From: doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller)
Subject: Re: Death-throes?  NOT.  I DENY IT.  Was Re: The last years...
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Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 16:12:00 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.042859.808@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin) writes...
>In article <81571@ut-emx.uucp> aodn307@bongo.cc.utexas.edu (Joshua Henry Geurink) writes:
>>
>>	Understand that I'm the biggest fan of Doctor Who that I know...
>>that's why I must write about the death-throes of the show.  I HATE to 
>>admit it, but the series had to die.  Look back at the classics--the episodes
>>that defined the show, and what it's all about.  Most of the Tom Baker
>>era demonstrates the mood I'm trying to achieve here.  Everything was new,
>>challenging, and even fun.  The universe held a multitude of beings and races,
>>both good, evil, or simply incredibly selfish.  Plots from the past were
>>followed up on on and the extremely minor characters grew personalities the 
>>audience grew to appreciate.
>>	The Colin Baker era, on the other hand, just proved miserable.  Poor
>>writing, poor acting (I LIKE Colin's Doctor, but no one could be expected to
>>seriously act with those scripts.), poor evertything.   Trial of a Timelord
>>didn't even make sense -- Mel became a companion by being a companion?!?
>>The writers should have known better than to thorw paradoxial bull hockey
>>like that at an audience expecting more.  
>>	I also like Sylvester McCoy, but the same problems crop up during
>>HIS short stay.  Only worse.  The seventh Doctor's supporting actors seemed
>>tired, unemotional, uninspired.  The actors went through the motions but little
>>else.  Thank God Ace developed -- in a universe where nothing was new anymore -
>>not to the Doctor, not to the viewers, she slowly became the one shining point
>>of light where a sun once shown brightly.
> 
>Onto more pressing matters, death-throes indeed?
>The show isn't dead yet, merely in suspension pending the resignation
>of one Jonathan Powell, idiot in chief of the BBC these last few years.
>Until his departure becomes official and a new chief is installed in
>his place and announces his or her intentions for the series Doctor
>Who, I will not accept that the series is dead once and for all.
>That would be like passing a bill through the US Congress that we know
>will be vetoed by Bush and then declaring it to be dead forever, forgetting
>the fact that Bill Clinton will most likely be President come January.
> 
>I must disagree with you on virtually every point about the Colin Baker
>and Sylvester McCoy eras.  I will say this again, the only problems
>that were abnormal to the series in those eras were the ratings and
>that was more a function of the series' timeslot rather than the scripts.
>People keep saying "Oh, those Colin Baker scripts were terrible," and
>whilst I can agree with that in perhaps three cases, in the other eight
>I cannot.  Which seems about average to me for any Doctor.  
>When I first saw those shows (Season 22), I loved them all except for
>"Timelash."  LOVED.  I thought Colin Baker was playing the Doctor
>exactly right and we really had some twisting adventure plots.
>Also, I feel it appropriate to point out here that I watched the series
>then in a very much isolated environment, i.e. isolated from the rest
>of fandom, since I live(d) far away from other fans.   Thus my initial
>opinions were not influenced by other fans opinions.
>From my "outsider"'s perspective, I see what has happened here: a solid
>opening season for Colin Baker's Doctor was overshadowed in the fan's
>minds by two things that said to them "those shows weren't good",
>and those two things are actually quite independent of the quality of
>the show.  Those things being the season's viewing figures, and more
>importantly, Michael Grade's 18-month hiatus.  
>I can tell this is the case because after discussing these shows with
>fans quite some time afterwards, I caught myself doing it.  Shows that
>I had been thinking of as "great" I was now thinking of "that was
>terrible," and as I thought about it, the only reason I was slagging
>those shows was because others had.  The faults they had enumerated
>I had noticed when I first saw them, but like any Doctor Who story,
>I was usually able to ignore them.  Why was I suddenly slamming the
>show for them now?  
>Simple reason:  peer pressure.
>Peer pressure is one of the most terrible forces in human societies,
>IMHO, and I refuse to give in to it.  
> 
>And I can see it happening a second time.  Just after Season 26's
>transmission, people thought so highly of Sylvester's Doctor and the
>season in general that the readers of DWM, for the first time ever,
>voted in first place a Doctor other than the fourth, namely the
>seventh, and they received surprising amounts of mail in their annual
>season poll.
>And now look, we're all self-doubting the series again, or rather people
>like the above poster are.  The flaws present in the Seventh Doctor's
>stories were no different than those of the previous Doctors, and in
>my opinion, the strenghts were perhaps slightly better than the
>previous Doctors.  
> 
>We are being told by the blind force of am artistically blind man in
>a position of bureaucratic authority at the British Broadcasting
>Corporation that our favorite television series has become something
>not worth making again.  
> 
>I will not fall into the same trap twice.  I deny this reality.
> 
>The question now falls to you, the readers of this computation matrix.
> 
>Do you deny it?  

	I deny it.

	When I first saw the Colin Baker episodes, I was 13.  When I saw
Sylvester McCoy, I was 16.  I had no peer pressure.  I didn't know anything
of viewing figures, and wasn't even aware of the 18-month hiatus until
reading the back cover of one of the "Lost Season" novelizations last year.
	Nonetheless, I thought Colin Baker's only full season, Season 22,
was the worst ever.  I disliked "Twin Dilemma" because of the Doctor's actions
in Part 1, but enjoyed the rest.  However, the death of the cliffhanger
the next season killed the show.  "Attack of the Cybermen" and "The Two
Doctors" were almost classics, only because of 1) the appearance of Totters'
Yard in the former, and 2) Jamie and Doctor Two in the latter.
	"Timelash"?  "Revelation of the Daleks"?  The first Rani episode?
All of them clunkers.  Colin's Doctor, to my mind both then and now, was
awful.  Peri was whiny, annoying, and clearly anti-American.  Awful stories,
awful plot devices (Peri turning into a bird?  A Morlox?  ICK!!!).
	The Trial of a Time Lord season was great.  It saw a return to the
old production values and clever stories.  "Mysterious Planet" was the best
ever Colin story.  "Ultimate Foe" was a very clever Dickensian script.
	I will admit I never liked Mel.  The problem I had with Ace cropped
up too often in the last season.  All that teen angst exploited for some
cheap plot devices (Part 4 of "Fenric") made it seem like the worst Star Trek
episode of all time, "Charlie X".  It didn't make for good stories.
	"Paradise Towers" was awful.  So was "Ghost Light" and "Survival".
These had terrible characters, mean, sadistic plots, needless deaths, and bad
humor.  I found it very degrading to see the once proud Master turn into
a cat.  Cannabalistic grandmothers?  Yuck.  Not in MY series.
	Nathan-Turner was a good producer at one time.  He made four excellent
seasons to start off, but after the Colin Baker miscast, and his needless
ditching of the old crew of scriptwriters really hurt the series.  I liked
Kevin Clarke's "Silver Nemesis", but COME ON, it was his ONLY sci-fi script
EVER.
	If "Who" ever does come back, I want to see Robert Holmes, Eric
Saward, Terrence Dicks, and Peter Grimwade again.  I want to see imaginative
plots, better opening credits and music, and an episode with Jon Pertwee.
Without being influenced by peer pressure or viewing figures at the time, I
KNEW "Who" was doomed after "Greatest Show in the Galaxy", and hope that some
of the old values can be restored in the future.

							Jason Miller
"It's just as difficult for an experienced scriptwriter to write a new "Who"
episode as it is for a novice ... I wanted some new blood"
			- John Nathan-Turner, signing a death warrant