I don't think the TVM is evidence that the US couldn't make Doctor Who. Was it flawed? Sure. But no more so than a lot of Doctor Who produced over here had been too. Particularly in the 80's.
The difference is that there's only one of example of US produced Who, so people tend to judge it as the model by which any US Who should be compared.
And at the end of the day, the US are consistently producing better TV than we are today. So I don't doubt they'd do a perfectly good job with Who.
US produced, yes. But it was RTD's awful story and awful concept that killed Mircle Day (no pun intended!) before it started.
And Torchwood wasn't always fantastic TV even when we exclusively produced it.
No but it featured three elements that the OP put forward compared to Torchwoods finest moment COE. It had more episodes, more writers and a bigger budget. And it was horrendous.
The only specifically American thing that caused a problem was the requirement for that many episodes. Sometimes less is more. Or is that fewer is greater?
Miracle Day concept was fine and could have worked. Enlarging Torchwood beyond the confines of Cardiff could have been great. A story about nobody dying across the world, though it's been done before, could have been great.
Stretching it out to, what was it? 10? episodes, was the main problem. It was at least twice as long as it should have been. It would have been fine at just 4 or 5 eps.
As it was, there was a lot of "stuff happening" that neither advanced the plot nor our understanding of the main characters.
And it was badly let down by the "donner kebab at the centre of the world" ending.
But Star Trek is considerably bigger with greater universal appeal.
It is run by a major studio/network in a country that is quite a lot bigger than the UK. Or is that what you're getting at? Anyway, Doctor Who is still a viable proposition as a TV series; Star Trek, it seems, is not.
The only specifically American thing that caused a problem was the requirement for that many episodes. Sometimes less is more. Or is that fewer is greater?
Miracle Day concept was fine and could have worked. Enlarging Torchwood beyond the confines of Cardiff could have been great. A story about nobody dying across the world, though it's been done before, could have been great.
Stretching it out to, what was it? 10? episodes, was the main problem. It was at least twice as long as it should have been. It would have been fine at just 4 or 5 eps.
As it was, there was a lot of "stuff happening" that neither advanced the plot nor our understanding of the main characters.
And it was badly let down by the "donner kebab at the centre of the world" ending.
I think even at 5 episodes. Miracle Day would have been awful. It was a limited concept from the outset, made all the worse by making Jack's status as a fixed point in time into a medical condition.
Yes, 5 episodes of Miracle Day would certainly have been better. But only in so much as it would have been over a bit quicker.
Comments
But there is an example of a US Torchwood
And Torchwood wasn't always fantastic TV even when we exclusively produced it.
No but it featured three elements that the OP put forward compared to Torchwoods finest moment COE. It had more episodes, more writers and a bigger budget. And it was horrendous.
Miracle Day concept was fine and could have worked. Enlarging Torchwood beyond the confines of Cardiff could have been great. A story about nobody dying across the world, though it's been done before, could have been great.
Stretching it out to, what was it? 10? episodes, was the main problem. It was at least twice as long as it should have been. It would have been fine at just 4 or 5 eps.
As it was, there was a lot of "stuff happening" that neither advanced the plot nor our understanding of the main characters.
And it was badly let down by the "donner kebab at the centre of the world" ending.
But it wouldn't be as good.
It is run by a major studio/network in a country that is quite a lot bigger than the UK. Or is that what you're getting at? Anyway, Doctor Who is still a viable proposition as a TV series; Star Trek, it seems, is not.
Yes, 5 episodes of Miracle Day would certainly have been better. But only in so much as it would have been over a bit quicker.