Doctor Who Season 6 (SPOILERS :p)

[Morrus]

You mean post-Troughton, I assume?

What, 40 years ago?

If you wanna go back to 60s TV, be my guest! I'm pretty happy with the modern incarnation.

 

[MerricB]

It's a sci-fi show about aliens. That's never gonna change. It'll *always* be aliens.

Not always.

Sometimes they're terrestrials (The Silurians, The Sea Devils).
Sometimes they're created by mad scientists (Inferno, The Underwater Menace, The Green Death, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Robot).



Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

You mean post-Troughton, I assume?

It's far more post-Hartnell. There's one historical in Troughton's era, and it's his second story (The Highlanders).

Hartnell stories break down as follows:
* Historicals: 10
* Historical with alien influence: 1 (The Meddling Monk)
* Alien Planet/Future Earth: 16
* Modern Day: 2 (Planet of Giants, War Machines)

Troughton Stories break down as follows:
* Historicals: 1
* Modern Day: 6
* Alien Planet/Future Earth: 14

The Modern Day one is difficult: How do you group "Abominable Snowmen" or "Evil of the Daleks"? In the end, I've gone for Modern Day, as they're not strictly "Historical with alien influences".

Pertwee Stories...
* Historicals: 0
* Historicals with Alien Influences: 1 (Time Warrior)
* Modern Day: 15
* Alien Planet/Future Earth: 8

(Few mixes here: Three Doctors, Time Monster, Day of the Daleks, Planet of the Spiders, which I've lumped into "Modern Day")

Tom Baker Stories...
* Historicals: 0
* Historicals with Alien Influences: 4 (Pyramids of Mars, Talons of Weng-Chiang, Mask of Mandragora, Horror of Fang Rock)
* Modern Day: 8
* Alien Planet/Future Earth: 29

Peter Davison Stories:
* Historicals: 1 (Black Orchid)
* Historicals with Alien Influences: 3 (The Visitation, The Awakening, King's Demons)
* Modern Day: 1 (Mawdryn Undead)
* Other Stuff: 15

I'm using "Other Stuff" due to stories like Arc of Infinity, Four To Doomsday and Time-Flight.

Colin Baker stories:
* Historicals: 0
* Historicals with Alien Influences: 1 (Mark of the Rani)
* Modern Day: 2 (Attack of the Cyberman. Sort of. And The Two Doctors).
* Other Stuff: the rest. Err... 8?

Sylvester McCoy stories:
* Historicals: 0
* Historicals with Alien Influences: 4 (Ghost Light, Remembrance of the Daleks, Delta and the Bannermen, The Curse of Fenric)
* Modern Day: 2 (Survival, Battlefield, Silver Nemesis)
* Other Stuff: 5

A couple of the historicals (daleks, delta) are almost modern day!

Cheers!

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Now that was indepth. Nice work.

Doctor Who originally started out as a Historical show aimed at kids. By letting people from out time witness past events. However as soon as the first Dalek story hit, from then on the whole premise of the series changed. THen you get Kit Pedler, the shows doctor/scientific advisor who introduces the Cybermen because he was interested in the whole.. quite groundbreaking idea of replacement organs etc.

And on Doctor Who went. You wouldnt see a Historical story after the 2nd Doctor Era without an 'Alien' influence, until Black Orchid a LOOONG time later.


I honest dont think we will see another one again in Doctor Who.

 

[Fast Learner]

Historical episodes -- and shows in general -- had the massive advantage of being able to use the giant BBC closets full of historical costumes and, to a certain extent, the existing sets and historically-preserved nearby locations. Saves a ton of money, making it easier to launch shows.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Removed

 

[Herschel]

Doctor Who originally started out as a Historical show aimed at kids.

This is only a small portion of the "truth". It was designed and launched as a Science Fiction series about a time traveller with the intention of using historical settings at times to teach a bit of history while raising interest in history. The current and future sets were there to teach a bit of and encourage interest in science.

The Daleks were, essentially, the second story so it's pretty hard to hold the position that it was supposed to be a history-based series.

 

[Richards]

Yeah, it wasn't coincidence that Ian and Barbara were Susan's science and history teachers from school, after all.

Johnathan

 

[Tyranthraxus]

I did mention that the original premise was the Historical show. The Dalek story complete changed this premise.

 

[Richards]

Actually, I believe the original plan was that there was going to be pretty much a 50/50 split between story lines that took place in Earth's past (and would teach history to kids) and those that took place in the future (and would teach science to kids) - hence Susan's science teacher as well as her history teacher being the first two companions to the Doctor. The first story took place in Earth's prehistory, and did pretty well. The second story took place on the planet Skaro and featured the Daleks, and the ratings went through the roof. And thereafter, while there was the occasional historical story, the science fiction/scary alien stories jumped to the forefront.

Johnathan