Radio Times/BBC/Spoilsports
Sorting through the paper rack just now, I found a copy of the Radio Times from the week when the first in the new series of Dr Who aired. It featured multiple pages of Dr Who related stuff, including interviews with RTD, David Tennant and Billie Piper, as well as 'previews' of all the episodes for this series. I remember starting to read it, then realising that there were some plot spoilers in there, and so I tucked it away in the paper rack resolving to read it after the series had finished.
I'm so glad I did. The 'previews' gave away pretty much everything that would have been a surprise about every episode and the interview with Davies revealed much of the background story - particularly Mickey's evolvement. God, they even went into detail about the very final episode which would have made the ending very easy to figure out. Bear in mind this was all before the series had even started yet!
I'm all for teasers and hints, but honestly this seemed to map out every little detail of most the stories. If you didn't want to know in advance about Sarah-Jane and K-9 or the return of the Cybermen, tough shit because the Radio Times was determined to tell you anyway. The only thing it didn't mention was the return of the Daleks, but of course the BBC managed to spoil that by featuring a clear dalek extermination in a trailer the week before that episode anyway.
It made me cross that they were happy to publish such huge spoilers. It makes me crosser, though, that such spoilerage is really getting difficult to avoid these days. Ok, so I can consciously choose not to read certain publications or interweb sites, but then the BBC insist on sticking trailers on every five minutes and I'm not always quick enough to grab the remote and switch off before the contents of next week's episode have been shown. I'm not sure why this winds me up so much, I guess I just enjoy the element of surprise you used to get once upon a time in TV shows, and that seems to be non-existent these days.
Anyway, I've decided that for the duration of next year's series of Dr Who I shan't be buying the Radio Times or reading LJ!
I'm so glad I did. The 'previews' gave away pretty much everything that would have been a surprise about every episode and the interview with Davies revealed much of the background story - particularly Mickey's evolvement. God, they even went into detail about the very final episode which would have made the ending very easy to figure out. Bear in mind this was all before the series had even started yet!
I'm all for teasers and hints, but honestly this seemed to map out every little detail of most the stories. If you didn't want to know in advance about Sarah-Jane and K-9 or the return of the Cybermen, tough shit because the Radio Times was determined to tell you anyway. The only thing it didn't mention was the return of the Daleks, but of course the BBC managed to spoil that by featuring a clear dalek extermination in a trailer the week before that episode anyway.
It made me cross that they were happy to publish such huge spoilers. It makes me crosser, though, that such spoilerage is really getting difficult to avoid these days. Ok, so I can consciously choose not to read certain publications or interweb sites, but then the BBC insist on sticking trailers on every five minutes and I'm not always quick enough to grab the remote and switch off before the contents of next week's episode have been shown. I'm not sure why this winds me up so much, I guess I just enjoy the element of surprise you used to get once upon a time in TV shows, and that seems to be non-existent these days.
Anyway, I've decided that for the duration of next year's series of Dr Who I shan't be buying the Radio Times or reading LJ!