A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away

British fans discuss about the possibility of an American Doctor Who

• Meanwhile, the BBC has confirmed that it is in negotiations ... (4 November 1993)
• The Doctor with an American accent — you've got to be kidding! (11 November 1993)
• What a hullabaWho! | Treat the Doctor with due respect (18 November 1993)
• Too much 'hullabaWho' for true fans (2 December 1993)
• A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away (9 December 1993)
• Good and bad times with the Time Lord (16 December 1993)
• These are our demands--Who has the answers? (3 March 1994)

• http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/3/3d/1993-12-09_Stage_and_Television_Today.jpg

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• Publication: The Stage and Television Today
• Date: 1993-12-09
• Author: Simon Ellis
• Page: 11
• Language: English

SIR One of the things that irritates me about the Doctor Who debate is the way people will keep talking about how US money, such as from any Spielberg deal, would enable the series to compete with US Science fiction shows (like Star Trek, Seaquest, etc).

If Doctor Who ever returns (and how likely is this now?), it must, as David J Howe rightly said, "grow up" - it has to be an adult drama series. Special effects do not necessarily play a part in this.

Television executives, and too many critics, seem to think that all SF is about laser guns and bug-eyed monsters. But good SF, be it on television or in books, is about people - human beings, remember them? - in extreme situations, and how they react to them.

The superb Quatermass serials of the fifties had little in the way of special effects, but they had something much better: Good Writing.

Good writing, coupled with good acting, is what is important. Casualty, The Bill and London's Burning are not successes because of their special effects, but because they are the best written and best acted television shows currently screened in the UK.

When Doctor Who started, effects were usually simple and low key - the budget alone stopped anything too ambitious. So the show had to rely on good writing and, usually, good acting. Unfortunately, in the eighties, the obsession with effects destroyed this - and the show became very poor indeed. Some fans would like to blame Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell for the show's demise, but in fact the reason so few people could be bothered to watch, myself included, was that the stories (with a few exceptions) were crap. It's as simple as that.

So, forget the special effects - Spielberg's own Jurassic Park may have the greatest special effects ever seen, but as a story it isn't very good. What Doctor Who needs is good writing, good acting - and Drama, with a capital D. For in these things are found the heart of all good television - not in video toasters, and paintboxes.

Simon Ellis

Member of the TWU

Cefn-Mawr

Wrecsam-Maelor

Clwyd

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• APA 6th ed.: Ellis, Simon (1993-12-09). A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away. The Stage and Television Today p. 11.
• MLA 7th ed.: Ellis, Simon. "A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away." The Stage and Television Today [add city] 1993-12-09, 11. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Ellis, Simon. "A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away." The Stage and Television Today, edition, sec., 1993-12-09
• Turabian: Ellis, Simon. "A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away." The Stage and Television Today, 1993-12-09, section, 11 edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/A_rotten_script_a_day_keeps_the_Doctor_away | work=The Stage and Television Today | pages=11 | date=1993-12-09 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=18 April 2025 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=A rotten script a day keeps the Doctor away | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/A_rotten_script_a_day_keeps_the_Doctor_away | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=18 April 2025}}</ref>