So there was a debate sometime in the last few months that I read that Doctor Who should either split and become a kids show and a separate adults show or else just abandon kids altogether and just become more like Game of Thrones.
But do we really want a show like Game of Thrones?
I think what it basically means is that they are bored of "child friendly" episodes. Funny thing is a lot of these people became fans as kids themselves and now that they have grown up they want to split from the child audience and make it something it never was to begin with.
In my opinion Doctor Who has always been family friendly, it has been used as a stepping stone for kids to more scary stories and more adult themes but it is still written and directed in a way that kids could watch.
Yes the stuff since 2005 is different then anything before it, but that is basically because times have changed. What is alright for kids to see on TV and what "drama" is now is totally different from what it was in 1963. To be honest the Hartnell era was totally different from most other eras in the stories they depicted just watching it from start to finish over that period of time the change seeps in slowly. We have a giant gap between '89 to '96 to '05 and in all three instances it shows.
To make it more simple, drama can't look and feel like it did in '89, it has to keep up with a modern audience and that doesn't mean "dumbing" down, I take great insult to people who seem to think because I wasn't alive when they were that my TV is dumbed down. It isn't. Its just different as all decades of TV are.
Personally I'd hate it to go down the route of Game of Thrones EVEN if I didn't so much care about what audience it was aiming at.
For me Game of Thrones is too much. It is perfect for what it is but I'd hate for shows to aim to be like it.
Now I'm going to get a load of people saying "what you don't want all TV to look as good as this?" and no that isn't what I mean. The way it is is perfect for what it is I don't want Doctor Who to look like a epic movie every week I want it to look like what it is, a BBC sci-fi show.
Game of Thrones is beautiful, I can't say any different, but its source material isn't the same. Even if we have a adult version of Doctor Who why would you want sex and violence? I mean after all the same people that seemed to want a "Grown Up" version of Who are usually the people who hate River Song shooting at things or the thought of romance with the Doctor.
That is why I like Doctor Who. In Game of Thrones it is THE thing. Sex, romance, relationships, personal drama and politics. Who not so much. You have romance of traveling the universe, romance between companions and recently romance with the Doctor but even that has been too much for me. Why can't we just have adventures with the Doctor?
Do we need to make it more adult for that to happen?
Do we?
I don't think we do to be honest. There is already difficult topics being picked for stories from depression to homicide and experimenting on other people. Yeah we might not like the out come of these episodes and those themes are hidden a little over the adventure but personally that is what I like!
Yes A Town Called Mercy looked lovely and one or two episode like that would be wonderful, I wouldn't be too upset with slightly longer episode but less of them either (it gives episodes time to breath.) With the budget to do it I think it could work.
But we still come back to do we really need to change it?
At the end of the day kids love Doctor Who, adults love Doctor Who and kids that never grow up adore the whole universe of Who. Why take it away? We have our mega episode, too many to count attempted it since Moffat took over, I quite like just having a bog standard looking Who episode with a good story that I can enjoy with a wide variety of people online afterwards.
Who isn't "dumbed" down and I wouldn't really say Game of Thrones is any better then Who. The problem with Who is that sometimes things get cut, sometimes time travel becomes a get out of jail card, sometimes it dies in its own continuity. Making it more like Game of Thrones wouldn't help it one way or the other.
Sometimes I feel like screaming at people to stop trying to make our show like other ones. Stop craving for what you have to be like something else and you might enjoy what you have a little more!
***DISCLAIMER : when I say that I don't mean you have to like it or not find fault with it but if you constantly compare it to something else you are bound to notice things you like better in one then the other. Compare it to Who, enjoy or dislike it on its own merits, just don't think the grass is always greener because I'd rather have the David Tennant years again then no Who at all!***
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