Who? What? Where? Why? Are Those My Feet?

[williamjm]

I notice that some people on my friends list seem to be quite disappointed with the latest episode of Doctor Who. They seem particularly annoyed by the ill-judged overuse of humour and the often weak action scenes. I agree with them, but I have to say I'd apply the same criticisms to the previous episodes as well. Although it has been getting lots of good reviews and I generally like most Science Fiction TV series, I haven't been very keen on the series too far.

It is reasonably entertaining, so I'm happy to keep watching, but I have to say if someone switched one of the episodes off halfway through, I wouldn't really care about what happened next. The Doctor is entertaining to watch, he has some good dialogue and Christopher Ecclestone's acting is good, but he's too enigmatic for me to really care about what happens to him. Rose is a decent enough character, but not terribly interesting.

There are occasional very good bits (the spaceship crash in the latest episode, the revelation that the Doctor's homeworld no longer exists), so it is a bit frustrating that there are so many scenes that just don't work. Some of the attempts at humour work, but some are just painful (the burping wheelie bin or the flatulent aliens, for example) and many of the action scenes are just pathetic. Someone needs to urgently let the programme makers know that scenes where an alien does vaguely menacing things and the other characters stand still in front of it and look a bit frightened for what seems like a few minutes at a time just doesn't work as good television.

I haven't seen the older Doctor Who episodes since I was a child, so I don't know if it was all this flawed, some people seem to claim it as being one of the highlights of British television, but so far I'm not convinced.

Despite this, the show does have potential so I'll continue watching it and see if it gets better.

Comments

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I find that the times that the humour grates are few and far between. Mostly I don't mind it. Sometimes I even like it.

However, liking the humour assumes that to begin with you're comfortable with the whole larger-than-life tone of the programme. Everything about it is exuberant and vivid, from the characteriation to the drama to the visual imagery. That includes the humour, and even, sadly, the incidental music.

Most SF doesn't have such a strong seam of humour running through it, and most SF strives for realism not Joie de Vivre. I fully understand why the Doctor Who style just doesn't work for some people. At times (like this week) it doesn't really work for me either. They're treading a perilously fine line.

However, the show is what it is. It's aimed at families, and it has a more or less unique niche in the history of television. I'm broadly content to let them get on with it, and enjoy them doing what they do on their own terms. It's only where I think they've veered too far into self-caricature that I have a problem.

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

>Most SF doesn't have such a strong seam of humour running through it, and >most SF strives for realism not Joie de Vivre. I fully understand why the >Doctor Who style just doesn't work for some people. At times (like this week) >it doesn't really work for me either. They're treading a perilously fine >line.

I'm not sure that the lack of realism is the problem - I did really like Farscape, for example, which makes Doctor Who looks unimaginative and parochial by comparison. I think the difference is that, even at its most surreal, Farscape still respected its basic premise, Doctor Who seems almost like a parody at times, which destroys any potential for drama.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

even at its most surreal, Farscape still respected its basic premise, Doctor Who seems almost like a parody at times, which destroys any potential for drama.

I think Doctor Who does respect its premise, but it does come closer than Farscape to undermining itself through humour, and it has gone too far on occasion. To use a completely left-field comparison, it's a bit like recent arc-episodes of Stargate SG-1 where the meta wisecracks about pompous villains and saving the universe are becoming a bit much. The threat stops feeling real.

I do agree with you that if Doctor Who gets it right, it should be able to remain entirely believable within its own reality, but still be flippant and subversive. If it's failing to do that, it's failing as a series. I personally think they're aiming in the right general direction, and that they're hitting the target more often than not.