From: ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: Seventh Doc Quality
Date: 5 Nov 92 18:31:22 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls

> 
> But aside from that sort of thing, I still find Ace obnoxious no matter what
> anyone says.  She was a highly unconvincing teenager (Adric was more on the
> mark--and everyone hates him, except me!  perhaps popularity and accurate
> portrayals are inversely proportional).  She was almost perpetually sullen. 
> Her character was only decently developed in Dragonfire.  Otherwise, she
> overacted like crazy.  I couldn't *stand* her...I have no idea why, as you
> say, she's the most popular companion.  Please enlighten me.  Personally, I
> find it hard to believe that people like this baseball-bat wielding
> two-year-old mentality companion better than, say, the incomparable Romana
> or the fascinating Jamie.  Come on, even Turlough was more fun than Ace!
> 
> I've never paid much attention to the popular opinion.  Flame all you want,
> I still think she's a twit.


Perhaps if I explain a little something, it might serve to help explain
why the McCoy stories took the direction they did, and explain why Ace
seems to be so popular.

in the late Eighties, or perhaps even before that, the economic and
social situations in the UK deteriorated to a great extent, and they are
still pretty bad.  The McCoy stories reflect the pessimism the entire
country had/has about life in general.  
the reason Ace is doing so well amongst the fans, particularly those in
the UK it seems, is that she's real.  Her cynicism and "attitude" is I'm
sad to say all too common in Great Britain today, and because Sophie 
Aldred played this part so well, Ace became for many the most identifiable
companion to date, i.e. the people watching the show could empathize with
her background and the tough times she had as a kid, that have formed
her attitudes towards the world.  
"the Happiness Patrol" is the most directly satirical of all the McCoys about
the Conservative government itself, and in a way so is "Paradise Towers."
"Silver Nemesis" features a guest appearance by two Skinheads, 
in "Ghost Light" we learn of the racism inflicted against one of Ace's
friends when both Ace and she were still quite young, and "Survival" is
a philosophical argument about not just the deteriorating civilisation
in Great Britain, but also that of the world in general.



> 
>>The special effects improved immeasureably, I beg to differ.
>>The sets have always been on video, so I'm not sure what your complaint
>>there is.
>>As for the sound quality, Lionheart messed up when converting Season 26,
>>and thus the whole season sounded a little muffled, which makes "Ghost
>>Light," the only story that really did have sound problems at the source
>>in production, even worse than it was.  The other three in that season
>>were OK on the original broadcast, and you can't really blame JNT for
>>an error made during the conversion process.
>>Rent the "Curse of Fenric" video if you don't believe me.  Sound is
>>miles better (and in stereo too, which may have caused the problems in
>>the first place.)
> 
> FX: whatever you say.  The key word there was "significantly."
> 
> Sets: of course they've always been on video.  But they worked better on
> video before.  I thought I was watching Blake's 7 at times, for schnopia's
> sake; Blake's was terrific but embarrassingly low-budget.


OK, whatever you say here too, but what did you think of all the location
work?  McCoy has no less than four all-location stories under his belt,
and a bunch of others with good hunks out on location.

> 
> See, original style is OK but one of the nice things about Dr. Who always
> was that although lots of different writers and producers worked on it, they
> maintained a baseline upon which they improved in their own ways.  But what
> I really meant by style was writing style.  See below.


Yes, and they had one, and if perhaps you haven't been following recent
events in the UK you missed it, and that was a cynicism towards the England
of today that pretends to be the England of the past.
Sinead O'connor once put it like this: "England's not the mythical land
of Madame Georgian Roses, it's the home of police who kill black boys on
mopeds..."  (or something like that)

That theme of anti-racism and anti-establishmentism was all over the place
in the McCoy era and had a modern twist to it all with an almost scarily
dark stripe of cynicism under it all.


> 
> 
> "Curse of Fenric" was just too busy.  An ancient evil, WWII, Viking myths,
> even vampires--the focus was not tight enough to hold these elements in
> check.  In fact, most of the Seventh D's episodes were "too busy."  One
> aspect of writing involves simplification and specific plotting; once you
> put too much in or overgeneralize your story suffers.  And so does the
> audience.  As a writer I speak from experience.  Also, again, the acting and
> the moments (like the two vampire girls attacking their guardian) were
> really cheesy.  Ugh.  This episode should have been three or four different
> stories.

Well, I've written a fair bit too, and I know what you mean.  
"Fenric" was right on the edge of having too much in it, and in a way
this was hampered by the time constraints.
The extended video release, where about six or seven minutes of cut footage
was added, does I think help this problem quite a bit, and also provides
more background detail about the Haemovores than the transmitted version.


> 
> "Survival" wasn't too bad, all things considered.  But the Earth didn't seem
> real, as it always has in Dr. Who.  Even the extras were better in the
> Pertwee days.  The Master's menace was diminished (Mark of the Rani started
> this downward trend in his ability to scare us--he was better in Trial of a
> Time Lord, fortunately).  A bit more coherent than the others, but still not
> well directed or written.


Again, this is a Britain quite a lot different and more depressing to live
in in the late Eighties/early Nineties than it was in the Pertwee or
Tom Baker eras.


> THOSE BOOSTER ROCKETS MISFIRED.  THE QUALITY DID NOT EVEN COME CLOSE TO
> PRECEDENTED HEIGHTS.  I'm sorry, but I laugh at the notion that any of the
> goofy stories McCoy was stuck with even came *close* to, say, "The Talons of
> Weng-Chiang," or "The Time Monster," or any of Davison's first few episodes. 
> There's just no comparison.  I mean, yeah, Sly is a goofy guy, but if he
> needs stories that stupid to be the Doctor then maybe it's time for a new
> regeneration.
> 

"Talons of Weng-Chiang" drags and is guilty of racism against the Chinese.
"The Time Monster" is quite good until the end of episode four.  As soon
as we got to Atlantis, the show's quality level dropped like a lost
continent, with hideous acting, atrocious dialog, and badly designed and
badly lit sets.



>>> 
>>> Andrew D. Simchik
> 
> 
> 
>>Steven.K.Manfred  (no longer going to put used to be Iain after these things)
> 
> 
> It seems that you and I shall never agree.  Isn't this fun?  :)