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From: bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho
Subject: Re: Why is Dr. Who popular?
Message-ID: <7695@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-May-84 23:28:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.7695
Posted: Tue May  8 23:28:36 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 9-May-84 03:07:45 EDT
References: <333@ihu1g.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 36

Doctor Who takes itself seriously?????
My god, when the show starts doing that, I'll stop watching it.

Doctor Who is great for exactly the opposite.  They take it lightly.  They
know they effects and plots are hokey, but they have a good time with them.
They love to have people play the dead serious SF character and have the
Doctor make fun of them.  That's what the show is all about.
Nobody can claim the show is good SF on a regular basis.  While some shows,
such as "The Invasion of Time" may qualify, in general the show has silly
plots and absolutely no consistency.  That's because they change script
editors so often.

But all that's GOOD.  Because you can forget about it.  The show makes
no pretenses about it, except when a stupid director takes over.  They
soon learn.

Anybody can make a good light show, though, so the staying power of
Doctor Who can only be attributed to it's truly astoundingly good premise.

   1) A show dominated by a single, powerful actor.  The actor can
      compensate for all that is bad in other parts of the show.
   2) The ability to add and delete a small cadre of regular characters
      to counterpoint the Doctor.  But nobody else is regular.
   3) Serials instead of short episodes.  This allows the introduction of
      short lived characters that can be developed properly and given to
      good character actors.  On top of that, you get suspense, and a
      chance to deal with far more interesting plots.
   4) Time/Space/Reality travel.  Almost no restrictions on writers and
      sets, except budget.
   5) Humour.  Who else travels the universe in a craft shaped like an
      antique English police telephone box?
   6) The central character is alien, but loveable.

Sometimes I think I would like to see Doctor Who made as real light SF
with a big budget.  But I fear it might end up taking itself too seriously
unless you took great care.