- 2 days ago
Has Doctor Who become too silly? In this video, we explore 10 essential fixes for the show's future, including making it scary again, taking itself more seriously, and resolving the fragmented streaming situation between the UK and the rest of the world.
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for Who Culture, and no, this is not another video moaning about the Disney era.
00:06Now, we recently did do a video about some of the missteps of that era and where it went wrong,
00:11so do make sure to give that a watch if you haven't already.
00:14For this video, though, we're looking ahead with optimism and hope.
00:18How can Doctor Who improve? What changes should be made to give it the best chance of success going forward?
00:24The way the last few years panned out was disappointing, absolutely,
00:27but on the plus side, there's an opportunity here to go again and get it right this time.
00:32And I do genuinely think that some of these fixes would set Doctor Who on the right path for the
00:38next few years.
00:39So let's begin.
00:41Number 10, adopt a more serious tone.
00:44While there's always been light and dark within Doctor Who, the show has perhaps veered a bit too silly in
00:50recent years.
00:51For every grounded story like 73 Yards and Lucky Day, there are about three things that are much more daft.
00:57From talking babies, singing goblins and the twist at the end,
01:01to Kate Lethbridge-Stewart telling the Doctor that we're all his children.
01:06Mm-hmm.
01:07Now, this doesn't mean that the show needs to deal with more adult themes in every single episode,
01:12rather that it needs to take itself seriously if it wants to be taken seriously by viewers.
01:17Something that goes hand-in-hand with this is making Doctor Who scary, again.
01:21Recent episodes haven't been without their scary moments,
01:24but it feels like sending kids behind the sofa is no longer the biggest priority.
01:29Kids love watching stuff that feels too old for them.
01:32So making the show scarier and more grown-up would almost certainly broaden its appeal.
01:37I mean, when you think back to the most iconic and beloved episodes in the modern series,
01:42they all fit this mould, whether it's Blink, The Waters of Mars, Heaven Sent, or even something like Amy's Choice.
01:48So doesn't that tell you something?
01:49Nobody's favourite episode is New Earth, or Aliens of London, or The Lodger.
01:54Nobody's.
01:55These dark and complex tales should be the backbone of Doctor Who going forward,
02:00which hasn't been the case in recent times.
02:03Number 9. Unify the Back Catalogue
02:05Doctor Who's 60th anniversary month began with the announcement that the show's back catalogue
02:10would finally be available to watch all in one place.
02:14This was a huge development, making the Who archive more accessible than ever before.
02:18And while Doctor Who fans will never stop buying physical media,
02:22having everything there at the click of a button is super convenient.
02:25The only problem was that despite the fuss made about the show's international presence on Disney+,
02:30the archive was only made available on BBC iPlayer for fans in the UK.
02:35And what's more, new content such as the classic colourisations and Tales of the TARDIS
02:40ended up being exclusive to iPlayer as well,
02:43completely undermining the idea that international fans were finally getting equal treatment.
02:47There are probably a million and one legal reasons why it wasn't possible to put everything onto Disney+,
02:53but there are also a million and one reasons why it should be done for the next streamer going forward.
02:58For starters, it just makes sense.
03:00But more importantly, having all the old stuff to watch during the off-season
03:04can make people more excited about the new stuff.
03:07And then there's the fact that if you insist on having your reboot involve characters and villains
03:11from 20 or more years ago, then you surely have to let people watch the relevant episodes
03:16on the same streaming service.
03:18In hindsight, the whole RTD2 Hooniverse thing just feels a bit half-hearted.
03:24Number 8. Ditch the early streaming drops.
03:27Once upon a time, the most controversial thing you could say about Doctor Who's airtime was,
03:31is 8pm a bit too late?
03:33But the Disney era took things to a whole other level,
03:36with episodes dropping on streaming at midnight or 8am ahead of the main BBC One broadcast.
03:42Though they never came out and said it,
03:44it's pretty clear that this messing around was all down to Disney,
03:47perhaps to prioritise American viewers or to make streaming the main product.
03:52We can get nostalgic now about watching Sue Tech's return in the early hours
03:56or following Belinda's journey while eating our Cheerios.
03:59But at the time, the gap between the streaming drop and the television broadcast was a total headache,
04:04requiring you to dodge spoilers for potentially 18 hours or more
04:07if those rather inconvenient midnight and 8am drops didn't work for you.
04:12Not to mention, fragmenting the audience like this made each episode feel less of an event.
04:16So for the love of God, just have the streaming drop coincide with the UK broadcast going forward.
04:21I mean, that's how it was for the 60th anniversary, and you didn't hear anyone complaining.
04:25So why fix what isn't broken?
04:27It also feels like a return to the autumn slash winter months would be beneficial for Doctor Who,
04:33especially when you look at the rating success of The War Between the Land and the Sea,
04:37which launched with overnight viewing figures higher than almost any episode of Doctor Who from the last few years.
04:44It does also feel like dark, cold nights are perfect for Doctor Who, doesn't it?
04:48Number 7. Stop shortchanging the companions.
04:51Doctor Who lives or dies on the strength of its companions,
04:55and companions only feel real if their world does too.
04:58Belinda really suffered in this regard.
05:01Part of this was unavoidable, due to the reality war reshoots.
05:04But even in the episodes that weren't reworked, her arc pretty much disappears after the well.
05:09We barely get to meet or know her family and friends, and her dad doesn't appear at all.
05:13Ruby was better in this regard, getting a strong family unit from the off, and whole episodes to herself.
05:19But it's a shame that Carla and Cherry didn't really get to do much more beyond the church on Ruby
05:23Road,
05:24and Ruby herself had little development as a character after that first episode as well.
05:28Contrast this with the series one finale, where Jackie and Mickey have a vital role to play despite the story
05:34being set in the far future.
05:35Or the scenes between Jackie and Pete in Doomsday.
05:38Or the nobles and how vital they were to that fourth series.
05:42Even Martha's family felt important, and were a constant presence throughout her series.
05:47When was the last time a companion's world felt so real and relatable?
05:50When Modern Who began, this was the beating heart of the show,
05:54but in recent times has felt less and less prioritised.
05:57The companions and their families ground the show,
05:59and give you that human element all the best dramas have.
06:02Taking what worked about Amy Pond, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and others is crucial for Doctor Who's next phase.
06:08Throw all the special effects and monsters you want at it, but without a heartbeat, it's all just noise.
06:14Number six, switch to a writer's room.
06:16For the entirety of the revival, Doctor Who has operated under a showrunner model,
06:21whereby one writer has ultimate control.
06:24Now this has helped give each series a consistent tone and voice,
06:28but there have been times during the Disney era where it's felt a bit too much like it's just one
06:32guy in charge,
06:34with the execs merely serving as yes-men, and questionable choices being made as a result.
06:39In a show like Doctor Who that requires so much mental bandwidth,
06:42it can't help but feel like a collaborative approach would be more beneficial.
06:46Namely, switching to a US-style writer's room,
06:49where writers work across the whole series rather than on individual episodes.
06:53We've had glimpses of this already, with Chris Chibnall running a writer's room of sorts for Series 11,
06:58though this was essentially just a series of workshops where writers came together to brainstorm
07:02before going away to write their episodes.
07:05Providing you had the right team of writers,
07:07going the full hog would potentially produce the strongest series of Doctor Who ever.
07:12It would also free up the showrunner to focus on other things,
07:15like, you know, actually running the show.
07:17During RTD2, it's felt like the big picture stuff, like the series' arcs,
07:21hadn't been given the required attention.
07:23So this would hopefully also address that problem as well.
07:26Number 5. Increase episode length or make more.
07:30Like all long-running television shows,
07:32Doctor Who's season and episode lengths have evolved dramatically over the years.
07:36In its early days, Doctor Who was basically on all year round.
07:40By the start of New Who, it was a quarter of the year.
07:42Gradually, this has reduced to 12 weeks, then 10, then 8,
07:45leaving recent seasons feeling like they're over before they've begun.
07:49Especially when you've got Doctor Light episodes every other week
07:52and companions who only stick around for one year.
07:55When Doctor Who returned in 2005,
07:57it made complete sense for stories to be confined to 45 minutes.
08:01But it's kind of baffling that we're still sticking to this format 20 years later,
08:05rather than letting episodes run to an hour.
08:07Eight 45-minute episodes just did not work,
08:10because there was too much to cram in.
08:12A new cast and story every week, series arcs, companion development is just too much,
08:17and you could tell the show was buckling.
08:1910 45-minute episodes feels much better, or even 8 that run for an hour,
08:24which is what we all thought we'd be getting when 8-episode seasons were announced in the first place.
08:29Now, alternatively, a more serialised format could be the right approach.
08:33Being able to reuse sets and costumes across the season would certainly be more cost-effective,
08:37and could pave the way for longer seasons.
08:39Now, we've had glimpses of this already with Flux,
08:42and aside from the finale, that series worked quite well,
08:45with the weekly cliffhangers providing a great hook from one episode to the next.
08:49Now, it's obviously quite easy to just say,
08:51just give us more Doctor Who,
08:52but it really is an important consideration in the modern age.
08:56There's so much competition for audience attention,
08:58that being in the news cycles for 10 weeks versus 8 weeks can make a big difference.
09:03Not to mention the aforementioned story benefits of having more screen time to work with.
09:07Scaling down the spectacle and beefing up the drama
09:10definitely feels like the right way to go moving forward.
09:14Number 4. Actually utilise popular villains.
09:17If there's anything more unbelievable than the fact that Shuti Gatwa is no longer the Doctor,
09:21it's the fact that he never got to face the Daleks.
09:24The Disney era ultimately featured none of the big hitters,
09:27instead opting to bring back more obscure villains like the Rani,
09:30the Midnight Entity, and even the Villain Guard Corporation.
09:33Now, after years of Daleks, Cyberman, and Master finales,
09:36and coming straight after a story featuring all three,
09:39it was a somewhat welcome change.
09:41Initially.
09:42For an era that was bringing Doctor Who to a more global audience than ever before,
09:46not utilising the Daleks at the very least was a massive own goal.
09:50They're one of the show's most recognisable pieces of iconography,
09:53arguably more so than the TARDIS.
09:55And you wouldn't get rid of the TARDIS for too long, would you?
09:58Sometimes it really is that simple.
09:59The Daleks, and the Cybermen to a lesser extent,
10:02get more eyeballs on the show,
10:04and they make Doctor Who feel like Doctor Who.
10:07You'd certainly say that it's healthy to have one Dalek story every two years,
10:10if not annually.
10:11It's now four years since the Daleks last appeared in the show,
10:14putting us in the longest Dalek hiatus since the classic era.
10:18But on the plus side, when they do eventually return,
10:20it's going to be huge.
10:23Number three, make it annual again.
10:25Since the end of RTD's first era,
10:27Doctor Who's release schedule has been on and off,
10:29with some years getting a spring series,
10:32some years getting an autumn series,
10:33and some years getting no series at all.
10:35The Disney era tried to resolve this,
10:37promising a return to annual Doctor Who content.
10:40And in fairness, we did have it pretty good,
10:42with five specials, two seasons,
10:44and a spin-off broadcast between 2023 and 2025.
10:48But due to the abrupt end of the Disney deal,
10:50there was no Christmas special last year,
10:52and we're now in yet another gap year.
10:54Since 2022, this is our third calendar year without a proper series,
10:59which is a crazy drop-off for such a big show.
11:01Now, to an extent, this is par for the course these days,
11:04due to the increased cost of television production.
11:07I mean, just look at Stranger Things,
11:08which managed a grand total of five seasons over ten years.
11:12But it also speaks to the wider issue
11:14of everything having to be as polished as possible.
11:16If Doctor Who is, in its current form,
11:19too expensive to produce annually,
11:21could it not be reworked into something more achievable?
11:23We used to get 14 episodes a year,
11:26so how is just nine episodes these days
11:28borderline impossible to sustain?
11:30Now, it might mean toning down the special effects
11:32or switching up the show's format, as previously mentioned,
11:34but if it meant the show could air annually again
11:37and thus stand a chance of staying relevant all year round,
11:40these options need to be looked at.
11:42Number two, fresh blood across the board.
11:45Now, it's one thing to reinvent old villains,
11:47but the Disney era also brought back a load of people
11:50who'd worked on Doctor Who before.
11:52Most egregiously, Shooty Gatwa's Doctor
11:54was bookended by two established Who actors,
11:57who were the lead cast of a series from 20 years ago.
12:00Add to that the fact that the whole thing
12:02was overseen by Russell T. Davis,
12:04plus basically all of the execs from his original era,
12:07with episodes written by Stephen Moffat
12:08and music by Murray Gold,
12:10and you can't argue when people say
12:12the show is too focused on the past.
12:14If you want a really interesting slash bleak statistic,
12:17consider the fact that 2024's Rogue
12:19was the first episode since The Haunting of Villa Diodati in 2020,
12:24not written or co-written by a current or former showrunner.
12:28Now, Russell T. Davis deserves all the respect in the world
12:30for bringing Doctor Who back so brilliantly in 2005,
12:34and without him, this list wouldn't exist.
12:36But it's time to let someone else have a go.
12:38Doctor Who has always benefited from bringing in fresh talent.
12:41I mean, just look at the more unknown doctors and companions,
12:44like Matt Smith and Karen Gillan,
12:46or the wide range of writers and directors
12:48that have contributed to the modern era.
12:50I mean, even in 2005,
12:51Russell T. Davis was a fresh, somewhat left-field choice,
12:54coming off the back of acclaimed dramas
12:56like Queer as Folk and The Second Coming.
12:58The BBC didn't just go back
13:00and get the same writers and producers
13:01from 80s Doctor Who, did they?
13:03Now, this isn't to say that new talent
13:05would automatically make the show great,
13:07but we can't just keep passing the baton
13:09between the same group of people either.
13:11Number one, go back to basics.
13:13The Disney era claimed to be a jumping-on point for Doctor Who.
13:17In reality, it was anything but.
13:20Lest we forget that this era began
13:21by bringing back a Doctor and companion from 15 years ago.
13:25As a one-off for the show's 60th anniversary,
13:27there was some logic to this.
13:29But the callbacks continued throughout the 15th Doctor's era,
13:32which relied heavily on obscure characters and villains
13:35from Doctor Who's past.
13:36Take the returns of Sutek and Omega,
13:39whose significance was lost on new viewers,
13:41and whose controversial redesigns alienated existing fans.
13:45And lest we forget the endless flashbacks
13:47from the Doctor and Ruby literally re-watching Pyramids of Mars
13:50to the constant Doctor clip shows in Season 2.
13:53We've already spoken about how too much reliance on the past
13:56can be damaging,
13:57but there are still lessons to be learned
13:58from looking backwards.
14:00In this case,
14:01the simple, back-to-basic approach
14:02adopted in Series 1 in 2005
14:05is something future series should look to emulate.
14:08A brand new Doctor and companion.
14:10New stories and villains
14:11with a focus on character development and drama.
14:14No huge lore dumps or plot points
14:16hinging on niche references.
14:17Clever use of returning villains
14:19like the Autons and the Daleks
14:21that don't require your audience to do any homework.
14:24At this point, we need a clean break
14:25where Doctor Who's lore is brought in bit by bit
14:28in a way that new viewers can easily understand.
14:31You can still do big backstory stuff like the Time War,
14:34but it needs to be able to stand on its own two feet.
14:37And a story from 50 years ago
14:38should never, ever feel like required viewing.
14:42Now, like previous points,
14:43this approach wouldn't automatically make the show great,
14:45but it would undoubtedly be the healthiest way forward
14:48given how much Doctor Who has started
14:50to eat its own tail in recent years.
14:53And that concludes our list.
14:55Now, like I mentioned at the beginning,
14:56we do have a video covering some of the missteps
14:59of the Disney era,
15:00so do check that out if you haven't already.
15:02In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture,
15:04and in the words of Riversong herself,
15:06goodbye, sweeties.
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