Dr Who New Year's Special has the lowest ratings for 17 years

[clearspira]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... s-ago.html

Its official: no one is watching this crap.

Dr Who pulled in just 3.4 million viewers on NY, down from 9 million in 2018. And that, BTW, is during the unofficial Covid lockdown in the UK where clubs and restaurants are lying bare because no one is risking going out and catching Omicron or cannot be bothered getting a Covid test.
Or in other words, in an era where people are sitting in their front rooms doing nothing, they STILL didn't feel like watching Dr Who.

I liked this bit the most: The Telegraph reported at the beginning of the year that episodes were drawing in fewer than 5million viewers. The paper added that such numbers are 'not dissimilar to when the show was axed in 1989'.

Russell T Davies is the last shot for this franchise. The BBC licence fee is being slashed and the cost of each episode of Dr Who is going up. If he doesn't retcon the last few series and kick all of the preaching to the kerb then that's it. We'll see immediately by who their next choice of Doctor is.

[hammerofglass]

I feel like if you're relying on Russell T Davies of all people to not put progressive social messages in his work you should probably just give up now.

I actually haven't watched the show for years though, not going to make any kind of defense of it.

[Frustration]

'Progressive' ideas aren't a problem. Some of the relevant problems are: preaching, and stupid ideas. The primary reason 'wokeness' and 'Social Justice Warrior' and similar terms are used as insults is that people utterly confident in their own righteousness go about condemning others without having the slightest bit of thought behind their position or any principle other than conformity to convention motivating them.

Intelligently presented concepts that are worked into a story rather than displacing it earn my approval, even if I don't agree with them. Especially if I don't agree with them, because I love a good argument and I'm not looking to have my own ideas parroted back at me. I might even change my mind if I'm convinced the arguments are correct. But when the ideas are foolish, badly-presented, and get in the way of a good story, I have no patience for them.

It seems to me that the critical factor in the last few seasons of Doctor Who has been shoddy storytelling that resembled fairy tales more than science fiction. (And I love fairy tales, just not in my SF.) Bad writing is why I've given up on the show; historically people forgave all the dodgy special effects and things when the writing was excellent. Now we have great special effects and awful writing. It's like putting delicious icing on rotten roadkill.

[Frustration]

Additional: I didn't give up on the show lightly. I've been a fan for a long time, and I've clung to Who even as Star Trek and Star Wars have been ruined. But it's clear that Who has also been destroyed, and I don't really see any way for them to rebuild, given the canon they'd have to work with.

A friend of mine, more than a decade ago, opined that Doctor Who was a show that had transcended canon, and at the time I agreed with him. It's become clear since then that the show DID require a certain minimum amount of canon to function, a few basic premises that were necessary, and they've been trashed.

[Steve]

I dropped the series midway through Capaldi's last season, though I did go ahead and see his final Christmas Special and thought it wasn't too bad. A part of me wants to give Whitaker a chance, but I've heard that Chobnall had some weird dictums and ideas, like refusing to use any of the traditional Who villains in her first season. And now something about the Doctor not being a Time Lord but something else? I've not gotten any details on that, but it sounds unpromising.

[Frustration]

Not using any traditional enemies might have been a good thing, but that's not how it worked out.

Do you care about spoilers?

[hammerofglass]

Isn't it actually contractually mandated that the Daleks show up at least once a season?

[Frustration]

Or they lose the rights to use them in the show, yeah.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think it more he just not a good writer, or leader.

[clearspira]

I feel like if you're relying on Russell T Davies of all people to not put progressive social messages in his work you should probably just give up now.

I actually haven't watched the show for years though, not going to make any kind of defense of it.

Captain Jack is one of my favourite all time Who characters. He is also the first out LGBT character in Who - which whilst totally not remarkable in 2022 was big news back in 2005.

Progressive issues aren't the problem. Its preaching them. Jack never metaphorically turns to the camera to give me a lecture on LGBT issues.