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Things you miss from Classic Who
daveyboy7472
Posts: 16,416 Forum Member
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Just watching through the Classic Series there is several things I'm watching that I just miss and look back on fondly.
For a start, I miss the fact a story could run over a few weeks and the 4-Parters especially when you have the cliffhangers and time for the story to breath. Then every few weeks you would get the joy of a new story and everything that came with that.
Though I prefer the new 45 minute episodes I still miss the old 25 minute slot which as a kid used to be 'my 25' minutes. They went quick but it was always an enjoyable 25 minutes and always used to be sad when it was over!
Plus the stories used to be far more straight forward then. No arcs lasting an entire era, we knew which Doctor was which in terms of their number and The Doctor used to turn up in Part 1, defeat the baddies in a variety of amusing and different ways and be on his way at the end of the story. We weren't still thinking about a Doctor's debut story three or four years later.
More importantly, the odd story aside(Warriors Gate, looking at you) most of it made sense!
So what do you miss from Classic Who?
For a start, I miss the fact a story could run over a few weeks and the 4-Parters especially when you have the cliffhangers and time for the story to breath. Then every few weeks you would get the joy of a new story and everything that came with that.
Though I prefer the new 45 minute episodes I still miss the old 25 minute slot which as a kid used to be 'my 25' minutes. They went quick but it was always an enjoyable 25 minutes and always used to be sad when it was over!
Plus the stories used to be far more straight forward then. No arcs lasting an entire era, we knew which Doctor was which in terms of their number and The Doctor used to turn up in Part 1, defeat the baddies in a variety of amusing and different ways and be on his way at the end of the story. We weren't still thinking about a Doctor's debut story three or four years later.
More importantly, the odd story aside(Warriors Gate, looking at you) most of it made sense!
So what do you miss from Classic Who?
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Comments
Well why not the start:
I don't mind the new opening graphics & music, but I do prefer the more spooky and atmospheric original version of the tune. Likewise my favourite opening is always the last series of the 3rd Doctor/ then the one used for most of the 4th Doctor.
I like longer stories as this allowed a better, more straight forward pace, greater character development & the build up of tension (very much like comparing Test cricket to that of the wham/bam I can't remember one match against another nature of 20/20 cricket). A four part story at 23 min each equates to a two parter of the modern series today.
I prefer the fact these were divided up allowing for cliff hangers too.
Although I think the modern Doctors & most of his companions are great, I think the limited time allows little in the way of secondary characters, the ones that will just be there for the one story, to develop much.
UNIT is not the same & I doubt ever will be without the Brig -irreplaceable.
I also agree -the original series stories were more straight forward. why does Moffat have to over complicate things or do things that don't make sense?
There's a lot of stupid stuff too -like spitfires in out of space, walking Statues of Liberty's & opening the Tardis door in out of space. Bring back JNT, all is forgiven, at least with the 5th Doc he tried to make it a bit more believable.
I like the time-based plots. It's nice to see just how complex things can get if you have a time-travel machine at your disposal. I loved the 'distributed-computing-sonic' in the 50th.
I do believe though that things may have become a tad too complicated of late. I love story arcs and all that jazz, but I think that seasons should be self-contained for story arcs. I don't like the way that plot threads had to be tied up from 3 seasons back in Matt's last tale. A lot of casual viewers are going be like "crack, what crack?" Hardcore fans will be calling Moff to task for that stuff, but casual viewers (who make up the ratings) will be completely confuseled.
This in particular!
'Though I prefer the new 45 minute episodes I still miss the old 25 minute slot which as a kid used to be 'my 25' minutes. They went quick but it was always an enjoyable 25 minutes and always used to be sad when it was over!'
How did I forget that?????????!!!!!!!
You sir, win the internet.
The companion not being more important than the doctor
slower pace
More time to know other characters
less reliance on the sonic screwdriver
less made up scientific words (even if they are used incorrectly virtually all of the time)
better story telling
And I really don't get why in the new series or in Sherlock they would assume that I care about fictional characters. The plot should not be less important than character development.
Interesting, because I see howlround from the original titles, the 'layered falling snow' just before Troughton's face appears, the 'line stars' from the beginning of Pertwee's last series titles, and then the 'oily mirror tunnel' of the end of the classic Tom titles (when the episode title appears in the new one). I suppose you could see a Hawaiian shirt in the first section though
http://www.gregmce.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Dr-Who-Time-and-the-Rani.png
She had an evil smile and laugh that was just so perfect for an adversary of the Doctor.
Shame she hasn't appeared in the "Whoniverse" since the CIN story 'Dimentions in Time' in 1993.
Also, Gallifrey, as it was before The Time War was thought up by RTD. It would be great to see the Doctor meeting up with people such as Borusa, Councillor Hedin and so on.
http://www.siskoid.com/Whoccg/LoT/borusa-3.jpg
The Yeti being back in the show would also be great!
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/12/9/1291914379308/yeti-004.jpg
Also, having the Zygons back again, after their boring appearance in 'Day of the Doctor'. They need to appear in two episodes, and do a lot to put the fear into the Doctor's mind.
http://i1.cdnds.net/13/14/618x824/zygons.jpg
Companions who are not humans from modern-day Earth. Not counting a few stories with only Ben and Polly, One and Two always had at least someone from the past or future traveling with them, and after they left, Two traveled with no one from the audience's time. Then we had this trend again from Leela's introduction, to Turlough's departure, and taken further since from K9 to Turlough, then there was always at least one non-human companion.
I really can't wait to see a companions from anywhere else in the universe that is not London 20XX.
I miss truly alien/futuristic settings. Earth has been the primary setting of most of New Who's stories, the Nine/Ten era placing most of them in today, though Eleven has done better in this regard.
With an average of ten stories a series, I want a series that takes places mostly on very alien worlds, and when it does take place on Earth, it needs to be either the past, or the future.
No romance. The romance aspects introduced to the show are some of the worst I've seen. It was god awful during with RTD, and at most times pointless with Moffat (though I am willing to excuse Amy since it was a bit more complicated than that), and overall it just really ruins the idea of the Doctor as an asexual hero.
Even though Clara fancied Eleven, I really hope that nonsense is dropped with Twelve. Not because I think he's too old, but because I want the pointless romance to stop.
I have never been keen on the "Next time" bit at the end of 2-parters.
Oh, and does anyone know what happened to the TARDIS interior doors?
Guess The Doctor misplaced them!:D
The historicals, though at times via a few stories a tad boring during Hartnell's time, I would like to see them back as the more well written ones were very good. Black Orchid proved you could do a purely historical story in Modern Who(as it was at the time) and make it work. I'd like to see some pure historicals not only without aliens but without the CGI monster aspect as well.
I also agree about the romance. Sylvester McCoy said in the Ultimate Guide that The Doctor got by for 26 years with a snog and stuff, so yes, hoping with an older Doctor we will get the totally asexual Doctor back without the snogging as well.
What I also miss is the straight forward nature of the plotting. Due to the stories being spanned over several weeks you couldn't really get away with complicated sub plots etc, every episode followed on neatly from the last and most weeks you didn't have to think back further than the previous episode to enjoy the current one. Though we had a lot of continuity in JNT's time, a lot of stories were mainly self contained, especially during McCoy's Era. Once that story was over, we were onto the next one and we rarely looked back except when the story's plot demanded that we did. (I.E Key To Time, Trial Season)
I don't mind there being romantic undertones; naturally being swept away by a man who can take you anywhere in time and space is quite a romantic idea. But Grace's line in the TVM paved the way for ROMANCE: "I finally meet the right guy, and he's from another planet!" Ever since then, the female companions basically want him to get his leg-over. It was particularly irritating in Matt Smith's era with Amy, River and Tasha. For Tennant's era it was all right because people knew him from Casanova anyway, so you could chalk it up to that- a cheeky wink back to a previous role. Whereas with Matt Smith, it was just done in a pathetic attempt to be amusing. I'd rather have the sweeping violins of the Doctor and Rose rather than "Oooh, Doctor!". The latter was what was so irritating about Martha. You would have thought time and space would be enough of a distraction but no.
I doubt they'd continue that with Capaldi, partly because it might be deemed a bit distasteful in a family show (he quite obviously looks his age) and partly because they seem to be priding themselves on going back to the show's 'past' and 'roots'. I'm guessing that Moffat wants to undo a bit of the romance.
I've enjoyed the 2 part new stories, generally, more than the one part episodes, mainly because there is a cliffhanger (the slower pace and better plotting of the two-parters helps too...)
Oh yeah, I like the historical ones, especially when it's an interesting period so chance for great art direction and costumes. After all, as the opening of 'The Go-Between' goes: "The past is another country; they do things differently there". The past can be just as alien to us as 'alien' worlds.
Yes, I think there are ways to make the Doctor an appealing figure without needing to portray him as having sexual feelings. Take Sherlock for example. Female viewers fancy the character but Sherlock has better things to do than to lose his head over romance.
It's partly casting as well. If you cast a good-looking bloke, mainstream viewers will expect/want a romantic situation. There wasn't any romance because without wishing to be rude, you didn't really want to see those actors being sexual- particularly as some of them were known for doing children/family TV. It partly might have been the attitude of children's TV at the time; it's well before my time but I get the impression that there was a greater degree of 'innocence' in children's TV whereas you can get away with being a lot more knowing now.
I do find it a bit irritating that characters acknowledge the physical attractiveness of the incarnation as if he were a bloke in a bar. So I think in that respect McCoy's right, in that it does undermine the figure of The Doctor by having lots of nudging and winking. McGann didn't play the Doctor particularly sexually- the kissing was all very chaste- but it was Grace's obvious sexual attraction that muddied the waters.
I prefer simpler stuff as well. I should want to watch all the episodes because I'll enjoy them not because I need to in order to work out what's going on.
this modern trait is a particular hate of mine. Yes we know the Doctor isn't going to die but don't bloody tell us.
Dominic Glynn
Padded stories (often involving lots of being captured and escaping three or four times), interspersed with usually contrived cliffhangers? Nope.
Companions as one-dimensional cyphers with no sense of being real people at all? Nope.
An asexual Doctor? Nope.
Stories of the week with no sense of character development or consequence? Nope.
So yes, I'm sticking by my original comment. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed old Who at the time and I enjoy watching old episodes now... But that version of Who was a show of it's time and for that audience. And Doctor Who, and television as whole, has moved on a long way since then.