I thought Courtney Woods was a great character and the actress playing was very good, same with the kid who played young Rupert Pink (better than Sam Anderson imo!) but the kids in In The Forest Of The Night, just no..........
I think the origin of Dr Who was in the days of Quatermass, Doomwatch and a variety of other suspense projects. It was almost certainly aimed at appealing to children, more specifically the side of children which enjoys being frightened in relative safety. The avuncular William Hartnell, Peter Cushing and his little neice Susan in the motion picture; all very suitable for children and many of us WERE children when we were first introduced.
It's hardly surprising that many of the episodes contain children now. It is important for a show such as this to appeal to children even now, since it is a legend and appeal to children will prolong its longevity. Children are often attracted to drama which is involves children; that's how they relate to it.
I doubt that's really answered the question, but I do like to waffle on!
I think it's a bit of a stretch to assume that kids appear in a (kids?) TV show in order to appear to kids. In most cases in Doctor Who, you'll find it's the opposite - that kids appear in the story in order to stimulate (or at least, examine) very grown-up protective urges.
Closing Time, Doctor/Widow/Wardrobe, Forest of the Night, Night Terrors, even Fear Her - they all come down to adults being tasked with protecting children. Or at the very least, an examination of the relationship between an adult and a child.
That's a bit of a contrast with the sort of story normally associated with children's adventure, which tends to be more along the lines of Amelia Pond's appearances - kids having adventures without an authority or parental figure.
A nightmare in silver was a rubbish episode that wasn't helped by two annoying kids, rather than it being rubbish because of them. There are plenty of bad episodes without kids in, and plenty with. The relationship is vague at best. Cyberwoman is the worst episode of anything Dr Who related I've ever seen and it has no kids in at all.
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I've always thought this episode was seriously underrated. I remember really enjoying it, it was a nice bit of Christmas TV.
It's hardly surprising that many of the episodes contain children now. It is important for a show such as this to appeal to children even now, since it is a legend and appeal to children will prolong its longevity. Children are often attracted to drama which is involves children; that's how they relate to it.
I doubt that's really answered the question, but I do like to waffle on!
Closing Time, Doctor/Widow/Wardrobe, Forest of the Night, Night Terrors, even Fear Her - they all come down to adults being tasked with protecting children. Or at the very least, an examination of the relationship between an adult and a child.
That's a bit of a contrast with the sort of story normally associated with children's adventure, which tends to be more along the lines of Amelia Pond's appearances - kids having adventures without an authority or parental figure.