Has Doctor Who lost its way because it lost its "soap opera" aspect?
Scoobyh1
Posts: 2,131 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Hey guys,
Just wanted to clear up before I start that I have been enjoying Doctor Who lately but feel it hasn't drawn me into it since Tennant left.
I think what it comes down is NOT the characters or actors. But the show has lost its continuation soap opera aspect. For example, the stories involving Rose, her family and Mickey. There is just no sense of continuation nowadays.
Most of the time, I never even know where they are, where the tardis has landed or what time they are in. I just feel the show has become too complex, I am 22 years old and its complex for me, god knows what It must be like for kids.
I think its time for Moffat to leave, as soon as he goes, the show should be back on its usual feet then the ratings should see an increase.
Like I said, I am liking the series for what it is at the moment and can probably say the special effects are the best part but there was nothing like waiting until the next weeks episodes in the first 4 series when you couldn't wait where they would go next or what time they would go to.
I just feel Doctor Who is more of chore now. I doubt anyone else will share the same views as myself as the new series are deemed as the best from the people on the forum but just wanted to share my experience, as my whole family used to sit and watch the show together, now I find its just me as my family have become bored. There's obviously a reason why I seem to be the only one now still watching it.
ALSO one my thing, the reason I was also getting annoyed with Series 5 onwards is the fact it was plagued with River bloody Song....I cannot stand this woman! She has personally ruined it for me. Just wanted to get that one out lol
Just wanted to clear up before I start that I have been enjoying Doctor Who lately but feel it hasn't drawn me into it since Tennant left.
I think what it comes down is NOT the characters or actors. But the show has lost its continuation soap opera aspect. For example, the stories involving Rose, her family and Mickey. There is just no sense of continuation nowadays.
Most of the time, I never even know where they are, where the tardis has landed or what time they are in. I just feel the show has become too complex, I am 22 years old and its complex for me, god knows what It must be like for kids.
I think its time for Moffat to leave, as soon as he goes, the show should be back on its usual feet then the ratings should see an increase.
Like I said, I am liking the series for what it is at the moment and can probably say the special effects are the best part but there was nothing like waiting until the next weeks episodes in the first 4 series when you couldn't wait where they would go next or what time they would go to.
I just feel Doctor Who is more of chore now. I doubt anyone else will share the same views as myself as the new series are deemed as the best from the people on the forum but just wanted to share my experience, as my whole family used to sit and watch the show together, now I find its just me as my family have become bored. There's obviously a reason why I seem to be the only one now still watching it.
ALSO one my thing, the reason I was also getting annoyed with Series 5 onwards is the fact it was plagued with River bloody Song....I cannot stand this woman! She has personally ruined it for me. Just wanted to get that one out lol
0
Comments
Had a girl running away from her marriage. Had a marriage. Had her baby, had her baby stolen. Had a divorce. Spoke about not being able to have kids
Sounds like "soap opera" stuff to me.
What you could mean is that it has lost an anchor to the present day. They seldom return there. Many think this is a good thing. Time and location is usually mentioned in the episode
Yeah, I just feel the show has lost a present day aspect. Soaps are successful because it is always the same day as us! The present day doesn't seem to exist in Doctor Who anymore.
As it shouldn't. It's a show about a time traveller. What on Earth would be the point if it was constantly set in present day?
I completely understand what you're saying but the complexity of this storyline didn't make it a soap storyline in the end. I've had to watch Series 5 onwards many times just to understand them. Soap storylines are usually very easy to understand.
But a show entirely based on the premise of travel in time and space, why consistently refer to the present day. That's not why we watch a Sci-Fi show like Doctor Who surely? I have the soaps to watch mudane every day life msst of the week. I look forward to each Saturday, that escapism, excitement.
During alot of the 9th and 10th stories I recall people complaining there were too many 'Earthbound' stories anyway. But give it till Xmas. I think we may have a cluster of Earth stories coming our way again anyway.
I loved that Rose, Martha and Donna came from real homes with families and friends. Amy and Rory seem more storyline than character. Their marital problems smack of tokenism.
I am even starting to not care what happens to the Doctor himself which saddens me greatly
It could literally be anywhere and anytime (Didn't the 11th Doctor say something like that when he and Amy first went travelling?). Anything at all could happen. How amazing is that?
I can't think of a single other programme where that is the case. DW is unique.
If I want something grounded in the everyday, predictable world, as I sometimes do, I'll watch something else. (Though not a soap).
I agree with others that the story arcs of series 5 & 6 are pure soap-stuff.
I've said it before and I'll say it again ... while I like the current Doctor and companions, I have no idea what they or doing or why they are doing it. There's nothing to bring the series back down to Earth. There's no connection to reality.
I loved The Lodger and Closing Time, because they had a connection to "real life".
Mulett makes a great point, about current DW being emotionally empty. It's DW that you could make diagrams and flow charts out of. It's not DW that I feel connected to. Even though I like the three lead characters, I only watch each episode once and then delete it from the Skyplus. It misses the heart-and-soul that it used to have.
I'll give you that. Amy and Rory are so boring and undeveloped. That's why I like River. She may not come from present day, but her knowledge of the future and more importantly the Doctor's future makes her intriguing.
I think what you are getting at is a development of a companions story that involves regular returns to earth, with parents and partner staying behind. Where those stories are only incidentally bound up in scifi things.
Whereas even though we've had two weddings, a divorce, birth, reuniting with long lost daughter etc (soap things), they've all been bound up in fantastical scifi plots, aliens etc.
I think RTD did very well to do it the way he did. It was certainly new to me, as an old fan, and not all my cup of tea. But he did make the show accessible to an audience that might not otherwise have stuck with it.
Moffat's style is different. I like the fact the tardis goes to a different time and place each week. What, perhaps, is needed is to go back to having the companion remain in the tardis. Rather than all this stuff about dropping the ponds off and picking them up again.
But it is difficult to have the Rose/Martha/Donna family relations being shown unless we go back to basing it mainly on modern day Earth again.
Perhaps your family will be pleased to know that a complex series like series six isn't likely again.
I bloody love River!
For me it is a good thing those elements have gone, or at least been changed. Yes, series 5 and 6 had soapy stuff going on, but it seemed more integrated into an overall sci-fi/fantasy adventure. Amy's wedding day for one fitting with the Tardis exploding and Amy's baby was kidnapped for Sci-fi reasons.:D
I grew up with Doctor Who in the 70s and 80s and it didn't have a soap opera feel. Doctor Who is of the Sci-fi/fantasy genre, for me it shouldn't rely on soapy elements to keep people watching.
I appreciate that many people will have first experienced Doctor Who from 2005 onwards. But even in series 1-4 the soap elements were outweighed by the adventure elements. The stories are more complex now, as they should be, but I don't think it means they are confusing. People just need to watch it in a different way to how they would watch a soap.
Out of nearly 50 years of Doctor Who, only 4 or 5 have had some element of 'soap' to them. I do think it is a bit unfortunate that people miss that, or feel it is not as good now because those elements have, not gone, but have been integrated into the overall arc.
RTD obviously added the soap elements to draw in a wider audience and it certainly worked. But the downside of that is many people won't appreciate more traditional Doctor Who without it.
best
Human relationships as depicted at all times in the whole of literature is not necessarily "soap" to me.
I must add that at first I found RTD's insistence on including the companions' families deeply irritating, but I got used to it, and later quite liked it.
Or perhaps your close friend who you end up marrying is the daughter of your other close friends, althought they didnt know it? the Pond/Song storyline is very soapy. I didnt like the reveal at all and have no desire to ever watch those episodes again, farr too soapy for me. I prefer the kind of reltionship that the Doctor had with Donna, just an uncomplicated platonic friendship, with no tedious hangers on and lots of earthbound AND spacebund fun.
My children have grown up with modern DW and have no problem following the constantly evolving format. I've watched it since Troughton, and really this is nothing new - the programme survives because it never stays still. Enjoy the ride!
But Donna had her mum and her granddad.
Yes, but they didnt follow her around the universe like lost lambs, a la Rory
In the last two Seasons it really has felt like a soap. Nearly everything has revolved around Amy, Rory and River Song and it has got really tiring watching it. What was great about Saturday's episode was that wasn't the case, the story for once came first. I'm hoping with Amy and Rory's departure the show won't become so wrapped up in the companions story as much and go back to something akin to the first few Series where it's just about The Doctor and The New Companion and just the adventures and if there's hardly any family involved that would be even better!
I think everyone has definitely touched on everything I was feeling and its nice to hear some people share the same views.
Like someone else said, the fact that there was a Rose/Martha/Donna family aspect made it compelling viewing.
There is no story and character development with Amy and Rory.
But anyway, a lot of people in this thread have understood my original post which was great so thanks!
Rory is a co-companion, not a hanger-on.
The Doctor can have more than one companion at once.
I like these posts. SM makes Who that has many of the things I liked about Classic. But I wish he'd do something more to ground things. RTD certainly had a way with that. A touch sentimental maybe, but Donna's mother and Rose's mother and Rose and Donna and even Martha (unrequited love) had an authenticity to them that is lacking with the Ponds. And I love the Ponds. As a tardis team. Their life story stuff has been mishandled.