Never Looked Better…
Any moment now, I’ll wake up. Do me a favour, go read this news article and then come back and explain to me how we got here. How did our creaky little sci-fi show become so successful that it’s been commissioned for not one additional series, but two! Oh, and another Christmas Special as well. And now I’m hearing that the combined budget for these two seasons is 30 million! What did we do to deserve this?
Saturday sees (in the UK) the broadcast of the final episode of this new season of Doctor Who, and draws to a close the Christopher Eccleston era. I thought this was going to be a sad time. Certainly I shall miss the series while it’s off the air - it’s quite simply the best version of Doctor Who I’ve ever seen, and by a significant margin is the best thing on TV right now. More than that I will miss Mr Eccleston, criticized by many for the “inappropriate mugging” and goofiness, but in reality the most dynamic, engaging and emotionally involving Doctor we’ve ever had (and I was not an Eccleston fan prior to this).
Instead we have so much to be happy about. We can look forward to the David Tennant era, at least one more season starring Billie Piper, RTD’s continued involvement alongside top notch directors and writers, an increase in the budget and the knowledge that Doctor Who has become BBC1’s flagship Saturday night programme and is not going to dematerialize anytime soon.
Result!
Posted by John on Friday, June 17 at 12:27 pm
4 Comments...
I’m amazed by how people are amazed by the show’s success. It’s really nothing that should be THAT surprising. The only small surprise is that it has been a little more successful than might have been expected. A new version of the show with a good budget and proper publicity/promotion with a early evening timeslot should garner 6-7 million viewers on average. No different then the show’s last return in 1996 which if it had gone to series would almost certainly would have. So that it’s getting in the 8-9 million range is great. Doctor Who was on for so long that many people even if they didn’t watch it for years knew what it basically was. It was starting to get out of the collective memory because it hadn’t been on for so long. That doesn’t mean that these people buy video’s or books but if it did come back as a new show they would at least check it out. That and the promotion is what drew over 10 million to the first show. Since then several million have left but that’s to be expected. As for Eccleston being the most emotionally engaging Doctor that’s no surprise as that’s the way the character was redesigned to be. More than half-human. Like about 3/4 but I don’t hear too many complaints about yet another Doctor falling in love with an earthwoman.
Posted by Ryan on 06/17 at 03:31 PM
Doctor Who’s success was by no means a sure thing. RTD and the whole production team thought it might well die a death, and it’s hard to find anybody more enthusiastic about Who than RTD. If you’ve ever lived in the UK then you’ll know that a lot of people did not regard Doctor Who in a very favourable light before this recent series took off. There was every chance that they might reject it.
Posted by Richard on 06/17 at 09:32 PM
It was the cast the writing and a REAL BUDGET! That’s what did it. But not only that. Fans are everywhere and of every age. We were all waiting for this. It had to happen and it did.I was hooked from the first episode and I grew up with Traughton and Pertwee.
So perhaps nothing is a sure thing but with the wisdom and love poured into the remake it is a thing of beauty and it’s very 51st Century!!!Just what I needed afdter they cancelled Star Trek Enterprise.
Willis
Posted by Willis on 06/20 at 03:29 AM
I watched the last episode of Dr. Who hoping to find out how many languages the Dr. speaks, but somehow missed it. What a great series! I need that answer though.
Posted by Ray on 07/01 at 08:07 AM
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