Doctor Who Social Club
A community for discussing all things Doctor Who.
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to longtime fans feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
3 Be truthful
All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.
4 Be nice
If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.
5 Spoilers
Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. Spoiler protection will not be granted to information that is out in the mainstream media.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the DW franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.
7 Meta
Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.
Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 12-07 | TWB 1x01 | "Homo Aqua" |
| 12-07 | TWB 1x02 | "Plastic Apocalypse" |
| 12-14 | TWB 1x03 | "The Deep" |
| 12-14 | TWB 1x04 | "The Witch of the Waterfall" |
| 12-21 | TWB 1x05 | "The End of the War" |
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Dr Who prints money and the BBC releases seasons every few years. Granted not every season has been great (IMO Nine, Ten, and Eleven had the best runs of NuWho) but the cool thing about the show is, pretty much every Doctor has fans. So I can say Ten was the best Doctor, but if someone says it's Four or Twelve, they're not wrong, though I didn't like Capaldi's (Twelve's) run — I think the actor was perfectly capable and had his own image for the Time Lord (especially when he had that guitar), but the writing was weak. Same with Thirteen: I loved Whitaker's work on Broadchurch (not just because Tennant was in it), but on Dr Who, she felt like a recycled Ten. But either way the show has always had loud and very vocal fans, and rightly so. It's just been poorly managed.
Okay, so, for example... what's the best Dr Who video game? Valid answers are "there isn't one" and "Fallout: New Vegas." The latter had nothing to do with Dr Who, but a mod is available that gives you a TARDIS that you can use to teleport all over the map (and use it as a player home). No time travel, but you can use it for spatial travel. It's a gimmick, but it kind of makes the western action RPG into a Dr Who game. We've never had a Dr Who game that is better than the Dr Who elements of the Fallout New Vegas mod. To be clear, I'm not saying no Dr Who game is better than Fallout New Vegas. Most games aren't better than Fallout New Vegas. What I'm saying is, no Dr Who game is better than that TARDIS mod, which is just a player home and a cheap gimmick for getting around the map.
And movies! The 1996 Dr Who movie was a great 1980s movie... but it came out in 1996, and not to theatres, at least not that I recall. It's a fun movie, but... why haven't they made another movie since? Especially in the Tennant/Davies era where everything lined up?
And call me crazy, but I'd like to see a lower-budget Dr Who. Not because they can't afford it, but because it's never needed to be pretty. Good acting and good writing is all it ever needed. Look at Blink, it's one of the best episodes, despite featuring the Doctor as a side character (also called a Doctor-Lite episode). The Weeping Angels are just people in costumes who never move on camera. It's all practical effects. The only special effects you really had were screen fades and TARDIS stuff. Or The Girl in the Fireplace. Other than those clockwork things, it was just Tennant's wild acting and gorgeous sets, and a story that sticks with you. Midnight, my third favourite Dr Who episode, perfect example of "tell, don't show". I vaguely remember they showed the monster, but mostly you just heard it. They had to repurpose a subway car or a bus for the set, but other than that, it was largely just acting and writing.
... OH SHI-
(°ヮ° )
But the BBC is a lot more programming and news than just Dr Who.
To understand why BBC is losing money, you have to understand that it's mostly funded by annoying "television license fees" paid by UK residents.
In the last 20+ years, the number of televisions and radios taxed by the UK government has decreased as more video and audio entertainment has moved to computers and mobile devices.
This is while living and production costs have risen.
Yeah, I can't say I'm a big economics nerd, but there have been signs for years that the BBC has struggled financially. And although some prefer to see that in isolation from specific programmes (or just ignore it), it's clear with the shift toward co-productions that the license fees alone can't carry big costume or effects-laden productions.
Also, the relative freedom of production within a public funded broadcaster has given us the rich and weird Doctor Who lore that we have —and that's even disregarding the extended universe of Big Finish and novel ranges. I couldn't imagine quite the same emerging within a fully commercial framework... even though we are posting this to a startrek.website community 🙂
That was ten years ago or more. I've quite enjoyed most of what's come out since '05 — excepting single episodes rather than whole seasons or lead actors — but if the show was such a moneymaker, we wouldn't be in the uncertain situation we are now. Looks like Tennant and Smith were its commercial peak.
I don't want to be all doom and gloom about this, but the writing on the wall is, BBC couldn't afford to make Doctor Who on their own when they made the Disney deal. They can afford it even less now that they're going to lay off one in ten employees. And from what I can glean people have been to busy clinging to their positions — understandably — to try and get a new funding partner on board.
So right now, "new seasons every few years" sounds a bit optimistic. And yeah, there's going to be a lot more bubble wrap effects than we've gotten used to...