From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Re: Death-throes?  NOT.  I DENY IT.  Was Re: The last years...
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 16:27:38 GMT

In article <13OCT199211122873@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller) writes:
>	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?

I'll grant you "Timelash," the first Rani story was about average,
but "Revelation of the Daleks" is classic stuff.

>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!!!).

I'll give you the Morlox, but the mutation experiments in "Vengeance"
were there to further emphasize the dark satire of that story.

"Vengeance on Varos" is the only true dystopia story Who has ever done,
and one of the few dystopias ANY television has ever done.  
And that's much of the reason why it's good.  I'm not saying it's fun
to watch, it isn't, it's depressing.  But that's what it was supposed
to be, and it succeeded brilliantly.
>	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.

that was the point of "Survival."  To degrade EVERYONE including the Doctor
and show to us how underneath our exteriors we are all still animals.
"Towers" is awful if you take it seriously.  If you don't, and rtealize
that you weren't supposed to (how else could you take it?), it's bloody
funny, and actually quite touching at the end in the final scenes of
Pex's funeral, and for the Doctor's eulogy for the death opf the Towers
as they once were.  "Perhaps now they'll all start working together."
"Ghost Light" had wonderful characters and plot, all it needed was a
better sound editor and perhaps a little more time.

>	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.
The old crew of writers ditched him, and not because of him, more on that
after the next sentences....
(and I don't think Colin Baker was miscast)


>	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.

Bit of a problem with all of your choices.
Two of them are DEAD, Robert Holmes and Peter Grimwade, Eric Saward quit
the BBC entirely (although it now looks like he might be coming back to
do the new Audio tapes), and Terrance Dicks has been rather busy in
recent years being a Producer for the BBC of his own shows.
After Season 23, the only writers left to JNT were Pip and Jane Baker,
and understandably, they were jettisoned after Cartmel came in.

It is NOT the sole responsibility of a Producer to monitor the scripts.
The Producer is officially held responsible for the entire series,
but in actuality it is thge Script Editor who has the most effect
on them, especially in JNT's case.  Note that JNT never once submitted
any scripts of his own, unlike Barry Letts or Graham Williams.
If you've ever read "TARDIS Inside Out" you know he isn't a good
writer, so he is reliant on the SE to monitoir the scripts for him (as
many other producers have been.)
Also, the Script Editor is not hired by the Producer, but rather is
appointed by their superiors, so in a way, the Editor is independent
of the Producer.  

One other thing, if "Who was doomed after "Greatest Show", why did
that story take second in that year's DWM poll ahead of your
precious "Silver Nemesis?"  "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" is an
excellently weird and refreshingly surreal story  (and also
Sylvester McCoy's personal favorite.)

Steve/Iain

>
>							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