In The News-- Doctor Who Ratings

[rabid1st]

Finally, the gun-ho press is beginning to notice what I've been saying here all along. The changes in the show are putting off the audience. This is a problem for Matt & Moff. And hiding our fandom heads in the sand and pretending it is not a problem, because people are watching it later, isn't going to help matters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/7859990/Doctor-Who-loses-1.2m-viewers.html

The overall, series long numbers are down, but worse, the penultimate episode lost viewership number not only in first time viewing but in complete viewership. The mark of declamation is after Cold Blood. Until that two part episode, many viewers had been sticking with the show hoping that there would be some improvement in the characters, some connection would be made or the show would simply be entertaining enough for the kiddies. But something happened there, perhaps the unlamented death of Rory, to kick start the giving up process. Will enough people watch recorded or repeated episodes and pick up on the clever aspects of the series as a whole...in time for Christmas numbers to recover?

Another problem is the HUGE oversell that the BBC did with Matt and Karen. Part of that could be just an over zealous, over geeky press wanting to praise what wasn't really great accomplishment, but only a change of the guard. Always comparing Matt and Karen and Moff to the previous crew didn't help. Claiming that they were so very superior really hurt their case. They aren't superior at all. But they are certainly competent and you can certainly count on Moff to deliver on what he sets up in earlier stories. I think if you keep saying someone is amazing, great, mysterious, wonderful and better than anything the audience has seen before...when the audience has already seen and loved someone else...you had best deliver on that promise. Or, after waiting for the show to improve, the audience begins to think you are full of crap.

Rae
still not sure the show will last out three seasons. I do believe that we will drop to 4 million next season as I've predicted.

Comments

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Yes, that BBC reply reeks of making the best of things - they would undoubtedly have been gushing over how DW was the show that united the family around a TV set for event TV had it been otherwise.

I think overpromotion was a huge problem. It was with Tennant's final specials (much as I love him it became embarrassing) and the self-promotion of what has become a mediocre product was intensely irritating - though I would add the caveat that the Telegraph has always had it in for Doctor Who, maybe because they associate the BBC with lefties and don't like to see it succeed.

But it does make the point that it's no good having a fabulous fan-pleasing finale if your audience has already drifted away after a load of clunkers. No more Chibnall, please. I wonder if Moff will eat humble pie and ask RTD to help?

And finally, the BBC did not give the show the schedule support it deserved. They put it on at a different time every week and seemed far more worried about grabbing the Saturday night audience for whatever talent-show tat they were pumping out than building steady support for one of their few remaining decent drama series.

It has been pointed out in the British media press that whereas in the 60s and 70s the UK exported drama and imported quiz show formats, the precise reverse is the case now. Drama is in a terrible state and the fact that even DW is under-resourced bodes ill for the genre as a whole. There is more to TV drama than soap operas and Doctor Who.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

The sad thing about those numbers is that the order of magnitude of improvement AFTER Cold Blood. Too little too late.

Another problem is the HUGE oversell that the BBC did with Matt and Karen. Part of that could be just an over zealous, over geeky press wanting to praise what wasn't really great accomplishment, but only a change of the guard. Always comparing Matt and Karen and Moff to the previous crew didn't help. Claiming that they were so very superior really hurt their case. They aren't superior at all. But they are certainly competent and you can certainly count on Moff to deliver on what he sets up in earlier stories. I think if you keep saying someone is amazing, great, mysterious, wonderful and better than anything the audience has seen before...when the audience has already seen and loved someone else...you had best deliver on that promise. Or, after waiting for the show to improve, the audience begins to think you are full of crap.

This. Oh yes, this. This season was definitely mis-marketed. You take the most popular show on the Beeb and monkey with it thusly, then tell folks it's even better than pre-monkeying? No no no. It's the whole Coke/New Coke scenario all over again.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

The thing is, ratings are strong in the US, Canada and Australia and critics are fawning over this season so I'm not sure how much English ratings matter in this instance.

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Luckily, this might mean Moffat will be replaced after two series :D
Paul Cornell, anyone?

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd love Paul Cornell!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough about Paul to hold with him as head writer but certainly HE and Moff together might create something with more emotional depth and also some sterling continuity. I do hope Moff knows enough to fill in where he is weakest...which is where Paul is strongest.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes please! I will take Paul Cornell with just a side of Moff for the win!

Paul was always my second choice. I would have picked Moff to take over, to be honest. Because I believe he really is quite competent. I just would have been acutely aware of his weaknesses as a writer.

To be fair to him, I think HE was acutely aware of his weaknesses as a writer and did his best to compensate for them with a story that didn't need well rounded characters. I think he gave us the very best he could do this season and it turned out quite well in the end. But Lordy did it sag in the middle.

I think the BBC need to give some serious support to the show. Allow it to recover some audience. And it might well do that with a very warm and fuzzy Christmas special. We haven't had one of those. But also, people are going to want a Christmas spectacular, too. Let's hope they can deliver.

Rae

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the witty as much as the next person, but the Moff didn't deliver in my opinion. Even the craptacular conclusion to the third series at least had a simply amazing Utopia which still is one of the very best eps in New Who. The thing with "Vote Saxon", the YANA, it was simply amazing. I loved it even if I didn't really like the two-parter that came after.

The Moff delivered a standard time traveling resolution. There was nothing to really go "Ah!" and "Wow" in all that. And compared to everyone wishing the Doctor back, only Amy being able to do that... was somehow uncompelling. And really, I think River had more reason to be the one to remember the Doctor and maybe she did, leaving the book with Amy, but only oh so special Amy, because she slept next to the crack, was able to do it. I'm sorry, I just didn't buy it. I'd rather have a strong dislike like with some of RTDs stuff mixed with simply amazing and OMG, then a technically well executed something that I don't really care about either way. It's a pity really. I can understand why people just stopped caring. I still watched it, but there was no OMG check if it's already online it just finished a minute ago! like there was at the beginning of the new series. I turned quite blase about it. It's not bad, it's not really good either. It just is. And I don't think that's enough.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

This is another problem with this season. It was basically Blink on a grander scale...with a touch of Silence in the Library. All we had going for us was a season long puzzle that was really nothing more than three episodes and a bit of a fourth. For all of the slight of hand that linked in Vincent...there is really nothing intrinsic in that episode or the Dalek one or the Whale one...and it was interesting that the game is played out as if there is a link when there really wasn't one.

The basic time puzzle was that Amy wasn't a real girl. And that was because something happened that cracked her wall. Yes, we do get the feeling that there is something wrong with Amy all through the show. She bothers some of us. She seems to be too perfect and I blame her writers...who do turn out to be telling us something with her. But what they are telling us, you are correct, is quite pointless in the end. The entire series turned in upon itself in a clever origami way, but why should be care?

It doesn't even really have many clues. There was the jacket and Amy's parents and her village of people who know her that don't seem real either. Rory's badge is explained because Rory was an Auton there...I suppose. But there was never even much comment on there being something wrong with Amy until the final episode, so we can't just give credit on that one. That's the thing, a different audience is needed here.

And maybe that audience will come, but I think that audience is very small. It is a geek audience that loves to feel superior. And enjoys puzzles. And doesn't really care very much about the characters anyway. We have all turned quite blase about the show...and we can all pretty much take it or leave it. And no, that's not good enough for it to stay on the air.

Rae
wondering if there will be a petition to save it.

[kynaii.livejournal.com]

The problem is, RTD spoiled us all with in depth character development. Yes he sent us all through an emotional wringer, (I'm sure that 10.2 is in heavy duty therapy.) but we cared. We were laughing and crying and screaming at the screen. Some of his plots had holes in them big enough to fly a battleship through, but we were involved.

Moffet plots better than RTD did (his plot holes were more Pickup sized), but his characters are flat. I've been watching the series, but there is none of the frantic rewatching, analysis and speculation that I had before.

Rory is the only one of Moffat's characters that I truely like, I see the development (I feel this was an accidental side-effect of the plot.) Amy, pfft.... if she walked out the door of the TARDIS forever I'd have no tears.

I think Matt as the potential to be a fantastic Doctor, he just needs a fantastic writer.

I just hope that this poor showing doesn't sink the ship. It would be a pity.

We've outgrown the old classic Doctor Who adventures. It's not just for 8 year olds anymore. (And 8 year olds aren't as naive as they used to be.)

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

It's kind of like eating at the best sushi resteraunt. It's too hard to go back to the average buffet after that.Moff tried to go classic Who. What RTD knew is that televison has become to far advanced and audiences these days are expecting so much more.

When things get desprate, they'll bring back Rose and 10.5.

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

Or Jack, sense he was originally Moff's character and lets face it, men don't know when they've been beaten.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I fully expect Jack to be back next year. If they are smart they will open the season with Jack to have some audience and then hope to sell us on their big mystery. I am already sick to the back teeth of River and "The Silence" which I had hoped already fell...but apparently did not.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

They are definitely going to bring back Rose and 10.5 for the anniversary, I would imagine. And I think, if they are smart, they will retire the franchise then. Bring RTD back, tell him to write a happy ending and call it a night. Let it go back into mothballs for another 15 years or so until the kids that fell in love with it bring it back in feature film format.

Rae

[monkeybatz.livejournal.com]

The same as many others..the show just doesn't do it for me anymore. Not the same oomf and fire that it had, although I do give credit to Moffat for his writing and Matt for his acting, they do well with some stories.

Amy bothers me though..I mean really bothers me...I'm trying to get over it and stating its the same reaction I had to Martha initially but it's not..I just am not fond of her.

Although after seeing the finale I do want to create your idea in video...would you mind another recreation from me..also..would you like to see it? I would take it much further back than Journey's End though...I would go all the way to Doomsday.

[monkeybatz.livejournal.com]

Although I noticed something funny today, I was watching Series 1 of Doctor Who and in the one episode "The Long Game" they stated 'the face of Boe was pregnant'...I think that makes Jack Boe even more hilarious...pregnant Jack...*shakes head*

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I certainly would not mind another recreation from you. My thought was to have the Pandorica end up on the beach with Rose and Ten2...but you could have it end up there was Rose is left alone, I suppose.

You do such amazing work, I absolutely look forward to anything you put out there.

Rae
who is also really bothered by Amy. Even now, loving the place where we are left in the finale, I can't really say if I am going to relate to Amy in the new season.

Possible series 5 finale spoilers! - Idea

[monkeybatz.livejournal.com]

I figured what I would do, since the doctor's time-line is wrong....that it's been wrong since doomsday(1) or atleast the end of doomsday is where to fix what went wrong with him(2).

1) Makes his entire life since 2006 rewind
2) Makes only certain events rewind - I think...if I can timey-whimey the crap out of it.

I hope I can execute it!

You must do as you wish

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

As far as the rewind goes. I am going to make a fiction case that what went wrong was the metacrisis. Basically, that the Eleven we see in S5 if only PART of the Doctor. The other part of him was in Ten 2...but he rewinds to the point of the Brown Ten dying there...with the explosion...and at that point using the Pandorica's healing ability, he HEALS Ten making him whole again for Rose.

But I can see you wanting to HEAL his entire sad life after he lost Rose...which does allow you to work with the original crack in the universe. The original CRACK does lead to Pete's World...the TARDIS fell through that one in S2 and it is "closed" as the sun burns up for Ten at Doomsday. So you could use that somehow...you could also link to the explosion of the TARDIS as it was burning up around Donna...just before Ten 2 is created.

Rae
throwing out the loopholes like I've got some sort of plotline lariat.