TV budget perspectives
Star Trek started in 1966, and had an approximate budget of $180,000 USD per 50 minute episode. Exchange rates from around that period (give or take six months) bring that out at about £75,000 GBP.
Around the same time Doctor Who had an approximate budget of £2,600 per 25 minute episode, or £5,200 per 50 minutes of television. Basically, for the cost of one episode of Star Trek in 1966, we could get 28 episodes of Doctor Who, roughly two-thirds of a season.
Put another way, the entire budget from one episode of Doctor Who in 1966 would have given us 1 minute and 51 seconds worth of Star Trek.
People say old Doctor Who was cheap looking, and it was, because it had a tiny, tiny budget. But much as I like Star Trek, for all the money spent on it, how often did we get large alien creatures that would be the equivalent of things like the Daleks, Zarbi, Mechanoids, Menoptra, Cybermen, War Machines, etc.? How many episodes of Trek were set entirely aboard the ship?
To bring it a little more up to date, Star Trek - The Next Generation cost an average of $1,400,000 USD per 44 minute episode in 1987. Exchange rates from around that period make that to be around £865,000 GBP. A 14 episode season of Doctor Who in 1987 cost around £1,500,000. So for 2 episodes of STNG we could have an entire season of DW, with a slightly bigger budget. And again, many STNG episodes were set aboard the ship.
Thoughts? Discussions? Rants?
(This info has been pieced together from various sources. If you notice any errors, or have more info, please let me know. Would very much like to compare New Doctor Who and Enterprise if someone can find me the budget details.