Doctor Who in American Accents

[Count Zero]

Y'know I've always wanted to talk to an expert and find out why such a relatively small country has so many darn regional accents.

I think that's fairly normal. It's true for Austria, too, and used to be for Germany as well. We don't really hone our accents and are supposed to speak standard German in school, though, and I guess that's why accents are now a lot less pronounced than they used to be a few decades ago.
The fact that the US doesn't have as many regional accents might be due to it being a nation of immigrants and relatively young.

I don't really ascribe any malicious intent as far as accents and behavior goes. I just figure a show creator has maybe a minute to get across to the audience that 'This person is from _______.' Unfortunately the easiest way to do that is to fall back on tired old stereotypes.

On the other hand, they sometimes do a great job of getting it right. I felt that supposedly German woman in Waters of Mars really nailed the way many Germans speak English and totally avoided the stereotype. Quite impressive. The German we heard in that message from home was hideous, though. But that's been hit-and-miss on the show, anyway.

 

[Guartho]

And while America certainly has a variety of accents, we don't have a tenth as many regional accents as there are in the UK. How many distinct accents can be heard in the North of England alone? I've even heard it claimed that there's a difference between a North Leeds and a South Leeds accent!

I used to have a damn good Derbyshire accent. It's been far too long now though. I'm sure it's rubbish today.

 

[Sci]

On the other hand, they sometimes do a great job of getting it right. I felt that supposedly German woman in Waters of Mars really nailed the way many Germans speak English and totally avoided the stereotype. Quite impressive.

It probably helps that Cosima Shaw was born and raised in Germany.

 

[Count Zero]

Yeah, probably. I did even check the actress's name in the end titles because it was so authentic but since it wasn't a German name I didn't investigate further.

 

[Davros]

Who remembers the American accent of the star ship captain from Tomb of the Cybermen?

I do! I do!

LOL!

There was also a pretty dire one in Claws of Axos.

And lets not forget The Gunfighters.

Bad accents can be more entertaining than good ones some times.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Y'know I've always wanted to talk to an expert and find out why such a relatively small country has so many darn regional accents.

I think that's fairly normal. It's true for Austria, too, and used to be for Germany as well. We don't really hone our accents and are supposed to speak standard German in school, though, and I guess that's why accents are now a lot less pronounced than they used to be a few decades ago.
The fact that the US doesn't have as many regional accents might be due to it being a nation of immigrants and relatively young.

IIRC, the East Coast has a wide variety of accents but there are less and less as you move west.

 

[captcalhoun]

britain's got a wide variety of accents because of a)being repeatedly invaded in years gone by by the angles, saxons, danes, vikings, romans and normans among others, b) having a lot of villages and towns seperated by geographical features like all them damn hills and c)developing its language from a hodge-podge of others.