From: as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (andrew david simchik)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: Seventh Doc Quality
Date: 5 Nov 92 05:30:14 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

In <zjh1xzg@rpi.edu> danaf@bray1a.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.) writes:

>In article <1992Nov4.184103.15052@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (andrew david simchik) writes:
>|> Actually, I didn't really consider the last season to be improving.  Here
>|> are my reasons why:

>Sigh... some people are never happy...

Actually, I'm often happy.

>|> 1.) Ace.  This is a personal prejudice.  I really couldn't stand her at all. 
>|> She was just ludicrous and annoying.  There's no factual basis for this;
>|> it's all opinion.

>Well, everyone else in the free world likes her.... 8)

Bullshit.  Pardon my "French," but it's just bullshit.

>|> 2.) Bad technical quality.  The special effects did not *significantly*
>|> improve; everything looks schlocky and fake.  The sets just looked
>|> ridiculous on video.  And worst of all, the sound--I cannot tell you how

>Sets? Sets? If you ask me, Ghost Light looked pretty good! Ditto for Fenric and
>Survival (ignoring the silly computer-generated sky...). As for Battlefield, 
>the only set IN it was the TARDIS, and that looked horrible only because they
>THREW OUT the old console room wall panels, and had to use some leftovers from
>the 70's or something. (Pity... one of the major bad signs when a company 
>throws out its sets...)

OOOOOOOKay.

>|> to understand the dialogue, which was not recorded loudly enough.  Not to
>|> mention Sophie Aldred's tendency toward an incomprehensible mumbling
>|> delivery, and Sylvester McCoy's tendency to speak entirely too rapidly.  I

>Well, Syl's voice does tend to get completely incoherent when he goes for 
>anything above normal speech (eg: "AYZZ! OBBWAH DE DERRH!" from Remembrance),
>but you get used to it real fast. I **LIKE** his accent. And Sophie causes no
>problems for me.

I guess so...it's really a tech problem instead of an actor's problem.


>|> 3.) Stupid, stupid stories.  Things like "The Happiness Patrol," "The
>|> Greatest Show In The Galaxy," and "Paradise Towers" were obviously silly and
>|> one could watch them without having to take them too seriously.  But the
>|> last four episodes fell victim to bad plotting, incoherent ideas, loose
>|> ends, and totally unbelievable characters.  Which is not to say that the
>|> other eight episodes did not; it was just that these were much more obvious.

>They made sense to me!

>I don't understand why people keep complaining about the plots of these stories.
>No, this is not grade-A best-seller number-1 science fiction. Nothing on TV 
>ever has been. But they're all good, fairly solid plots. You need a certain air
>of mystery about the Seventh Doctor, and they left just the right amount of 
>confusion ("it's not a bug! It's a feature!") while settling up the eternal
>storylines quite nicely. You can't close up the main storyline of the show...
>it's been running for 26 years (as of '89) and if you settle THAT up, the show's
>over!

"Enlightenment," one of my
favorite episodes, could easily have been a terrific sci-fi novel.  This
stuff was really mediocre.

>|> 4.) Lack of continuity.  I don't mean factual discontinuity; I mean
>|> stylistic discontinuity.  Doctor Who had always maintained a certain style
>|> that made it OK to suspend disbelief and enjoy some great science fiction. 
>|> Starting about midway through Colin Baker's stint and growing steadily
>|> worse, a trend toward outlandish plots with jarring juxtapositions of ideas
>|> and two-D characters drove the style in a completely new--and
>|> unwelcome--direction.

>"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," as Emerson said. I
>found many of the old series (Tom Baker's later reign, just as an example...)
>hoplelessly boring at times, as the stories seemed to be almost TOO well fitted
>together. Sometimes, I'd swear they used the same sets for 2 or three stories 
>in one season!!! I like the channel-flipping style of the latest stories. The
>main storyline thread is preserved throughout, but the show takes a wide 
>stylistic latitude, which makes for more interesting viewing. In the last
>season, the TARDIS did not land inside **ONE** steel-walled space ship, a fact
>for which I am eternally grateful...

Emerson does not impress me with these words.  IMHO, the stories should fit
together; it lends the Doctor much more credibility as the lead of a series,
and look how wonderful continuity was for Blake's 7!  There is no storyline
thread.  Stylistic latitude is fine if the style is good, and it wasn't. 
Ever.

>|> IMHO, Enlightenment was the last of the truly great
>|> and stylistically faithful episodes.  (I suppose we could also count the
>|> Five Doctors.)  After that, the only really worthwhile episodes made were
>|> Caves of Androzani, the Two Doctors, Timelash (only for its fascinating
>|> literary references), and possibly Silver Nemesis.  Trial of a Time Lord
>|> also had its moments, if we want to be fair, and so did Greatest Show ITG
>|> and the Happiness Patrol, but none of these really hit the "great" mark (not
>|> even "Caves," sad to say) except possibly Two Doctors, and Peri
>|> could easily have killed that one--Nicola Bryant is great in other roles,
>|> but Peri was an awful companion--so fortunately Jamie and the Second Doctor
>|> stole the show.

>Well, she was crippled by that stupid accent and prejudicial "Americans are
>morons" writing (see the recently re-discovered Tomb of the Cybermen for another
>example of this), but she wasn't THAAAAAT bad...

True.  Ace is worse.

>|> Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, although I'm quite willing to
>|> defend it if there are any flames out there.  I just found everything after
>|> Davison less than satisfying, and if you didn't, that's my problem, not
>|> yours. :)

>Thought that was supposed to be the other way 'round???

No, I meant that the way it was written.

>Hey, it's OK. I disagree with you almost totally. But that's why the show's
>lasted so long, it has something to offer everyone...

True, it is OK.  But I still hate Ace!


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