I would much rather show humans being awesome at something than bringing aliens into it to help out or being the cause of it.
At least Robots of Sherwood is a comedy so I can ignore the 'robots' part. It's shaping up to be Gatiss' best script.
Super-spoilery Series 8 discussion - enter at own risk
- Thread starter JoeZhang
- Start date
I would much rather show humans being awesome at something than bringing aliens into it to help out or being the cause of it.
At least Robots of Sherwood is a comedy so I can ignore the 'robots' part. It's shaping up to be Gatiss' best script.
I'm completely fine without the pure historicals. If I want those, I'll watch a different show!
I was impressed with Deep Breath. Will wait for the others to air.
Mr Awe
Humans being awesome is great, I love humans being awesome. But what is the conflict and drama? You need a threat to our heroes to make things interesting. That thread needs to be plausible and present. Without a supernatural force at play in the story we either have a take on the "enlightened heroes meet ignorant savages who respond to them with violence" story (and who isn't tired of that chestnut?) or we really dig into the dark side of humanity with the brutal and cruel villains of everyday history and there is nothing fun or family friendly about that.
I only ever really had an issue with the lack of alien worlds in season 1, and even then it was more "they really should visit an alien world at some point" not "when are they going to go to other planets?"
As for historicals, I know the challenges involved in making them and that they maybe a difficult hook for an audience expecting sci-fi adventure when they tune into Doctor Who. But after eight years, there's room for one historical, something different, variety being the spice of life and all that.
I suppose one everyone and awhile wouldn't be terrible, but I really enjoy stories like Tooth and Claw, Fires of Pompeii, and the Unquiet Dead that are set in the past but have some alien influence.
In the end though, the DW audience is looking for a SF adventure.
Mr Awe
In the end though, the DW audience is looking for a SF adventure.
Mr Awe
I'd hate some historicals, it would be too boring. The Aztecs is the worst serial in the classic series I've had the displeasure to view.
Some more human scripts, yes, full historicals, god no.
Some more human scripts, yes, full historicals, god no.
It is a threat, but it isn't a plot.
The Fires of Pompeii plot had little to do with the actual eruption, that was just a deadline to raise the stakes and add the additional moral complication of "do we save them?". The same story could have been told without the eruption and with very little alteration.
I liked The Aztecs, but I do think that having a full blown, legitimate historical nowadays wouldn't work very well.
I wish at times there had been a Masterpiece Theater-style pure historical costume drama about Reinette that starred Sophia Myles circa 2007. That would have been the most unexpected Doctor Who spin-off.
Thinking about it, it might be cool to see a NuWho historical in the American Revolutionary War. Clara could change accidentally someone like George Washington or Ben Franklin captured, and then Clara and The Doctor have to rescue him from the british army. No aliens needed, and it could be interesting to see how they react to british and american soldiers fighting. They could thrown in a sub plot showing innocent people on both sides, so that its not just a colonists good/british bad story. I'd go with Ben Franklin for the captive, then they could have him flirt with Clara and match wits with The Doctor. Honestly, I could see it working as a pure historical with no alien bad guy. I don't know what british people nowadays think of the revolutionary war, but I think it could be an interesting story.
Doctorwhovian
Fleet Captain
It's a shame that a lot of the historical stories have been either lost destroyed or are incomplete. I think the novels and audios have explored the genre though. The last historical story I believe was Black Orchid during the fifth doctors era, and that was fairly small scale compared to previous historical stories where the Doctor was involved in key events such as the Trojan war or the Rome fire.
Unfortunately, it's not a coincidence that most of the historicals are lost: when theat style of story was dropped from the ongoing series in season 4/1967, BBC Enterprises put together a new sales package for seasons one/two which largely omitted the historicals in favour of the SF stories which were What Doctor Who Now Did. And that's the pack that was recovered in 1978, so...
...so no Marco Polo, no complete Reign of Terror (the surviving episodes had been in Cyprus since the early 60s), and no full Crusade (that any of it's here is luck).
The mystery is why Aztecs exists (best guess: Mexico was the first place to but this package, so they may have asked for 'the story set in Mexico') and also The Romans (no idea has ever been sensibly suggested).
And then seasons three and four are largely lost. So again, the slight mystery is why Enterprises still had copies of The Ark and The Gunfighters when the rest of the season was gone. Pure chance, probably. Maybe Myth Makers and Smugglers were still there a month earlier. Galaxy Four probably was...
...so no Marco Polo, no complete Reign of Terror (the surviving episodes had been in Cyprus since the early 60s), and no full Crusade (that any of it's here is luck).
The mystery is why Aztecs exists (best guess: Mexico was the first place to but this package, so they may have asked for 'the story set in Mexico') and also The Romans (no idea has ever been sensibly suggested).
And then seasons three and four are largely lost. So again, the slight mystery is why Enterprises still had copies of The Ark and The Gunfighters when the rest of the season was gone. Pure chance, probably. Maybe Myth Makers and Smugglers were still there a month earlier. Galaxy Four probably was...
Assuming it was in the same group that came back. It could've been returned from elsewhere. Ep4 came from Morroco as well.
Why not do a "Voyagers" style historical. One in which the Doctor et al. arrive in a given time and notice that it's all wrong compared to how history was supposed to be, so they have to figure out where history went stupid and fix it.
^ If he does, he'll never get Edward James Olmos.
You know what I'd love to see? The Doctor (any Doctor, I don't care which) sitting in the console room, watching Ancient Aliens, and laughing over how ridiculous and wrong they are.
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