Spoilers Doctor Who 2024 (spoilers)

[Morrus]

I think this is worth emphasizing, and I hope this becomes something the Doctor - either of them - has to do something about or take responsibility for. He's made everything at least twice as hard for UNIT, for example.

Not just UNIT. The universe

 

[Hussar]

I think The Devil's Chord would have been better as a multi-episode story. It felt rushed.
Also I wanted an actual Villain Song for The Maestro.

I'm just rewatching The Devil's Chord and it really does bear up well on rewatch. Some really interesting bits in it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think The Devil's Chord would have been better as a multi-episode story. It felt rushed.
Also I wanted an actual Villain Song for The Maestro.

I thought it was a bit thin on story even for its runtime. I’m going to borrow the Tardis to travel back and prevent the musical episode of Buffy being filmed. It has a lot to answer for.

 

[Necropolitan]

I thought it was a bit thin on story even for its runtime. I’m going to borrow the Tardis to travel back and prevent the musical episode of Buffy being filmed. It has a lot to answer for.

It was exposition-heavy because it had to cram everything into one episode and that meant it didn't have much room for the actual story. I think it could have had a proper story if it had more than one episode to get through everything and more showing rather than telling.

 

[Hussar]

I’d agree there. The really short seasons can be a bit rushed. I kinda long for the longer seasons.

 

[Necropolitan]

I’d agree there. The really short seasons can be a bit rushed. I kinda long for the longer seasons.

I think the focus on episodic stories is an issue. Back when Doctor Who stories were 3 or more episodes long there was actually time to develop things and you could have subtext rather than rushing through exposition.

 

[Hussar]

I think the focus on episodic stories is an issue. Back when Doctor Who stories were 3 or more episodes long there was actually time to develop things and you could have subtext rather than rushing through exposition.

There’s a happy medium to be found I think. Two eps is enough for most stories. Three is long. That’s a lot of running scenes.

But yeah some of my favourite new who stories have been two parters.

 

[Ryujin]

I think the focus on episodic stories is an issue. Back when Doctor Who stories were 3 or more episodes long there was actually time to develop things and you could have subtext rather than rushing through exposition.

Back then they were running almost 1/2 hour episodes, but 24+ a season. When you consider each one needed to end on a cliffhanger there really wasn't a lot more actual story development. Maybe a couple of modern episodes worth? Enough not to feel quite as rushed, for sure.

 

[Necropolitan]

Back then they were running almost 1/2 hour episodes, but 24+ a season. When you consider each one needed to end on a cliffhanger there really wasn't a lot more actual story development. Maybe a couple of modern episodes worth? Enough not to feel quite as rushed, for sure.

You couldn't do The Happiness Patrol in one episode. And Ghost Light suffered for being an episode short.

 

[overgeeked]

Back then they were running almost 1/2 hour episodes, but 24+ a season. When you consider each one needed to end on a cliffhanger there really wasn't a lot more actual story development. Maybe a couple of modern episodes worth? Enough not to feel quite as rushed, for sure.

Yeah. They experimented with 1- or 2-part 45-minute episodes in the Colin Baker era, but otherwise the show was 22-minute episodes in anywhere from 2- to 10-episode stories.

The cliffhanger format really messed with the amount of story they could tell in any episode. They lost the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes from most episodes setting up a lame cliffhanger then coming out of the lame cliffhanger. I think the worst is still Sylvester McCoy's Dragonfire. One episode he's dangling from a cliff by his umbrella and the next he looks down to realize there's a ledge just off camera.

Give me the "rushed" modern 45-minute format over that all day every day.

You couldn't do The Happiness Patrol in one episode. And Ghost Light suffered for being an episode short.

You could. You'd just lose a few minutes of real story. Maybe something non-essential like the Kandy Man.