Five years. I can't believe I'm still writing this thing! More importantly, I can't believe people are still reading it! I've tried to do something a bit different to celebrate the anniversary every year. Admittedly, I'm running out of ideas! Here's a bit of an opinion piece for this one. It gets you to understand me a bit better.
Having been involved with any number of fan groups over the years has made me some legitimate friends. Familiarity, as always, breeds just a little bit of contempt. Some of these fans who have genuinely gotten to know me a bit have given me a nickname: The Great Contrarian.
It's a suitable title. There are any number of Popular Fan Opinions that I openly disagree with. I don't just feel this way to be contradictory. I genuinely seem to go to the show for very different reasons than a lot of other people do.
There are, of course, some tastes that a lot of fans have that I do actually share. But there are many more that I just can't get my head around. I don't understand why fandom loves the things they do. Here are five of the bigger issues involving Fan Opinion that I don't particularly agree with (one for each year that my blog has existed!)
1: 70s Who Kinda Sucked
Strong words, I know. I will confess: I wanted a title that grabbed your attention.
I don't think Doctor Who in the 1970s is completely horrible. But I do think it is the show at one of its lowest points. Whereas many fans consider this to be the Golden Age of the program.
I think the Jon Pertwee stuff is probably the worst. Season Seven is magnificent and I wish they had continued making the sort of stories we got during that period. But the show became horrifically paint-by-numbers after that. Which always strikes me as some pretty weak writing. And those of you that complain of the "preachiness" of Chibnall-era Who need to go back and watch the Pertwee stuff. We get end-of-story sermons (or even middle-of-the-story or beginning-of-the-story sermons) all over the place. I also didn't enjoy the screeching halts stories came to just so Jon Pertwee could tool around for a bit in a new vehicle he was dying to try out!
Yes, things got considerably better with Doctor Four and the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. But I also think the era is a bit on the overrated side. There were some definite duds that we all seem to try to gloss over. The Android Invasion is one of the worst stories ever (seriously, who wears an eyepatch for three years and never looks under it?!). Aside from Sarah Jane's final scene, Hand of Fear is completely awful, too. But no one seems to want to say this.
Later Tom Baker stuff also seems to go a bit formulaic. The basic formula is that Tom just goes around and takes the piss out of everything he can. Never has the show mocked itself this much. Some of the comedy is legitimately blissful. A lot of it is really bad. Some even offensive (ie: Jewish aliens in Creature from the Pit).
Again, I don't completely despise this decade. But I find it to be pretty weak, overall. I'm a notorious "re-watcher" of the show. DVDs of 70s Who are the ones that go in my player the least.
2. Not All Classics Are Classics
There are certain stories that fans seem to foam at the mouth over. Some I agree with. Others, I'm just not sure what the fuss is about. A few examples:
Caves of Androzani
Considered by many to be the best story of them all. I can agree with about 75% of that opinion. Those first three episodes are amazing. Particularly the cliffhanger of Part Three. But that final episode goes a bit pear-shaped. Right from the first few seconds where the Doctor finally seems to find retro-thrusters or something of that nature (it's never specified) - the "fix" seems pretty anti-climactic. Then we just move in to yet-another end-of-story slaughterfest that we see far-too-often in Seasons Twenty-One and Twenty-Two. I'm sorry, but you can't resolve a plot by just killing off 95% of its characters. You need to actually find a better way to end a story. And, for this reason, I can't quite love Androzani the way other folks do.
Genesis of the Daleks
My God, do fans go nuts over this one! It has a great introduction, I'll admit. It's totally cool when the Doctor meets that Time Lord in dark robes and they talk about how evil Daleks are and all that. But, after that, this story develops a lot of problems very quickly. It's biggest being that it doesn't have enough plot to fill the six episodes. So we get lots of captures-and-escapes. There's the absolute worst cliffhanger resolution in the history of the show (Sarah on the scaff-holding). Davros seems to drone on for ever and ever in places that fans seem to see as "great monologues" but I see more as just padding. Having said that, the Doctor's "Have I the right?" is a great monologue, yes. But after so many bad writing choices, it comes across as too little, too late. I'm sorry folks. But Genesis works far better in theory than it does in execution.
Talons of Weng-Chiang
Here's one that I really don't get. Some of the period drama of the tale is quite entertaining. There's a nice homage to the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. But there's really not much else to this story. For the most part, it's kinda boring. Even the double-act stuff with Jago and Lightfoot seems forced. Again, there's not enough there for six parts. The ending also just seems to peter out. There's a bit of a gunfight and Tom Baker wrestles with an over-sized doll and then it's all over. The yellow-face acting is sooo painful to look at, too. Leela getting wet in a white slip is enjoyable, I suppose. But only to a certain demographic. Otherwise, I actually think this is one of the weaker stories Robert Holmes wrote. I would love to spend a day in the head of a fan who loves this to see what they see. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.
3. Late 80s Who Rocked
It is very sad that Doctor Who died as the 80s reached their conclusion. But I can't agree with those people who claim the show was "at a creative low point" when it went off the air. In fact, I kinda want to punch fans who say that!
We're all aware of the "duds" of the 80s (Timelash, Time and the Rani etc...). But, as I just pointed out about the Hinchliffe period, every era has misfires. Late 80s Who had any number of strong stories and then quite a few amazing ones, too. The ratio of good-to-bad stories is no different from any other era of the show. If fans removed their rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, they would see this quite clearly.
I particularly hate how low poor 'ole Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy end up in the fan rankings because they were the Doctors stuck in those dying days. Both of them brought a great "edge" to their portrayals by exploring some of the darker aspects of the character. McCoy, in particular, nearly transformed into the monsters he was fighting. Giving the Doctor some teeth and making him both vindictive and manipulative are traits that carried over into New Series Doctors. Which speaks volumes of what Colin and Sly achieved.
What I loved best about late 80s Who was how hard it pushed the boundaries of the show and came up with television that was legitimately ahead of its time. Trial of a Time Lord, for instance, was doing one long story that took an entire season to tell way before anyone else was. It is now commonplace for shows to do this. But late 80s Who did it way back in ... well .... the late 80s! And I actually still don't think TV has caught up with the complexities on display during Season 26. A lot of that content required intelligence and sophistication from an audience that just wasn't ready, at the time, to think that deeply. And I'm not just talking about Ghostlight!
So why do some fans like to crap on those last few seasons so much? Well, they do have the right to complain a bit about Season 24 - there were some troubled spots, there (in its defense, there was a behind-the-scenes nightmare going on while it was being made!). But I think many of the complaints of this period have more to do with the fact that fandom works in cycles. Part of these cycles is to eventually become super-critical with a franchise. Don't get me wrong, in some cases, bad content is being made (I'm lookin' at you Disney Star Wars!). But, other times, I really do believe fandom just can't be satisfied. They have suddenly decided that only they know what's best for what they love. Like the only way things could be good is if they made the content themselves! Even though most of them don't work anywhere near the entertainment industry.
Which leads me neatly to....
4. Chibnal-Era Who Also Rocked
I am almost tempted to do an entire entry on how baseless a lot of the criticism of these last two seasons has been (and I just might!). Seriously, a lot of fans are complaining without giving much thought to what it is they're complaining about!
Case in Point: A friend of mine claimed after Praxeus that Chibnall was talking too much about LGBTQ culture. He was referring to the fact that two of the supporting characters in that story were in a same-sex marriage. Admittedly, if you're paying careful attention, you will also notice incidental characters in two other episodes mention they are in relationships with someone of the same gender. Because of this, he feels Chibnall is pushing an agenda too hard.
"You do realize," I responded, "That RTD had a bisexual character who was a companion for a bit and then became a recurring character. And Moff had a lesbian companion for an entire season. Compared to them, Chibnall practically looks like a gay-basher!"
And this is what I keep seeing about this era. You're entitled to your opinion, of course. You're even entitled to express it. But you should also realize that if you're opinion seems stupid - I'm entitled to tell you how dumb you sound! And a lot of what the fans have been complaining about has not been thought out very well before it was expressed.
I actually think Chibnall has done really well with both of his seasons. It made sense to make Series 11 about a lot of small stakes and fairly simple stories. This made the epic quality of Series 12 all the more heightened. And I do legitimately think that Series 12 is one of the best seasons the show has ever made in its entire 38 seasons-and-a-telemovie!
But, again, fandom has moved into the ultra-critical stage. Any recently-produced content is deemed terrible even before it has a chance to be properly watched.Which is sad, of course. Because it probably means the show is going to get laid to rest again.
However, since we're on the topic of unpopular showrunners....
5. JNT Was Probably The Best Showrunner Ever
Technically, of course, his title was "Producer" back when he was in charge. He is, in many ways, the equivalent of a showrunner by modern-day standards. He didn't write any material like RTD, Moff or Chibnall did - but the Creative Buck still stopped at him. Just like the Head Writers of New Who, he was responsible for every second that we saw onscreen. As were any number of other producers before John Nathan Turner that many fans consider to be better.
In my opinion, however, I do really believe he did the best job of running the show. I'm almost reluctant to put this in print since I know so many will think this ludicrous. But JNT was all about trying to do new and different things with the format. Let's remember that I thought a lot of 70s Who was getting very tired. So John Nathan Turner very much came in like a breath of fresh air for me. He immediately got a better budget for the show. Yes, it still looked very cheap, in places. But it looked less very cheap than it had before!
What I liked best about this producer is how he really got out of the way of the writers and let them do their thing. Yes, that allowed Eric Saward to, perhaps, take too many liberties. But it was still cool how much he did his best not to stifle creativity. Instead, he tried to support it as much as he could by finding money and publicity for the show under rocks that most producers would never look. Because he actually understood that his real job was to do exactly that. Let the artists be artists while he took care of the finances.
Was JNT perfect? Of course not! He made bad choices. Every producer did. But, even then, I loved how open he was to admitting to his mistakes. Some of the bad things he believes he did I don't even agree with (ie: Colin's coat is awesome - but JNT has admitted in several interviews that it may have been a wrong move). In many ways, I had great respect for the man for being so open about his fallibility. You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't own up to them.
Of course, what I respect most about John Nathan Turner is how hard he fought for the show as it reached its final seasons. I don't think anyone would have held on as long and hard as he did. Particularly since he wanted to move on to something new but was aware that if he left Who that no one else was probably going to keep it alive. Rather than advance his career, he stayed where he was in an effort to keep breathing life into the series. That's actually quite noble of him.
And yet, he never seems to get the respect he deserves. Do people dislike Hawaiian shirts that much?!
Well, that turned into a bit of a rant! Sometimes, you just gotta get stuff off your chest. What better time to do it than during an anniversary!
Officially, the blog celebrates its anniversary on March 15th. Sorry this entry came a bit late. I've been experiencing some technical difficulties with my server. Hopefully, we can squeeze in one more entry before the month is over. And, if this pandemic continues, I'll have plenty of time for blogging during April!!
Other Anniversary Specials:
First:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/first-anniversary-special-something.html
Second:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/03/second-anniversary-special.html
Third:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/03/book-of-lists-top-5-one-time-only.html
Fourth:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html
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