Trek Is Dormant When Doctor Who Is Active and Vice Versa

[lordbaltimore1]

Here's a pretty odd phenomenon:

As a general rule, Doctor Who and Trek have rarely both been running active TV shows at the same time. And even if they were, one was usually on the decline in popularity or on its way out.

Obviously, Doctor Who predated TOS, and they ran together for a few years in the late 60s. However, that period -- while critically acclaimed now with the second Doctor -- was a time of vastly declining ratings for Doctor Who and the show almost got canceled around the same time that TOS was pulled off the air. You could almost say that both shows were limplng along simultaneously.

Once TOS went off the air, Doctor Who almost immediately had a huge revitalization with John Pertwee and remained hugely popular for several years right up to about the time the TOS movies started and then slowly began to decline. By the time TNG debuted, Doctor Who was basically on its deathbed in terms of ratings once again (although the Cartmel era is highly regarded critically and by fans), and this time was canceled just at about the time TNG was really heating up. Then it was all Trek and almost zero Doctor for the entire 90s and the first half of the aughts, until nu-Who came along right after Enterprise was taken off the air. Since then, it's been all Who and just a few Trek movies without any new TV (and I would consider the Abrams movies fun but not canon and therefore not really the same as the TOS/TNG movies and previous trek series).

Anyway, it's been a fairly fascinating phenomenon, and it makes me wonder if there would ever be enough bandwidth for a firing-on-all-cylinders Star Trek TV series and Doctor Who to both exist and be hugely popular concurrently.

 

[Takeru]

... and I would consider the Abrams movies fun but not canon ...

They're canon, period.

 

[Disco]

Yeah dude they're canon so the phenomenon isn't real

 

[Rarewolf]

Here's a pretty odd phenomenon:

As a general rule, Doctor Who and Trek have rarely both been running active TV shows at the same time. And even if they were, one was usually on the decline in popularity or on its way out.

Obviously, Doctor Who predated TOS, and they ran together for a few years in the late 60s. However, that period -- while critically acclaimed now with the second Doctor -- was a time of vastly declining ratings for Doctor Who and the show almost got canceled around the same time that TOS was pulled off the air.

Trek made it's UK debut the week after Troughton's last episode, it was it's replacement.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yeah, a few of us have picked up on this before. It even still comes into effect, even now with the Abrams movies. Trek XI came out in 2009, during Tennant's gap year. STID came out the same weekend Name of the Doctor (season 7 finale) aired, essentially a Who-to-Trek handoff. And if the rumours are true, next year when Beyond comes out Doctor Who will be in some sort of gap year or at the very least a hiatus until a very late season premiere.

 

[lordbaltimore1]

Yeah dude they're canon so the phenomenon isn't real

Whether or not you consider them canon, the movies are a different animal than a running TV series. I'm not really counting the TOS movies in this analysis either.

 

[MacLeod]

Well one thing to bear in mind is that DW ran from 1963-1989 a period of 26 years often in a Prime Time slot, most shows tend to lose viewers over time. TNG also didn't start to air in the UK until 1990 the year after DW was put on indefinate hiatus.

And aside from a certain amount of viewer apathy, the control of BBC1 hated Sci-Fi and DW in general, and moved DW to compete against the most popular TV show on the principal rival station ITV Coronation Street. And to be fair I think DW did hold it's own in that slot and was rec ieved the best ratings for any BBC show in that slot.

We were also in the era of VHS, no catch-up TV so none of this Day+7 viewings to determine final ratings, many households sill only had 1 TV.

And there was no Tennat gap year, we had several specials in 2009 so DW was still on the air.



The End of Time, Part I - 3rd most watched BBC show of the week (7th most watched show of the year all channels)

Waters of Mars - 2nd most watched BBC show of the week

Planet of the Dead - 2nd most watched BBC show of the week

 

[The Wormhole]

And there was no Tennat gap year, we had several specials in 2009 so DW was still on the air.

"The Gap Year" was the unofficial name fandom bestowed on 2009, even when the plans for it were first made public back in 2007. Whether or not it's a 100% accurate label is completely irrelevant, it's just convenient short hand to use. Especially since the 2009 specials don't strictly count as a season, on the surface there appears to be a gap between season 4 in 2008 and season 5 in 2010.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

The "gap" year is a stupid name. By all means, the Specials from The Next Doctor to End of Time are the real series 5, with 5 being 6 and so on. At the very least, call it Series 4B, since that it is, surely. Its sold seperately as a set, and its not considered part of the series 4 narrative, whose natural series finale was the Stolen Earth three-parter.

The rest of it is nonsense.

 

[The Wormhole]

At the very least, call it Series 4B, since that it is, surely. Its sold seperately as a set, and its not considered part of the series 4 narrative, whose natural series finale was the Stolen Earth three-parter.

Well, the specials did use season 4 production codes, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Sindatur]

The "gap" year is a stupid name. By all means, the Specials from The Next Doctor to End of Time are the real series 5, with 5 being 6 and so on. At the very least, call it Series 4B, since that it is, surely. Its sold seperately as a set, and its not considered part of the series 4 narrative, whose natural series finale was the Stolen Earth three-parter.

The rest of it is nonsense.

At the very least, call it Series 4B, since that it is, surely. Its sold seperately as a set, and its not considered part of the series 4 narrative, whose natural series finale was the Stolen Earth three-parter.

Well, the specials did use season 4 production codes, for whatever that's worth.

Yea, The Specials are often listed as Season 4 *One example is IMDB

 

[Aldo]

Netflix also includes the Specials as part of series 4. Interestingly enough it looks like Netflix is going to include "Last Christmas with series 9"

 

[Turtletrekker]

I noticed that! WTF?

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

What do you mean? They've always listed the Christmas specials with the next year's series. The only times that didn't happen was with End of Time and Time of the Doctor, which were part of series 4B and 7 respectively (though, the latter was not packaged with 7, granted, it wasn't packaged with 8, either, so...).

And while its true that series 4B has production numbers from series 4, that still doesn't mean that series 4 wasn't the intended series that it was. The Stolen Earth three parter is still regarded as the series 4 finale - not End of Time. The Specials were definitely their own thing, narratively seperate from series 4.

 

[Rarewolf]

And while its true that series 4B has production numbers from series 4, that still doesn't mean that series 4 wasn't the intended series that it was. The Stolen Earth three parter is still regarded as the series 4 finale - not End of Time. The Specials were definitely their own thing, narratively seperate from series 4.

Yeap, they even made the leap to HD during the specials. The BD and Soundtrack call them the Series 4 specials.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

The point is that there was still less Doctor Who in 2009 than usual. The same could be said for 2013, when Star Trek Into Darkness came out. We only got 10 episodes that year instead of the usual 13-14.

And then there was the 1996 Paul McGann movie, which was supposed to be the backdoor pilot for a new, American produced Doctor Who TV series. Instead, the series was strangled in its infancy. And no wonder! 1994-'96 was one of the great peaks of Star Trek's popularity. DS9 & Voyager were both running strong. First Contact was so popular that even my non-Trekkie friends were raving about it. William Shatner & Patrick Stewart even appeared on the cover of Time Magazine promoting Generations.

It's an odd but documentable phenomenon that must be investigated further by science!

 

[The Wormhole]

The point is that there was still less Doctor Who in 2009 than usual. The same could be said for 2013, when Star Trek Into Darkness came out. We only got 10 episodes that year instead of the usual 13-14.

And if the rumours are true, there's going to be less Doctor Who next year as Star Trek Beyond is released.

Also of note, Trek XI was released during the seven month gap between Planet of the Dead and Waters of Mars, the longest gap between episodes on RTD's watch. Even STID was released just as Doctor Who began a six month gap between Name and Day of the Doctor. Beyond may well be released between the longest gap yet between episodes of the modern era.

 

[Timewalker]

And then there was the 1996 Paul McGann movie, which was supposed to be the backdoor pilot for a new, American produced Doctor Who TV series. Instead, the series was strangled in its infancy. And no wonder! 1994-'96 was one of the great peaks of Star Trek's popularity.

I don't think you can blame the 1996 movie's lack of popularity on Star Trek. Paul McGann's performance was wonderful, but the story itself was, for the most part, ridiculous, and Eric Roberts was horribly miscast as the Master.