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From: barry@ames-lm.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho
Subject: Re: Why is Dr. Who popular?
Message-ID: <240@ames-lm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-May-84 13:18:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames-lm.240
Posted: Mon May  7 13:18:37 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 11-May-84 07:26:13 EDT
References: <122@ios.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 34

[]
	Let me suggest three possible reasons for the quality and popularity
of the "Dr. Who" series.
	1) It has a great premise. Giving the Doctor total freedom of
movement in time and space allows an immense variety of plot, background,
character, etc. Too many TV shows are based on ideas that are mined out
after a season or two (hell, some are used up before the first episode).
Similarly, the Time Lord's power to regenerate allows replacement of the
actors without loss of continuity. It is instructive to note that
another SF series that refuses to die, "Star Trek", has a similarly loose
premise ("Its 5 year mission..."), allowing great variety in the episodes.
	2) It's British, and British TV has different rules than American
TV. Most American TV ends up being written by committee; the original
script gets reworked by the Programming Practices people (censors) who
remove anything that could conceivably offend anyone; the producers get
rid of anything they don't like or don't understand, on the shaky
assumption that the taste and intelligence of TV producers is similar to
that of the average viewer (it isn't, usually; most TV producers, like
Glenn Larson, are artistic cretins). By contrast, the British will
normally use the writer's script pretty much as written. This results in
a greater range of quality (horrible to excellent), and more of a unified
vision in the final product.
	3) American TV is a sudden-death operation. If a show doesn't look
good in the ratings after a couple of episodes, it's gone; The Doctor would
probably never have made it past the first season had it been an American
production. The Brits are more patient.
	By the way, I used to work at Universal Studios, and I must admit
that, even there, there were some producers with taste and talent. But The
System makes it hard even for them to accomplish anything worthwhile.
                                                Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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