Should "Doctor Who" ever do another season were the Doctor stays on one planet the entire season?

[Jayson1]

I got to admit I haven't really seen much of the older seasons of the show. I became a fan in 2005 with "Rose." I do know that one the past doctors had one season where he was on earth the entire time. He was working with U,N.I.T. and even had funny looking car to get around in.

Do you think they should ever try this aproach again just for the sake of trying something different since it has been along time since they last did it? It wouldn't even have to be earth but a alien world or earth colony.

Jason

 

[Turtletrekker]

The third Doctor was exiled to Earth for several seasons.

 

[Mr Soak]

Although only one season was completely Earth-based. After that, the Time Lords started sending him off world on missions. The writers probably found keeping the Doctor on Earth too restricting. There's only so many invasion stories the audience would believably swallow.

Edit - all four stories of season twenty-six were set on Earth, but the Doctor wasn't actually restricted to one time and place. The stories took place in the 1990s, 1940s, 1883 and contemporarily (1989).

 

[Professor Zoom]

Sure. Why not?
No idea is inherently bad. As long as the stories are compelling sci-fi.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm open to the idea. Heck, after watching "The Pilot," all I can think about is the potential for a season of the Doctor as a mad academic.

 

[Takeru]

I'd like that, it would force more creativity to come up with interesting scenarios.

The Tardis offers a ton of possibilities but it often feels too easy, if I wanted to tell a story in which the doctor sees flying green pigs that poop diamonds (which the locals see as disgusting because it's poop that the companion shoves into her pockets) and has to solve a conflict between land dwelling squids and humans in the year 800,086 I can just do that, just have the Tardis pop up there and everything goes.

Ultimately the Tardis being able to go everywhere is a good thing and it's part of the premise of the show but it would be a nice change of pace to take it out of the picture for some time. Maybe have it break down and just use it as an immobile home base. Fixing the Tardis could be the season long arc and whatever the doctor needs to do it would be an incentive to go to dangerous or weird places and have adventures.

 

[kirk55555]

I'd say no. The Doctor spends too much time in modern England as it is, to the point where it sometimes feels like he is exiled. Its not the 70s anymore, the Doctor has probably spent 60-75% of NuWho in modern day earth, spending more time and not being allowed to leave would be ridiculous.

 

[Jayson1]

I'd say no. The Doctor spends too much time in modern England as it is, to the point where it sometimes feels like he is exiled. Its not the 70s anymore, the Doctor has probably spent 60-75% of NuWho in modern day earth, spending more time and not being allowed to leave would be ridiculous.

Why not do it the season in the future or a alien world? It wouldn't have to be contemporary earth for him to spend that season there. I think it would even be cool to see it set on Gallefrey.

Jason

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I would be down for a far future and some time in the non-20th century past on Earth, or conversely on some alien world. I wouldn't want Gallifrey, partially because I can get my Gallifrey fix from the Big Finish series starring Romana, Leela, and the two K-9s. I agree with kirk that so much of the new series (especially the first four seasons) have taken place on present day Earth that it feels like The Doctor is already constrained as it is, so I want him to get as far as possible right now.

I like Allyn's idea of academia, I just don't want it set in present day (or near present day) Earth.

 

[StCoop]

Isn't that pretty much every series since 2005?


Thank you. I'll be here all week.

 

[The Wormhole]

Although only one season was completely Earth-based.

And even that included a story with scenes set in space, and another set in an alternate reality.

Why not do it the season in the future or a alien world? It wouldn't have to be contemporary earth for him to spend that season there. I think it would even be cool to see it set on Gallefrey.

Jason

I'll admit something I would have liked with the show is if they developed a continuing world setting in each of the different eras, modern day with Kate Stewart, Osgood and UNIT, Victorian era with Vastra, Jenny and Strax, and distant future with the Military Church. Even if they just did one story a season devoted to each, you'd have three different shows within the show. That and after a few seasons of this, epic crossover.

 

[Christopher]

Technically, the entire "Trial of a Time Lord" season took place on a single space station, since all its stories set elsewhere were video evidence in the trial. But that's really splitting hairs.

Edit - all four stories of season twenty-six were set on Earth, but the Doctor wasn't actually restricted to one time and place. The stories took place in the 1990s, 1940s, 1883 and contemporarily (1989).

Well, much of that last one ("Survival") took place on an alien planet, the one to which the missing people were being taken.

Nearly all of the 5th season, all except the first and last serials, was Earthbound, though in different time periods. In Victoria's whole tenure as a companion, she was only offworld twice, briefly on Skaro and then on Telos, followed by five consecutive Earthbound stories. By her last story, "Fury from the Deep," Victoria was actually complaining that they always seemed to land on Earth -- and Jamie chimed in that it was always England too, although that was an exaggeration ("The Abominable Snowmen" was in Tibet and "The Enemy of the World" had the TARDIS land in Australia).

I don't have any particular interest in seeing a whole season set in one place and time. That's what the spinoffs were for. If anything, I'd like the show to go in the other direction. The Moffat-era companions have all been merely commuters in the TARDIS rather than full-time occupants -- they go off on the occasional adventure with the Doctor and then go back to their everyday lives for weeks or months, sometimes years, before he drops by again. I miss the old-school companion experience where it was a total commitment, either involuntarily or by choice -- where the companion lived aboard the TARDIS and trips back home were infrequent, if ever. Even the RTD-era companions only dropped in on their homes and families a few times a season, and the separation meant something to their families. Moffat has it so the Doctor gets them back home right after they left, so nobody even knows they were gone. I think that's making it too convenient, too casual.

 

[Mr Awe]

In my book, the more adventures in space and in time, the better. Sure, a few on Earth are OK. Like Christopher, I also don't like the part-time companion thing. Hopefully, Chibnall goes back to full-time companions.

 

[Velocity]

I'd say no. I like the variety of settings in time and space better than just one.

 

[MacLeod]

I got to admit I haven't really seen much of the older seasons of the show. I became a fan in 2005 with "Rose." I do know that one the past doctors had one season where he was on earth the entire time. He was working with U,N.I.T. and even had funny looking car to get around in.

Do you think they should ever try this aproach again just for the sake of trying something different since it has been along time since they last did it? It wouldn't even have to be earth but a alien world or earth colony.

Jason

Well when DW returned, the first season was more or less set on Earth (or in Earth Orbit) just in different time periods.

 

[Venardhi]

Naw. If you want a show set on earth, bring back Torchwood and the Doctor can stop by once a season.

I'd much rather see a few seasons where the Doctor explicitly can't and doesn't visit modern Earth.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'd much rather see a few seasons where the Doctor explicitly can't and doesn't visit modern Earth.

It'll never happen. For the simple fact that setting episodes in modern times are excellent money savers. It's like Star Trek doing holodeck episodes or time travel episodes or episodes with parallel development to humanity's past. It isn't done because the writers or lazy or unimaginative, it's done as a way to save the budget.

 

[Venardhi]

Sometimes it is a bit of both. I'm not saying I expect it to happen, just that I would like to see it.

 

[publiusr]

This season is supposed to be light on TARDIS use--for whatever reason