Doctor Who opinions

[Dessa]

A lot of the much earlier seasons of Who were mostly 6 episodes. Thats been a British standard season run for as long as I can remember.
10 episodes is a good run, it'll do for me.

Huh? I just went and counted numbers of episodes, and every season was longer than 6 episodes.

First Doctor had 3 full seasons, which were 42, 39, and 45 episodes long. That's an average of 21 current-length episodes per season.
Season 4 is split between the First and Second Doctors, with them having 8 and 35 episodes, respectively. That's an average of 21.5 current-length episodes.
Second Doctor had 2 more seasons, which were 40 and 44 episodes long. That's an average of 21 current-length episodes per season.
Third Doctor had 5 seasons, which were 25, 25, 26, 26, and 26 episodes long. That's an average of 12.8 current-length episodes per season.
Fourth Doctor had 7 seasons, which were 20, 26, 26, 26, 26, 20, and 28 episodes long. That's an average of 10.4 current-length episodes per season.
Fifth Doctor had 2 full seasons, which were 26 and 22+1 episodes long (the 1 being the 90-minute The Five Doctors). Including The Five Doctors, that's an average of 12.4 current-length episodes per season.
Season 21 is split between the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, with them having 20 and 4 episodes, respectively. That's an average of 12 current-length episodes.
Sixth Doctor had 2 more seasons, which were 13 and 14 episodes each. Season 22 was 45-minute episodes, and 23 went back to 25-minute episodes, making them an average of 10 current-length episodes.
Seventh Doctor had 3 seasons, which were 14 episodes each. That's an average of 7 current-length episodes.

Yeah, I'm not seeing where your "mostly 6 episodes" is coming from. The shortest seasons were 23-26, at 14 25-minute episodes each, but those still come out to 7(ish) current-length episodes. (Of note as well, was that this was the years leading up to the cancellation of the series, which likely is a major factor in the shorter seasons).

 

[mattycsi]

Huh? I just went and counted numbers of episodes, and every season was longer than 6 episodes.

First Doctor had 3 full seasons, which were 42, 39, and 45 episodes long. That's an average of 21 current-length episodes per season.
Season 4 is split between the First and Second Doctors, with them having 8 and 35 episodes, respectively. That's an average of 21.5 current-length episodes.
Second Doctor had 2 more seasons, which were 40 and 44 episodes long. That's an average of 21 current-length episodes per season.
Third Doctor had 5 seasons, which were 25, 25, 26, 26, and 26 episodes long. That's an average of 12.8 current-length episodes per season.
Fourth Doctor had 7 seasons, which were 20, 26, 26, 26, 26, 20, and 28 episodes long. That's an average of 10.4 current-length episodes per season.
Fifth Doctor had 2 full seasons, which were 26 and 22+1 episodes long (the 1 being the 90-minute The Five Doctors). Including The Five Doctors, that's an average of 12.4 current-length episodes per season.
Season 21 is split between the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, with them having 20 and 4 episodes, respectively. That's an average of 12 current-length episodes.
Sixth Doctor had 2 more seasons, which were 13 and 14 episodes each. Season 22 was 45-minute episodes, and 23 went back to 25-minute episodes, making them an average of 10 current-length episodes.
Seventh Doctor had 3 seasons, which were 14 episodes each. That's an average of 7 current-length episodes.

Yeah, I'm not seeing where your "mostly 6 episodes" is coming from. The shortest seasons were 23-26, at 14 25-minute episodes each, but those still come out to 7(ish) current-length episodes. (Of note as well, was that this was the years leading up to the cancellation of the series, which likely is a major factor in the shorter seasons).

You're right, my mistake, I was thinking of the smaller story arcs within the season as a season and getting confused coz most British stuff comes in 6 episode seasons. Its been a long time since I was watching Who.

 

[Jaitea]

It's also worth remembering the classic episodes were in a half our time slot,....so lots of episodes in a story, with lots of cliff-hangers roughly 25 minutes of story

J

 

[Jaitea]

You're right, my mistake, I was thinking of the smaller story arcs within the season as a season and getting confused coz most British stuff comes in 6 episode seasons. Its been a long time since I was watching Who.

We don't call a run of episodes as seasons (we have four of them in a year),....a run of episodes is a series, ha

J

 

[cboath]

Hartnell and Troughton era the short stories were like 6 episodes. I think they each had a 10-12 parter. So, even you have 48 slots in a year, if the average length is 6 episodes, it's all of 8 stories in a year.

American TV these days has abandoned the viewer between the week after thanksgiving and mid January. Everything goes into reruns and stupid holiday stuff. It didn't used to be that way - and there are a handful of shows that still make their way into mid december. But not much anymore. Seasons used to be 24-26 eps into the 90's. The cut to 13-18 has been since 2005 or so.

Stuff used to start up just after Labor day and run til memorial day. Now it's last week of September or into October, done by end of april, early may with a 6 week gap in december and another gap in march.

 

[Richard Baker]

The huge gaps are what is killing shows for me.
There are several I not seen in so long that I have forgotten the cliff hanger last episode, the various connections between the cast- I have even forgotten a lot of the cast...

In the old days (60's-70's) a show would have a season of around 26+ episodes, go into summer reruns and return in the fall. Since VCRs were a long way off the summer reruns allowed you a second chance to see the shows again and when the next season started you were all ready for it. Reruns are very rare now- they recycle the time slot with different programming and try to sell you a DVD box set of the last season.
The first show IIRC that tried the long mid-season hiatus was 'Jericho' and it almost killed the show. It was fairly popular but after being off air for so long when it came back the audience didn't. They cancelled it and people realized what had happened a letter writing campaign brought it back for a while but it was never like it was and died a second time. You would thing the networks would have realized the problem and learned from it, instead the practice spread and is common now.
Watching entertainment should be fun, not a challenge to watch despite how it is broadcast.

 

[Great_Bizarro]

I have been a Dr Who fan since Baker was the Dr. and haven't missed an episode as I have gone back and watched all that still exists. I am loosing interest in the show this season and not sure if it is subpar writing or acting or both. This season is going too pc for me to suffer through and I think the bigest problem is the writing. I am not caring if they have a female Dr if the show is good but it isnt. They are going to be loosing many older viewers if they keep this up.

 

[Laspector]

I dunno what's missing, mainly because it's looking that S11 is gonna be my favorite series overall over S1 and S9. Is it because I'm a younger fan?

How in the world is this S11? Shouldn't this be like season 55 or something like that?

 

[Richard Baker]

I think they restarted the clock when they relaunched the new series with Christopher Eccleston in 2005

 

[AJK001]

This is season 11 of New Who that started in 2005 while everything before 2005 is considered Classic Who. Sort of like Coke and Classic Coke but not as stupid.

 

[Ectropy]

To be a bit pedantic, New Who calls them 'series' and Classic Who called them 'seasons'. Season 11 has Jon Pertwee and Series 11 has Jodie Whittaker.

 

[SawbonesAdmiral]

How in the world is this S11? Shouldn't this be like season 55 or something like that?

Everything until the last Seventh Doctor story is a season, everything from the Ninth onwards is a series.

Classic Who ended on season 26 (or the TV movie depending on who you ask), and Revival Who started on Series 1.

Ask the Brits; they set up the naming convention.

 

[cboath]

This is season 11 of New Who that started in 2005 while everything before 2005 is considered Classic Who. Sort of like Coke and Classic Coke but not as stupid.

But at least Coke wised up after a few years and dumped new coke and went back to just coke

 

[Richard Baker]

IIRC the New Coke was a disaster from the beginning- they re-engineered the flavor to taste more like their rival Pepsi. They dumped New Coke and relabeled the original formula 'Classic Coke', a name they used for many years and only recently stopped using.

My wife cannot stand the original Dr Who shows- The revived series is how she first watched the show and to her the old ones are like soap operas (both in production and acting). I like both, depending on the episode but I fear at times the striving for higher production values and fancy special effects has eclipsed the writing

 

[AJK001]

I like both, depending on the episode but I fear at times the striving for higher production values and fancy special effects has eclipsed the writing

This hits the nail on the head which is also the reason we get so few episodes. From what I've read it only takes then a week or so of filming for each episode and then another month of so for the fancy special effects and what not. This doesn't leave much time to do more than a handful or two of shows each year.

 

[cboath]

IIRC the New Coke was a disaster from the beginning- they re-engineered the flavor to taste more like their rival Pepsi. They dumped New Coke and relabeled the original formula 'Classic Coke', a name they used fo rmany years and only recently stopped using.

My wife cannot stand the original Dr Who shows- The revived series is how she first watched the show and to her the old ones are like soap operas (both in production and acting). I like both, depending on the episode but I fear at times the striving for higher production values and fancy special effects has eclipsed the writing

I've actually heard that it was a publicity stunt. I don't think so, but, who knows.

At the time of the switch Pepsi had made inroads on Coke and was beginning to take over. Coke went the new coke route and people immediately went ballistic. The original formula sold out PDQ leaving just the new. The new failed mightily and people demanded the original back. After what seemed ages, they brought back Coke Classic as it was called to sell along side the new. Classic shot coke right back in the lead by a large margin. Shortly after they dumped new coke all together and Coke has way outsold Pepsi ever since.

So, it was either a great stunt or the most fortuitous @#$% up in the history or retail

 

[Edraven99]

I've actually heard that it was a publicity stunt. I don't think so, but, who knows.

At the time of the switch Pepsi had made inroads on Coke and was beginning to take over. Coke went the new coke route and people immediately went ballistic. The original formula sold out PDQ leaving just the new. The new failed mightily and people demanded the original back. After what seemed ages, they brought back Coke Classic as it was called to sell along side the new. Classic shot coke right back in the lead by a large margin. Shortly after they dumped new coke all together and Coke has way outsold Pepsi ever since.

So, it was either a great stunt or the most fortuitous @#$% up in the history or retail

Coincidentally I was just listening to a marketing podcast about this one the topic of 'Famous Marketing Blunders".

It wasn't a publicity stunt and it wasn't fortuitous because it cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars to stop their New Coke campaign and switch back. And it also wasn't ages... it was 79 days! That's how bad and immediate the negative backlash was! As their CEO said at that time of whether it was a marketing stunt: "The truth is, we aren't that dumb, and we aren't that smart."

Coke has always had a huge market dominance over Pepsi and they switched to New Coke because of a perceived erosion in market share and they did extensive market research before they made the switch. What they didn't anticipate was how much Coke as a brand was loved by the public.

 

[Richard Baker]

When WIndows 8 was released I referred to is as a 'New Coke' of operating systems to some friends and some of them did not know what the 'New Coke' reference was about.

 

[Dessa]

I love how we've gotten off topic into the history of Coke and what British TV seasons are called.

 

[annanake]

RC 4 LIFE !!!

RC and Jelly Bellys !