Whovians Have Become Simpletons

The new series of Doctor Who started last Saturday and certain points need to be made.

1.      No series, regardless of popularity, should be advertised on the BBC News Channel. News is meant to be about current affairs in global or national events, not self-promotion.

2.      Doctor Who nowadays is primarily about special effects, fast-paced action sequences and appealing to a teenage (or childish) audience. Gone are the sublime days when William Hartnell would impress people with pure acting even though he sometimes had to walk with a stick. Or when Patrick Troughton could combine clownish comedy with awe-inspiring gravitas. Or when Peter Davison actually had cynicism towards humanity rather than fawning servility. Doctor Who hasn’t been daring for a long time.

3.      Jeopardy has been forgotten. For a drama to have real impact, the viewer must believe that bad things can happen so that the relief is then palpable. David Tennant was once surrounded by Cybermen only to escape by producing an otherwise unheard of device which deactivated them. If the Doctor can do that to any enemy then there is no jeopardy and therefore no real excitement. I remember when the companion Adric died because of Cyberman intervention (and when I say died, I don’t mean transported to a parallel universe!); that implemented real jeopardy where you never quite knew what was going to happen next – a crucial element for compelling drama.

4.      Russell T. Davies was a condescending, superficial shit who ruined the legacy of Doctor Who. His suggestion that he was simply carrying on the events of the Hartnell era was downright offensive to those who truly understood the series at that time (Hartnell’s Doctor wasn’t always a nice man and certainly didn’t feel the need to placate the masses!). Even when Davies said he was going to produce a more adult sci-fi with Torchwood it still became a vehicle for the ever-conceited John Barrowman to spoil character development (i.e. if a character is immortal, then where is the fucking jeopardy?!). And even though Davies is now gone, his replacement (as well as Matt Smith) have done nothing to alleviate the inane dramatic platitudes which are no longer worth watching on Saturday evenings.

5.      Finally, to anyone who doubts me, watch ‘The Caves Of Androzani’ from1983. Try to put out of your mind the dated effects and set designs, try to ignore Davies’ brainwashing propaganda that his storylines were better than they used to be, just focus on the script and well-developed characters (especially the intensely wondrous Sharaz Jek), and see what Doctor Who should always have been.