The Zenith - Summer's Lease Hath All Too Short a Date

[sensiblecat]

We have reached the zenith. Appropriately, here in the Northern Hemisphere it’s the Summer Solstice - we glory in the light and pick ripe fruit and fire up the barbecue, and relax because exams are nearly over - and it’s lovely, and you’d have to be pretty churlish to point out that it’s all downhill from here, back to shorter daylight hours until

Comments

[caz963]

I'm enjoying this series - but like I've said before, it's for reasons that are different to before - and I think I'm filling what I've begun referring to (in my head) as "the emotional void" with timey-wimey plotty stuff.

It's a different show, and that's how I have to think of it - it's the only way I can think of it, really. It's still called Doctor Who and still has a central character called "the Doctpr"... and it's still different.

I completely agree with you about the marketing aspect, too (I used to work in media and PR, so it's something that's really jumped out at me). It also seems to me - although I may be wrong - that there's been a LOT more promotion and advertising going on for this series than in the past, yet the viewing figures are around the same. I don't watch a huge amount of telly though, so I could have missed a lot.

his consort has to worthy of him - cleverer, sneakier, more enigmatic.

Well, that's River, right? ;-)

[toledom]

You know, that's something that stroke me very early on. I remember when The Eleventh Hour premiered for the press many commented how very similar it was to the RTD era, and how they expected a more definitive rupture with the past. And I remember seeing the episode and thinking how it couldn't be different. I stand by the fact that heart and romanticism has become inherent to Doctor Who and Moffat hasn't disappointed me in that, however it is much more abstract and fantasized than RTD's more realistic and concrete approach.

[sensiblecat]

The viewing figures are, if anything, a bit on the low side. It will be explained away by saying people are using iPlayer and so forth, but there is still an increasingly desperate feel about the BBC's promotion. How interested are people, honestly, in Confidential filming Matt and Karen in America 13 weeks ago? And it's starting to cause a backlash in the national press - I think journalists, already irritated by the overkill on David Tennant at Christmas, actually resent being expected to promote what they see as a mediocre product.

Even if DW was the best show in the entire history of the universe, I'd be uncomfortable with the lack of variety in the Radio Times coverage. Surely they ought to be coming up with more than one special show? They get enough of our money, for goodness' sake. In fact, the situation I grew up with on TV has now been reversed. Back then we exported quality drama to the USA and imported their game show formats. Not any more.

[toledom]

Personally, I stopped caring about rating figures in series 2. Back then, I remember being disheartened at seeing Tennant's ratings dwindling down and never able to reach the heights of Series 1. Then I went back to Series 1 ratings and realized how a great series finale such as The Parting of the Ways had ratings way lower than Rose. I had to conclude: #1 Ratings come and go, and apart from the usual dump that comes attached to competition from events such as Britain's Got Talent and a World Cup, are really hard to predict. And #2: the highest overnights do not necessarily go hand in hand with the best episodes. And, as far as I know, the lowest for Doctor Who is still stellar.

[caz963]

The promotional aspect was what Stephen Fry was actually getting at last week, as well - it wasn't an attack on DW, it was about the fact that they only promote one or two shows to that degree - and he was perfectly right about that.
And yes, it does seem that the Beeb have thrown money at the US market this series, which they didn't before. Which is weird, because I'd have thought David was a much more marketable commodity than Matt - but then, I'm biased. *g*

I think the DWCs this season have been very poor, actually. They were often a bit hit and miss, but some of them were really informative - not so this season, really.

Given that the schedules now allow for only one major slot per night - 9-10pm weekdays, you have to wonder where the money is going. I'm a staunch supporter of public funding for the BBC, but I do think that those who argue that it should be using the money to do things that other channels don't make a very good point.