Is nuWho too complicated for newbies?

[Ghost Bones]

If you think Doctor Who is too complicated to understand, then you probably shouldn't be watching it to begin with.

Well it's not that is it, it's that it requires too much prior knowledge of what's happened in it before to be easily accessible to new viewers.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Aside from River, I don't think there's anything all that complicated right now. River probably deserves watching the River episodes (maybe not the Angel two-parter, I suppose it isn't necessary).

 

[Brent]

I can't speak for your sister, only myself, but as an American I did not grow up with Doctor Who (plus I was born during the time it was in its hiatus anyways, wasn't alive during it's original run), but I might have seen a re-run ep or two as a kid on PBS, but I had no idea what it was or the back story it had.

I honestly did not really introduced to it until nuWho. I liked what I saw, so I made every effort to learn all about the original run of the show. I was lucky to meet someone at a LANNING event who had all the episodes of the original series, including the audio's and whatnot from the lost episodes. So thanks to that wonderful person, I was able to watch all the old episodes of every Doctor, up to the new series. So I have a good grasp on what Doctor Who is all about, and how it all works. I have to say, comparing nuWho to the old series is a bit more "whacky" and all over the place, it's faster paced that's for sure especially under Moffat. But I'm still able to grasp what is going on, but there has been some really big arcs that were just never that big in the old series. I mean, destroying the whole universe and re-birthing it, that's just really out there. Of course then I am reminded of the old serial where basically the Doctor started the Big Bang in the first place But definitely things move at a faster pace now, than they did then. But also remember the serials of the old series lasted several episodes, so they were longer and more drawn out. I kinda look at the original series like it is more relaxed, and the new series is amped up more, faster paced, on adrenaline.

 

[MacLeod]

Doctor Who's overall plot is quite simple, but the individual episodes are bogged down with a pretty bad case of Continuity Lockout. Hopefully next season will start off with a focus on attracting new viewers.

DW isn't exactly losing viewers at a fast rate of knots. It's usually the most watched Drama show in the UK. Sure the BBC would love to have more viewers (what TV station doesn't) but the ratings are still healthy.

A quick look at some of the ratings for DW show on average it looks like the viewing figure is in the 7-8m mark. Based on the overnight figure for "Asylum.... " and the fact that DW usually gets a strong time delayed viewing figure boost it looks like the final figure will easily be within the average viewer mark.

 

[Phily B]

start with series 1 rather than the eleventh doctor

RTD Who was designed to introduce viewers to the character and concepts

 

[Iamnotspock]

Just throwing this out there; Has Doctor Who got too complicated?

Also, from another interview;

How is Doctor Who seen by the BBC these days?

“I think all of us as fans probably don’t appreciate just how utterly loved Doctor Who is at the BBC, because no show performs like Doctor Who. Alright, there are shows that do slightly better, but not after this number of years, and not shows that sell all over the world. Think how many people have now seen ‘Rose’, that first Christopher Eccleston episode. Never mind who saw it in the first week, or even the first year. People are still watching that for the first time. Just imagine if we were able to add up everybody who eventually, over a period of years, watches an individual episode of Doctor Who, which unlike The X-Factor, unlike EastEnders, unlike any of those shows, continues to exist on your shelf. We’d be the biggest show in the country. One of the biggest shows in the world. If they measured book sales this way we’d be saying, ‘Well, it only counts if it sells on the day!’ Doctor Who carries on gaining new viewers. I’d love to know what percentage of Britain has now seen Christopher Eccleston’s first episode, say, or David Tennant’s first episode. I’m sure it’s way, way over half. That’s what we don’t quite appreciate, especially as television is going to change and we’ll be more like publishers than broadcasters, because the time of transmission is now just the date of publication, isn’t it? You know you can catch it on iPlayer, on iTunes, you know you can see it later… There’s no impetus, or not the same impetus, to see it at the time. And that’s the world in which Doctor Who will triumph. Which is why I got so ratty at the time they were saying our ratings were down when they weren’t. I remember yelling at some journalist, which I shouldn’t have done, saying do you even know that iPlayer isn’t counted in the ratings? You know there’s a whole 2 – 2 ½ million we’re not even allowed to mention, in typical BBC style. The only absolutely verified members of the audience, the only ones who are definitely there, aren’t counted in the ratings! We just use the big guess. But anyway, that’s me ranting on…”

 

[intrinsical]

Steven Moffat is keenly aware that The Doctor's mythology has gotten too complex and has been undoing a lot of changes that have been introduced over the past 6-7 years.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Lets be entirely serious here.

Less complex means idiot friendly.

Does that sound like a reward for being so studious?

 

[PorthosShadow]

Lets be entirely serious here.

Less complex means idiot friendly.

Does that sound like a reward for being so studious?

I wouldn't put it that way but that's what I was thinking. I'm sick and or tired of TV shows being dumbed down for people who are too lazy to go back and learn something about the mythology. As I wrote earlier in this thread, look it up. If the mythology is too complex for you then try American Idol. That should be right at your IQ level.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Well. I'll admit getting a bit lost in all the crack/silence/River/astronaut/eyepatch/etc/etc stuff and I'm not sure how much of it has really been fully answered and addressed.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well. I'll admit getting a bit lost in all the crack/silence/River/astronaut/eyepatch/etc/etc stuff and I'm not sure how much of it has really been fully answered and addressed.

That stuff made a whole lot more sense to me the second time around. The story still isn't over, though.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well. I'll admit getting a bit lost in all the crack/silence/River/astronaut/eyepatch/etc/etc stuff and I'm not sure how much of it has really been fully answered and addressed.

Cracks = The TARDIS blew up just right to "shatter" the universe throughout all time and space. effect preceded and acceded cause.

Astronauts = the Silents forced a series of events (the space program) so that mankind would invent a scuba suit for them. This is what man came up with.

Eyepatch = Eyedrive. A lens that acts as external storage for your brain which retains information about the Silents for as long as you wearing it.

Etc = Fish taco

Etc = the Silence = religious order vs. The Silents = memory proof aliens. (BAH!) The Silents are members of the Silence.

 

[Cutter John]

I've gotten lost a time or two, for example during the Silence storyline, but I eventually figured out the basics after some thought, and perhaps a second or third viewing. Though I'm still a bit lost when it comes to River's timeline.

In the end though, I agree with what someone said earlier. I'll take a show that I have to think about over one that handholds me through the plot any day.

 

[Methos]

found it all pretty simple honestly...

So far we've had storylines stretching at most, 13 episodes or so... while that might be long or complicated for a modern audience, i've had no problems following it or understanding any of the storylines...

people complaining about Doctor Who story arcs being too long... pft... remember the 70's and 80's episodes? One story was between 4 to 6 episodes long... and an arc... Well, The Key to Time arc covered:

The Ribos Operation - 4 Episodes for one story
The Pirate Planet - 4 Episodes for one story
The Stones of Blood - 4 Episodes for one story
The Androids of Tara - 4 Episodes for one story
The Power of Kroll - 4 Episodes for one story
The Armageddon Factor - 6 Episodes for one story

And that was just one story arc... 26 episodes, so 2 new seasons worth of episodes, all continuing on from each other in one storyline... that was enjoyable and well written Who

M

 

[DWF]

The Key To Time was a good storyline but then nobody liked the idea of a season long stor arc at least they had the benefit of two those stories being written by Robert Holmes. But on the new show River's story arc was stretched out over four years, she'd be a hard character for a newbie to understand at least to me.

 

[Sindatur]

The Key To Time was a good storyline but then nobody liked the idea of a season long stor arc at least they had the benefit of two those stories being written by Robert Holmes. But on the new show River's story arc was stretched out over four years, she'd be a hard character for a newbie to understand at least to me.

Eh, how do you explain The Master, who has a much, much longer Arc? Or Time Lords and Gallifrey? Or the Evolution of the Daleks. There's a rich history throughout, that could be summed up in a sentence or two, or could be discussed for an hour

 

[DWF]

The Key To Time was a good storyline but then nobody liked the idea of a season long stor arc at least they had the benefit of two those stories being written by Robert Holmes. But on the new show River's story arc was stretched out over four years, she'd be a hard character for a newbie to understand at least to me.

Eh, how do you explain The Master, who has a much, much longer Arc? Or Time Lords and Gallifrey? Or the Evolution of the Daleks. There's a rich history throughout, that could be summed up in a sentence or two, or could be discussed for an hour

Outside of the Master trilogy I'd hardly call any of those storyarcs. But with River it was known that she'd gone to prison for murder and it wasn't til the end of the last season that we learned the how and why. But with River since we didn't know much about her ourselves she was hard to understand while they were filling out her storyline to try and explain it to somebody else.

 

[wamdue]

Cant speak for the majority, but I was in the office on Monday, and a couple of the women I work with said they stopped watching "Asylum of the Daleks" as they found it confusing.

FFS the episode was not a confusing watch, I saved my review and comments for the people in the office who did watch the whole thing.

 

[MacLeod]

The Key To Time was a good storyline but then nobody liked the idea of a season long stor arc at least they had the benefit of two those stories being written by Robert Holmes. But on the new show River's story arc was stretched out over four years, she'd be a hard character for a newbie to understand at least to me.

Eh, how do you explain The Master, who has a much, much longer Arc? Or Time Lords and Gallifrey? Or the Evolution of the Daleks. There's a rich history throughout, that could be summed up in a sentence or two, or could be discussed for an hour

Agreed.

The Key To Time was a good storyline but then nobody liked the idea of a season long stor arc at least they had the benefit of two those stories being written by Robert Holmes. But on the new show River's story arc was stretched out over four years, she'd be a hard character for a newbie to understand at least to me.

With regards to character arcs, to draw an anology. It's not the writers fault if you start reading a book in the middle and not at the start of the book.

It's not like DW isn't on near constant re-runs on either BBC Three and/or Watch. So

 

[DWF]

If a newbie finds the show too complicated I can't see them watching the repeats. One of the nice things about the old show's format was that they started a new story every few weeks and you didn't need to keep up an entire season.