Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed
- Publication: The Sunday Times
- Date: 2005-03-20
- Author: Sally Kinnes
- Page: Culture, p. 51
- Language: English
Pick of the week
Doctor Who
Saturday, BBC1, 7pm
It is 16 of your earth years since Doctor Who was zapped into television oblivion by an earthling. Michael Grade, now the BBC's chairman, thought it a lot of silly nonsense. As if. Doctor Who is one of the few British sci-fi brands, and you must have been on Gallifrey not to know it is back.
"Russell Davies wanted to write it, and the idea felt magic," says Jane Tranter, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning. You can see what she means. After a string of hits such as Queer as Folk and Bob and Rose. Russell T Davies is one of the preeminent writers on television. He is also a Doctor Who fanatic.
"Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed," says Davies. "That made you join in. You would see a cheap monster and you would have to imagine what it was meant to be." The knowing child, he says. became a sofa-bound television producer, transforming in his (or her) mind shaky plywood into a slick sci-fi experience.
Davies has written Doctor Who for the child he used to be. "If there are eight-year-olds who love it as much as I did and remember it 40 years later, I'll be happy. When you watch something like that as a child it stays with you for ever."
However, this has led to decisions that may upset fans and new viewers. There is, for example, no transformation from the last Doctor to the new one (Christopher Eccleston), which misses a golden opportunity to establish the character.
The series begins on earth, but as we saw in the John Pertwee years, endlessly saving the home counties can be faintly ridiculous. Maybe Tony Blair's terror-struck Britain will get it, but based on the first episode's shop-dummy monsters, do not bank on it.
Most curious of all is the reliance on special effects. We have seen it all before, and what became of Davies's infant producer and the spur to the imagination that only a rubber-suited alien can give? If the show succeeds, none of this will matter. While Eccleston and his new assistant, Billie Piper, show promise, the first episode, like a faulty Tardis, never takes off. Still, there are light years to go, and somebody has to take on Ant and Dec on Saturday evenings. If not the Doctor, who?
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Kinnes, Sally (2005-03-20). Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed. The Sunday Times p. Culture, p. 51.
- MLA 7th ed.: Kinnes, Sally. "Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed." The Sunday Times [add city] 2005-03-20, Culture, p. 51. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Kinnes, Sally. "Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed." The Sunday Times, edition, sec., 2005-03-20
- Turabian: Kinnes, Sally. "Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed." The Sunday Times, 2005-03-20, section, Culture, p. 51 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Whereas_Star_Trek_was_perfect,_Doctor_Who_was_flawed | work=The Sunday Times | pages=Culture, p. 51 | date=2005-03-20 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 December 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Whereas Star Trek was perfect, Doctor Who was flawed | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Whereas_Star_Trek_was_perfect,_Doctor_Who_was_flawed | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 December 2024}}</ref>
