I can't think of one dud earth based ep whereas there are many offworld crap eps in DW history.
Doctor Who - earth based v Non-earth based eps
I think generally the Earth based ones are better: I also think they're easier to write.
With an Earth based episode it's much easier to suspend your disbelief because you "get" all of the parameters implicitly and there's quite a backstory that the audience already knows!
Off Earth the writer has to create an entirely new, believable planet and doesn't have the time for lots of exposition to generate depth.
With an Earth based episode it's much easier to suspend your disbelief because you "get" all of the parameters implicitly and there's quite a backstory that the audience already knows!
Off Earth the writer has to create an entirely new, believable planet and doesn't have the time for lots of exposition to generate depth.
The main problem with "off-world" stories for me is their believability - or lack of it.
Hang on - I know it's all make-believe (
) but let me explain.
For example when a planet is visited, for simplicity of story, the whole planet is treated as one "country" as it were. At most there may be conflict with another colony nearby, but rarely to we visit a planet and hear about the wide variety of people, countries, etc all over that world.
If we're going planet-hopping, let's have a more thought-through, international approach. Visit two sides of the planet, for example.
Now they've got the bigger budgets, why not?
Hang on - I know it's all make-believe (
) but let me explain.For example when a planet is visited, for simplicity of story, the whole planet is treated as one "country" as it were. At most there may be conflict with another colony nearby, but rarely to we visit a planet and hear about the wide variety of people, countries, etc all over that world.
If we're going planet-hopping, let's have a more thought-through, international approach. Visit two sides of the planet, for example.
Now they've got the bigger budgets, why not?
Off-Earth stories are never a problem for other series, though, such as Star Trek, Andromeda or Blake's 7. The Doctor has a TARDIS for Jeff's sake. He can go anywhere and should. It's only limited by the budget and imagination. I would still love to see Red Dwarf dock at DS9, and the TARDIS materialise on the promenade. Odo would not like that...
I suppose it's partially effects: unless budgets are high it ends up looking like somewhere odd on earth anyway. B5 didn't do other worlds for a long time until it became confident with the CGI, and even then they had a few "exploratory" episodes to make sure that they could pull it off.
The danger is that it will soon begin to pall if all the episodes in the future end up being on Earth, though in a different time zone. I'm glad that there are due to be some off-world episodes next season. Having said that, I seem to remember a lot of discussion on these boards regarding future Earth episodes, with people complaining that they looked like various historical periods and not "futuristic" enough. The Jagrafess episode was one such.
Ultimately I always felt that some of the best episodes in the old Who were either set during historical periods on Earth (in the way that the Gatiss episode and the second World War episodes were this time) or were set offworld but were strongly about this one (e.g. some of the Gallifrey episodes which were about Earth politics and psychology whilst being, ostensibly, set elsewhere) I hope to see some more of these.
The danger is that it will soon begin to pall if all the episodes in the future end up being on Earth, though in a different time zone. I'm glad that there are due to be some off-world episodes next season. Having said that, I seem to remember a lot of discussion on these boards regarding future Earth episodes, with people complaining that they looked like various historical periods and not "futuristic" enough. The Jagrafess episode was one such.
Ultimately I always felt that some of the best episodes in the old Who were either set during historical periods on Earth (in the way that the Gatiss episode and the second World War episodes were this time) or were set offworld but were strongly about this one (e.g. some of the Gallifrey episodes which were about Earth politics and psychology whilst being, ostensibly, set elsewhere) I hope to see some more of these.
That's a good point though - did we actually see the Doctor go to any alien planets this year? I know he did a few space stations in the future and a Dalek ship.
Over all, I prefer the Tom Baker years (when he travelled all over the place) to the Jon Pertwee years (when he was almost entirely earth based).
Over all, I prefer the Tom Baker years (when he travelled all over the place) to the Jon Pertwee years (when he was almost entirely earth based).
i remember russell t davies talking about this, he said that earth based stories made us relate to it better than non earth locations. i guess now they know dr who is safe, they will experiment more and have more non earth eps
Originally Posted by dubious1977:
“Off-Earth stories are never a problem for other series, though, such as Star Trek, Andromeda or Blake's 7.”
“Off-Earth stories are never a problem for other series, though, such as Star Trek, Andromeda or Blake's 7.”
I disagree. Every planet in Star Trek is identical - a small community of new-age mumbo-jumboists wearing smocks and sandals and with a fondness for village meetings. No cities, no diversity, all done on the cheap. As for Blake's 7... wasn't every episode filmed in the BBC gravel pit? I haven't seen Andromeda, so can't comment. But Farscape did other worlds well - every one was different and rich in detail.
