibly the best example, would be “The Talons of Weng-Chaing”, or “Horror of Fang Rock”, etc.
Now, the series being aimed at the older market, isn’t unexpected. After all, The series was placed on hiatus in 1989, and the telemovie in 1996. So, figuring someone that was 10 in 1989 started to watch the series in 2005, they would be in their mid-twenties. Even someone that was born in 1990 would in their middle-teens…
These days, ratings are important, if the BBC wanted a hit, it would have to be something that the adults, teens, and children would watch. I presume that restarting Doctor Who was potentially a risk, and Russel T. Davies and Julie Gardner, wanted to keep the spirit of the show as a family friendly show, but maximize their potential return on viewership.
Keep in mind what episodes we had for the first season….
- Rose
- The End of the World
- The Unquiet Dead
- Aliens of London
- World War Three
- Dalek
- The Long Game
- Father’s Day
- The Empty Child
- The Doctor Dances
- Boom Town
- Bad Wolf
- The Parting of the Ways
What episodes were really frightening? The Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Father’s Day, The Empty Child, and The Doctor Dances. I would argue that Unquiet Dead, and Father’s Day shouldn’t be on the list, since I didn’t personally find them too concerning… But the really scary episodes, were a DALEK episode, and a scary little kid asking for his Mommy… (The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances really really really was a great 2 parter… I’m not trying to make light of those episodes).
My Point? There were not a large number of scary episodes that season…. Compare it to Season 2:
- New Earth
- Tooth and Claw
- School Reunion
- The Girl in the Fireplace
- Rise of Cybermen
- The Age of Steel
- The Idiot’s Lantern
- The Impossible Planet
- The Satan Pit
- Love & Monsters
- Fear Her
- Army of Ghosts
- Doomsday
Even if we eliminate “Fear Her”, and the “Idiot’s Lantern”, right off the top, there are still significantly more peril, and danger in Season 2… More than half the episodes in Season 2 probably had children running for the back of their couches. (As any good Doctor Who series should….)
Doctor Who has always been a children’s show, but the new series is aimed for an older base audience. That isn’t better or worse then the original series, it just is. By my guess, the original series was probably aimed for a target audience in the 8-12 range, but was family friendly (Do I dare say Peri?). The new series is probably aimed more for the 12-15 crowd, but is just as family friendly.
As the TV market has changed, Doctor Who has changed. Take a look at the number of Teen Angst series running on TV these days, we should be glad that The Doctor didn’t regenerate into a Teenage Emo Goth… After all, hasn’t Smallville been running for almost 10 or 11 years now? What about The Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill, Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and all of the other popular shows that are on lately? How could they have adversely affected Doctor Who.
The only complaints that I have, are:
- There has been too much reliance on the Daleks, and Cybermen in the new series. They need a rest, and Steven Moffat has stated that in Season 6 there are no plans for the Daleks to appear… Hopefully, this will give the writers a chance to use the Daleks as they deserve.
- Too many of the Doctor’s companions have had crushes on him. What happen to the Father / Son, or Father / Daughter, or Mentor / Trainee relationships of the Old series? Out of 6 companions only Donna Noble and Amy Pond have broken out of this, “I pine for the Doctor mold”.
- I want to see more of the TARDIS. Season 5 has shown us more, and given us a larger more impressive control room… But let’s see more of the interior…
While these are issues I have, neither have really harmed the series in my eyes too badly. I am looking forward to the future of modern Doctor who, and hope that even more elements from Classic Who return as Steven Moffat leads on.