[daveyboy7472]

There has been some discussion, (mainly from me I should add!) about the exile scenario of the Pertwee Era in the various story threads. It seems a lot of people liked it, in particular in Season 7, and others like myself who absolutely hated it.

Imagine though, if the licence fee got frozen or cut and the show's budget gets reduced even further as a result. Moffat or a future showrunner decides he liked the previous exile scenario a lot so he decides to copy the format of the Pertwee Era and set every story on Earth, perhaps again teaming The Doctor up with the new look UNIT. Thus he could make cheaper stories and save money. And obviously there would hardly be any TARDIS.

Would you like it if that scenario happened?

In some ways, you could argue that with the amount of Earth Stories there has been in New Who that it's sort of happened already but I'm talking about a whole 13 episodes worth of Earthbound adventures.

Or you could argue that it's been done once, it needn't happen again, which is very much my own view. But what do you think?

[CELT1987]

I can see there being some kind of exile in the next few years because of the licence fee. Don't think it will be like the Pertwee era, as they had UNIT. They might decide to have less of the TARDIS. I wouldn't like the exile to return as that would make the stories a bit predictable. If it does happen, it won't happen till after Matt Smith leaves.

[sovietusername]

See, I actually love all the old 70's U.N.I.T. stories. They have some really great sci fi stories and a very Quatermass-ish feel to them. The Green Death has to be one of the finest stories of all time being even more relevant today than they were in the 70's (I eargely anticipate your thread on that so I can splurge about it, is that a word-splurge?) Roger Delgado's Master is a great villain and over the years the U.N.I.T. family can be seen to be a tightly knit team, Pertwee deciding to leave when Delgado died and Manning left. The 3rd Doctor plays the part of a scientist very well and the Brigadier is just brilliant. He's 1 of the few people I could describe as the Doctor's best friend, being there all his life. But I dont think U.N.I.T stories fit very well with modern Who. It's very different and might be incompatible with the cosiness of the 70's where filming was confined to 1 quarry. This is similar to another thread on here about whether you prefer stories set on other worlds or Earthbound stories. I dont alien planet stories were ever really very good in the classic series, not in terms of story but simply cos of production. The alien planet almost invariably looks completely shit and fake, the rocls being made out of plastecine or plastic, either that or-you guessed it! it was filmed in a quarry. However now alien planets can look good and are really effective, it's actually the Earthbound stories which can look cheaper. So now, while they worked perfectly in classic Who, I dont think it's good to spend to long on Earth in the new series. Maybe we could have a spin off based around U.N.I.T., to replace SJA?

[knowndeserter]

An exile period needn't be anything like Season 7. In the BBC Books series, the Eight Doctor was also exiled to Earth for a time, without his TARDIS. I remember these as being pretty good, but they were nothing like Season 7. He spent 100 years (I think) trapped on Earth. They could easily do something similar and it would be just like a number of historicals in a row, visiting a number of important events such as the World Wars, Berlin in the 30's where he could wave at Christopher Isherwood or the development of a high capacity PVR in the early 60's so he could series link Doc<snip>

[mikey1980]

Originally Posted by sovietusername

See, I actually love all the old 70's U.N.I.T. stories. They have some really great sci fi stories and a very Quatermass-ish feel to them. The Green Death has to be one of the finest stories of all time being even more relevant today than they were in the 70's (I eargely anticipate your thread on that so I can splurge about it, is that a word-splurge?) Roger Delgado's Master is a great villain and over the years the U.N.I.T. family can be seen to be a tightly knit team, Pertwee deciding to leave when Delgado died and Manning left. The 3rd Doctor plays the part of a scientist very well and the Brigadier is just brilliant. He's 1 of the few people I could describe as the Doctor's best friend, being there all his life. But I dont think U.N.I.T stories fit very well with modern Who. It's very different and might be incompatible with the cosiness of the 70's where filming was confined to 1 quarry. This is similar to another thread on here about whether you prefer stories set on other worlds or Earthbound stories. I dont alien planet stories were ever really very good in the classic series, not in terms of story but simply cos of production. The alien planet almost invariably looks completely shit and fake, the rocls being made out of plastecine or plastic, either that or-you guessed it! it was filmed in a quarry. However now alien planets can look good and are really effective, it's actually the Earthbound stories which can look cheaper. So now, while they worked perfectly in classic Who, I dont think it's good to spend to long on Earth in the new series. Maybe we could have a spin off based around U.N.I.T., to replace SJA?

Indeed, cost-cutting would probably mean more TARDIS based stories - far cheaper than going on location.

I for one would be happy with an 'exile' scenario. At the moment there's not the sense of true danger for the doctor - he always has the ability to get in the TARDIS and move forward or back in time. I'd like to see him lose that ability for a while, and also lose his sonic screwdriver. There would be far more real consequences within the stories. And we would get to know the Doctor better - he'd have to rely far more on raw intelligence, wit and saavy. There'd be no get-out-clauses. So for me, bring it on!

I'd love to see the Doctor exiled into a historical time-period though, not the present day... Probably not cost-effective though.

[JohnnyForget]

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

[TEDR]

I've no problem with an exile scenario, provided they don't take it as an excuse to hire a stunt team and then insist on putting a car chase, a man falling off a building, UNIT rushing into a building, the Doctor doing some faddish kung fu, etc, every single week.

[Ethel_Fred]

Can't see how cutting costs would mean more Earth based stories - location costs, costs of extras would drive the budget up not down.

I would expect "ship in a bottle" episodes, fewer aliens, more stories set on one set, possibly more two parters

[alphonsus]

but who would exile him?

[daveyboy7472]

Originally Posted by Ethel_Fred

Can't see how cutting costs would mean more Earth based stories - location costs, costs of extras would drive the budget up not down.

I would expect "ship in a bottle" episodes, fewer aliens, more stories set on one set, possibly more two parters

I was referring to why the original exile scenario came about in the first place. The production team couldn't at the time afford to keep creating alien environments so that's why they brought it down to Earth. Part of this was because the show was going into colour at the time. This obviously isn't an issue today but it was still budget related. They obviously believed by keeping the show on Earth they could save money. Thankfully Letts and Dicks took over and they thought differently.

Originally Posted by alphonsus

but who would exile him?

Good point!

Maybe the Time Lords escaped through some Time Portal Dalek-style!

[Whovian1109]

Originally Posted by alphonsus

but who would exile him?

Perhaps there could be a major TARDIS problem, forcing him to spend a certain amount of time on Earth while it recuperates?

[lordOfTime]

Originally Posted by Whovian1109

Perhaps there could be a major TARDIS problem, forcing him to spend a certain amount of time on Earth while it recuperates?

Couldn't he just give another 10 years of his life away?

[Listentome]

It wouldn't make much difference, he spends most of his time in modern day Cardiff anyway. ;-)

[CoalHillJanitor]

The TARDIS is too iconic and recognised as such these days. They would be foolish to try taking her out of the story.

[Midnight Moggy]

Originally Posted by Ethel_Fred

Can't see how cutting costs would mean more Earth based stories - location costs, costs of extras would drive the budget up not down.

I would expect "ship in a bottle" episodes, fewer aliens, more stories set on one set, possibly more two parters

I agree with this. I don't think Earth bound stories would always be less expensive.

An exile would be an awful idea, it's too limiting and anyway it's repeating something that's been done before.

I don't think it's likely to happen. Doctor Who seems to be a top priority for the BBC and I'm sure they could find other ways to save on costs within the show, if they really needed to.

[Shawn_Lunn]

No, I don't think it would be a good idea because the show needs episodes that are not Earth based as well to be honest.

[TEDR]

Originally Posted by Ethel_Fred

I would expect "ship in a bottle" episodes, fewer aliens, more stories set on one set, possibly more two parters

How about some 2005-style (or, I guess, 1975-style) set reuse? So, sure, have a large set, but reuse it in more than one story — they don't have to be in the same time period.

[DavetheScot]

There's a lot to be said for stories set on present-day Earth. In the classic series, it often seemed scarier when the monsters were in your own backyard, so to speak. However, I'm not sure I've found that so much to be true in the new series. The alien in Midnight and the unseen voice in The Impossible Planet knocked the Sontarans and Silurians into touch for scariness.

So in short, not really, though I don't think it would necessarily be disastrous.