brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (03/07/85)
This is posted to net.sf-lovers because it is a description of why Doctor Who is good and should not be cancelled, and to post only to the Doctor Who group would be preaching to the converted. Doctor Who has lasted so long because it has, very simply, the best format ever dreamed up for an SF adventure series. It's a format with checks and balances, change and continuity, adventure and comedy, drama and romance, plus a whole pile of other things rolled up into one. Every Doctor Who fan knows they often have silly scripts and bad sfx. Some companions are good and some are bad. But it always balances out. 1) A single central character. This is the show's greatest vulnerability, but also a great strength. The writers are free to change anything but this character, and even that gets to change every few years. No matter what else goes wrong, the Doctor character saves the show and makes it entertaining. Because there is a single character, you can concentrate efforts and make sure your doctor is the kind of actor who can do this. Although they came close to missing with Davison 2) Short-lived continuing characters Few other shows have this. It lets you bring in new interesting characters, and give them time to develop. You don't have to keep them so long that they get stale, however. 3) Serial format This gives you the suspense of a soap, but breaks it up into nicer chunks so that you aren't as required to watch every show. It allows each writer to prepare a fully developed story independent of the other writers, and gives enough time (full movie-length) to do all that is necessary. Even characters for a single serial can be properly developed. It also allows bringing in character actors for nice short-term roles. And it's cheaper to produce than one-hour SF which requires twice the sets. 4) Time/Space/Probability travel They don't like to admit the last one, but each story is almost independent of the rest. This has the strength of the Twilight Zone, but the combination of continuity allows the show to get a following, and the creation of stars. You can't go wrong here, as you can take any kind of story and work with it. I wish they would go further, and invite well known SF authors to write serials based in their own worlds. 5) The Character of the Doctor Wise, lovable, whimsical, caring, cynical and pompous all at the same time. This always makes the show no matter what else happens. This also ties into the fact that the show, with origins as a children's show, has never taken itself so seriously as to get offensive. These factors, with others, combine to make the best series format ever created. No wonder it has gone 23 years. Sadly they don't have the money to a) Improve the effects b) Hire real SF writers and c) Get name character actors. If they did, you would have a show that can't be beat. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473