Doctor Who Ratings Slide...or Another Sunny Weekend in England?

[rabid1st]

Looking at the Doctor Who ratings for the latest episode I can only assume that there was another sunny holiday weekend in England.

I do know that some English viewers were on holiday...so there is that. But 12 million of them showed up for Britian's Got Talent. And we can now toss out the old Part 1 of 2 excuse. This was a stand alone episode and it came in at 5.0 million.

That's down from 10 million in hard ratings numbers, but if we play the Moff-Fan game, we can say it is down from 8.0 million for an episode at this time of the year. Heck we can even call it by the low ball figure of 6.75 million. This is still down on first viewership, consistently, for the first time ever. And for the first time in my poking about the net someone, other than me, has mentioned cancellation.

I know that I'm harping on this and I keep telling myself that I'm going to stop watching, stop posting, stop caring. But it makes me angry to see this happen when it really is pure stubborness on the part of the BBC and Moff that is doing this. They wanted to return to Old School Doctor Who because of the prevailing fanon that it was "better than the emo RTD School." If only the show was no longer a soap opera! Well, now its what it was before RTD--a show about some space alien guy that is just a little tacky and forgettable (but with admittedly better CGI and acting than in Old School).

I figure that the moment when I stop complaining is when the final nail goes into the cancellation coffin. Not to say that my giving up on the show will be counted against the show in any meaningful fashion. But I represent a dogged fan of the Doctor and my watching despite really not liking the show very much, indicates that I still have some hope for the concept of Doctor Who. I am rather committed to watch until the end of this arc no matter how frustrated I become with muppet Amy and the clueless brigade of cardboard characters.

My devotion, this core Doctor Who fan devotion, is why I said that the show would probably run 3 seasons with Matt and Moff. I figured it would keep people like myself onboard until the end of the first season. Hardcore Whovians will give them a S2 no matter how awful the show gets. It turns out they already have a S2, of course. They had it as soon as The Eleventh Hour aired to stellar numbers. And they might squeak out a S3 if the ratings stay around 4 million for next season. The show will try to retool in S3 and win people back to the fold with anniversary celebrations...maybe David and Billie will guest star or something. Or RTD will come back to write a few episodes. But the show did not grow. It devolved. And I figure it will dip below 3 million in S3 and go quietly to a series of movies or something and then off the air.

Comments

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Hi there. I sounded off on Amy on my journal, if you're interested.

I've never seen an ep with her, so I have no opinion on whether or not she's a muppet. It's more about the "she's too perfect" critiques.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

You are intrepid doing a comment on a character you have never seen on a show you don't watch. This I must see. :grin:

Or, I could comment without reading your post. This post is spot on the money and coming around for seconds.

Would that be more in the spirit of things?

No, I will go take a look because certainly you have come to know Amy through all the bellyaching on your Flist. And for all I know...praise of her as well.

Rae

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not about her, so much, as what she represents, in her thin pretty sexiness. I don't have to have watched her to see that.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

But many people are thin and pretty. Dr. Temperance Brennan to name just one. Also, in Old School Doctor Who, my personal favorite companions...Tegan Jovanka, Leela, Jo Grant and Romana 1 were all thin and pretty. Also, hampered by Old School limitations...but they exhibited more personality than Amy. Though, I do think your point is well taken in addressing those people who feel that it is anti-feminist not to support Amy in saving the day.

Actually, her thinness and her saving the day don't bother me as much as the lazy writing that never explains exactly how she is saving the day. I mean, how she THINKS or FEELS that leads to the saving of the day. Rose kept coming back because we understood that is what Rose would do...which made her final episode crap...because we understood that she kept coming back. But we don't understand, because nobody ever bothers to explain, how come Amy can save the day when she seems to be about 7 yoa emotionally and mentally the rest of the time.

Rae

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

So I'm just basically totally off-base. *g*

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Or...it's just hard for me to imagine people finding Amy too perfect...or sexy. But I think you hit it on the head in your response to my response to your post. People are sensing the emotional void, the lack of internal motivation, but they are unable to express what they are sensing. They only know that it all seems too perfect.

Yes, if Amy was thin, sexy, resourceful and brave (or ballsy) and we explored her motivation and found she also had other less attractive qualities...then perhaps we would believe in her. As she exists, she is obviously a sort of blow up doll ideal. Moff probably feels quite virtuous as he doesn't have her take a backseat in smarts or in needing help. But he's actually the worst sort of male chauvinist. He's the sort of person who will co-op the feminist movement to excuse his own shortcomings as a human being.

His view is that the perfect woman solves her own problems. Isn't "clingy" by which he means, isn't ever less than cheerful and happy around males. Males, you see, do not want to be bothered by commitment or any sort of messy fallout. There is no provocation Moff views as deserving of emotional depth of connection. Because that just isn't fun...and we are here...to have fun. So there is sexiness, of course. Sex is fun. Flirting is fun. Traveling is fun. Danger that you are laughing at...is fun. Amy has been in jeopardy, faced her own death, pregnancy, marriage and the death of a supposed loved one and had to chose between suitor and life direction.

And at no point does she show any emotion about what is happening for more than a few minutes of lip service in the script. For example, while pregnant she suddenly feigns labor and gets the menfolk to panic...but, of course, it isn't real...then she tells the men quite cheekily that this is her life and the Doctor should never call it boring. Literally, when her lover died they wrote the episode so that instead of mourning him, she forgets him immediately. She is able to take care of herself, even as a child, and keeps her emotions in check so they never ever bother anyone.

Was she neglected...abandoned as a child? Well, yes, there is some evidence of that as she is all alone in a house when a strange man visits. I do find that suspicious. But there is no attempt at all to tie her behavior into her circumstances. It would make some sense but it is pure conjecture, because there is no attempt at all to explain anything at all about Amy. Amy isn't important. That much is very obvious. No matter how many times she saves the day and no matter how emotionally stunted she is...all that matters to Moff is she's a placeholder in his plot.

Rae

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

So then, it's not that she's "perfect"... it's that she's clearly a male somebody's idea perfect, and that perfect isn't real.

I remember an episode of The X-Files which was clearly something of a love letter to Scully... all about this strange man who basically stalked her out of obsession. And it made me realize the fundamental flaw of the men-only (so far as I know) writers' room of XF (aside from whatever Chris Carter was smoking as the years went by): they worshipped Scully, but they identified with Mulder.

And the thing is, Scully was an awesome character. But they had bad shit happen to her because of what it would do to Mulder. In a two-person show, his perspective was still privileged, not just on the supernatural/science front, but on the emotional front.

To me, the Who you're describing sounds cartoony. Like they don't need anybody to have any depth, it's all about the Adventure. Which I guess is good for kids, but... emotional reality is why people care. Otherwise it's just shenanigans and special effects.

* idea of perfect

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

I meant

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Last episode was written by a famous writer and had Bill Nighy guest staring... and we had what? 5 millions viewers? The boat is not sinking... but that's still quite disapointing. :S

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Actually, the boat is sinking. It just hasn't reached the point where we all need to make a swim for it. :grin:

I don't think it is the quality of individual writers at fault. I honestly think it is the emotional void at the heart of the show. The fact that nobody is really deeply invested in reaching the audience anymore. I mean, look at the old crew, every one of them was completely devoted to Doctor Who. Moff is the one who had work that didn't really fit into the show. He was also quite gifted as a writer...at least when it came to plotting and one-shot character sketches.

But if you really examine Moff's work, you can see the emotional void in it. It was all very neat and scary, but he skated around Rose and Martha and Donna and created secondary characters which were intriguing but were not fleshed out and real. His Jack isn't real. It is RTD who makes Jack a living, emotionally relevant character. River and Sally aren't real. Reinette suffered from the same thing that Amy suffers from...playing out a role assigned to her by the writer. I mean, would she really LOVE the Doctor having only seen him once in childhood? Or is this rather a pathetic fantasy, which it would be hard to believe in with any REAL woman? The only Moff character that came close to being interesting in her own right...was the child/mother figure in The Doctor Dances. Even she is sketchy, but she does have motivation beyond the plot. But, at this point, I do wonder how much of that was provided by the actress and the director.

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'm really trying to understand Amy's character, to get to know her. But it's hard and it asked me to rewatched all the episodes to (maybe?) get a facet of her character (my conclusions? She's playing a part, trying to play strong and cool and NOT CLINGY while being actually someone who cares (for Rory)).
But DAMN! It took me all the reading strategies I've learnt in my litterature course to (maybe!) understand her character.
It was never the case with RTD's companions. And how do you want to care for someone you don't know? As you said, there is no emotional link in Moffat's Who.
Well... maybe Rory. Because he was an imitation (we'll call that an hommage) of RTD's characters. And Moffat ereased him from time & space. Well done!

[nightbeast.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was blisteringly hot in Britain the day it aired. I was cosplaying the Lord President and nearly passed out from heat exhaustion, despite drinking a glass of iced water every 30 minutes. The things we do for charity.

I keep watching because it's better than the soaps and Britain's Got Talent, even if it gets lower first viewing figures. Quality and popularity don't always come together. The popular kids in school don't have enough brain cells to rub together to start a fire, while the nerds who get picked on or ignored will get paid loads to fix your computer.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Beastie! Long time no chat! Or see!

Well, I do imagine that it could have been another nice day. And I wouldn't argue that popularity is consistent with quality. Dropping popularity coinciding with dropping quality is what I'm referencing here. It is totally predictable...because I predicted it. And while it is not quite appropriate for me to say this...when it comes to predicting the death of a show, I'm very accurate. The ratings are pretty much exactly where I said they would be at this time.

Now, is there still some quality in the show...yes. I think many of the episodes are more concise and generally entertaining. And I think it is a real shame that Moff is emotionally crippled to such an extent that he can't bring motivation to the characters. I don't blame the individual writers...I blame the man in charge for the lackluster presentation of the show. I think they are intentionally trying to remove all semblance of deeper feeling from the show. And I think they are doing this specifically because of the fanbase complaining about it becoming a "soap opera" and Moff feeling that the companion should be well...more like Amy.

The result is a show that isn't "must see TV" anymore. People go out and sunbath. They make other plans. They will get around to watching it eventually...but if they miss an episode it doesn't matter. And while, since time began, this sort of shift in attitude has been dismissed by the core fanbase of a show, it has also always heralded the end of the show. At least in America. I will say that I think the British people will stick with Doctor Who through S3 and the Anniversary at least.

And it is very good to see you out and about again. I do imagine your duties as Lord President of All Gallifrey keep you busy. :wink:

Rae

[(Anonymous)]

Well, actually, series 2 also went through a slump, with consistently lower-than-standard numbers from the beginning of The Satan Pit up until Fear Her; then Army of ghosts came and the numbers picked up. Should we be worried now? This has happened in the past, so I'm inclined to think these are not cancellation figures.

[nightbeast.livejournal.com]

There is always a mid-season slump in ratings. Casual viewes drift away and come back for the finale. This is why RTD purposely put tent poles in season 4 with Agatha Christie and an episode titled The Doctor's Daughter.

The Satan Pit is a special slump. England were playing a World Cup football match on the main rival channel, so everybody watched that instead (despite my attempts to hide the remote). England were knocked out on July 1st in the afternoon, leaving the TV free in the evening to watch Army of Ghosts.

/random broadcast facts

(And if you're interested, the BBC has the broadcast rights to the football this year so there is no divided loyalties.)

[mrs_roy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved The Satan Pit, didn't you love TSP, Rae! It was teh awesome, cause he said Tell her, tell her and we all sat and watched and then he said 'Oh, she knows' and we all said, 'oh, did you have to, that's as bad as saying' well, something!

I'd like to stand up and say a) that I'm loud and I'm proud, read that correctly, loud and proud, not so much gay and proud! and b) I think this season stinks, and if you don't like it, tough!

Matt Smith's performance is thin and he undermines the very essence of the Doctor, that is, a magical man from pixie land .. no wait, that is 11, sorry, I mean, a time traveling alien, the last of his kind, defender of the planet Earth, broken but strong, fierce but so protective of all he has left, which to be honest, isn't a hell of a lot.

Amy is whiney and yap yap yap, there is no definitive comparison when it comes to Amy and Donna. Donna was his best mate, and Amy, she's like some pet project he picked up for him high school science fair, give me a break.

In short, *Clap Clap* Moff, you've succeeded in single handedly bringing down the Doctor Who empire.

*Disclaimer* - May contain major sarcasm, and or Moffat/Smith bashing! Possibly a few spelling and gramatical errors, but if you're so anal as to take note of them, pull your finger out of your arse.

[toledom.livejournal.com]

I also loved The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. In fact, many of the best episodes in Doctor Who have had lower ratings than more than a couple of clunkers (for instance, the episodes with the Sontarans had higher ratings than Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways,I believe).

[mrs_roy.livejournal.com]

Canon schmanon I say! So what if he loved a human woman, get with the times cronies!

I can see how giant potatoes are more appealing.

*Ba doomp, ching*

SOMEBODY GET DAVID TENNANT ON SPEED DIAL WHILE HE'S STILL LOOKING FOR WORK! WE COULD TOTALLY PASS 11 OFF AS A DREAM.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I am afraid David Tennant can't save us. Somebody needs to get RTD and well...someone to rein in his tendency to write about God. I think we could get RTD to write a proper ending for Rose/Ten by making Eleven/Amy a dream at the moment of the TARDIS exploding...and send Doctor Who off to book canon for another 20 years. But I am afraid that the inevitable is going to happen...another slump into cancellation and obscurity. Followed by a couple of television movies to keep the franchise alive.

[mrs_roy.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, Rae!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I discussed the Satin Pit slump in my last post about ratings. There are a couple of differences here. This was a stand-alone episode. This is part of a definite pattern of sliding ratings, rather than a selected incident. The slumping figures were previously correlated with a part 1 of 2. The biggest viewing slump prior to the current one was with Silence in the Library. In fact, it showed us the first of the Moff style slumps. People recorded it to watch later. It could be that people were thinking they might miss something vital if they watched the episodes a week apart. That was the spin I offered at the time.

However, I think what it is is the idea that with Moff you don't really need to continue watching a show to have the important stuff at your command. You can catch the episodes anytime...for plot points. And mostly Moff's episodes are more of the same, rather than offering anything particularly NEW. Even River is simply more Jack.

To have Doctor Who Fever, you need to be emotionally connected to the characters. We all tuned in to watch Ten suffer and either pray that he got over Rose or that he didn't, depending on our take on her. But we also didn't really know how he would react to any given situation, what would happen, and who he might meet. All of that is gone from the show now.

The Matt Smith Doctor will not overreact or fall in love or brood or do anything very interesting. Amy will be perky and ballsy and she will also survive and she will never have any emotional fallout from anything that happens to her. And they will keep having rather meaningless adventures with people who don't make much of an impression on them (or US) for next time. So, why would anyone feel they must watch any particular episode? Nothing is going to happen...other than we might get another clue about the crack in the wall.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It is very easy to say that this is the Satan Pit slump. And indeed that was an example of the quality and popularity not syncing up. But this is a very marked decline. The show wasn't pulling in consistent 10 million numbers at that time. Also, this slump is part of a pattern of deciding not to watch the first time. The BARB figures are remarkably higher than the viewing figures at the overnights. This means people are recording the show to watch later. I've heard complaints from the faithful about the timing...but the timing was screwy for David Tennant's show as well.

The problem here is simple, but it's not one that the faithful will accept: the show has no emotional core.It is a children's show again, a show about adventures and fun with a pretty girl and a geeky guy...and Rory. The performances are thin and the Moff is failing to deliver in exactly the way I said he would fail. He is not failing in the overall plot or in basic storytelling. He is failing in that people no longer care what happens. And I also standby that being partially RTD's fault, because RTD told a story with three crappy endings. It is hard to hope after that...and impossible to hope when you are then given characters that you can't possibly care about in any meaningful fashion.

Rae

[toledom.livejournal.com]

To be honest, Doctor Who has only managed to reach the 10m mark consistently because of a stretch of series finales, specials and series openers. Expecting to maintain that kind of momentum is too much. Is there any drama in the UK other than EastEnders and Coronation Street that's able to do that?

Also, Series 1 had the strongest start of all series, followed by the steepest decline so far towards the end. That didn't mean a cancellation at all, and that didn't undermine the achievements of that final two-parter (still my favorite season finale so far)

By the way, regarding those endings you mention; AIs are very high for them, even for chart-busters such as The End of Time which should attract many non-hardcore fans, so I would assume that those were very much beloved even by non-fans. However, I don't live in England; it would be very interesting to know what word of mouth said about them.

[toledom.livejournal.com]

Also, I would be more worried about what the Tories are going to do with the BBC (and what they would do with a show where several of the people involved have been very vocal against them) rather than the usual seasonal flow of rating figures.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

There is that aspect to cancellation as well. Of course, the Tory job is made quite a bit easier by Moff and company taking the urgency out of the viewing numbers. Doctor Who fever is definitely at an end.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

(this comment includes spoilers, so if you haven't actually seen the episode, save this for later)

also--LJ is being whacky. Please forgive if this got reposted multiple times. To me, it keeps looking like it's not going through.



You know I'm no fan of Moffat in general or his time as showrunner, plus I'm still of the opinion that Matt's Eleven is a poor man's Ten rather than his own man. But I will say, it's a pity that this episode got such "poor" ratings since it was solid, enjoyable, even Amy was likable(ish), Tony Curan's portrayal of Van Gogh knocked it out of the park, and it left me feeling something at the end. It's been a long time since that happened. Plus--Rory wasn't forgotten. Given how nonchalant this series has been toward character growth and emotions, the fact that Rory was so central to the heart of this episode, especially when I hadn't dared hope he'd be, raised it up a few levels in my estimation. It's been a long time since we've seen an episode with truly authentic heart. If Moffat's reign had more episodes like this, I could almost become a fan again.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good to know. And that's also pretty informative. I decided to read your spoilers before I watched the show. And I'm glad I did, because if I hadn't, I might not have watched this one at all. I'm that tired of going through the motions as a Doctor Who fan. I keep trying to divorce myself from RTD's version of the Doctor and return to those golden days of yesteryear...where Eleven and Amy would not be as offensive. The show never had much emotional depth in Old School. What existed often came from the actors themselves...Tom Baker and Peter Davison especially offered a little nuance on their portrayals. But I remember how quickly Adric and Tegan were forgotten and how little impression Sarah Jane's leaving actually caused. The Doctor was always just moving on and getting to the next adventure. And we were lucky if we got an "I miss him, as well" or a "It seems I must change my ways" from him.

It is just that we have had more from him now, and I find it very hard to go back to just enjoying the pointless running around.

[toledom.livejournal.com]

Did you watch Vincent and the Doctor? I would encourage to do so; consensus seems to be saying it's very touching and I agree with it. One of the best episodes not just in this series, but in any of them.

[(Anonymous)]

Unfortunately, I'm with you. I didn't even watch Vincent and the Doctor until today Saturday a full week after it aired and THIS is the FIRST series I've had the OPPORTUNITY to watch AS THEY AIRED. I had other things to do dispite it sitting on my computer......