Oh, please.

[icepixie]

RTD: Alien planets are "too expensive."

And a Slitheen ship crashing into Big Ben isn't? Or a massive CGI wereworlf? Or the sun blowing up and incinerating the Earth? I'm sorry, that doesn't fly. Try again.


P.S. Avast, me hearties! *walks around with peg leg and parrot*

Comments

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seems pretty weak. I mean, every single "alien planet" looked like the forest in BC on SG-1. Didn't stop them from doing alien plots. And people just accepted it - it's sci-fi after all.

[icepixie]

RTD mentions that in the article--as a bad thing. *rolls eyes* "We'll get only bad reviews if we go to quarries and forests!" No, numbskull, you'll get a plethora of bad reviews if the other areas of the show suck. Anyone who's going to condemn the show because it uses a quarry--and with the budget shown in the last two seasons, I imagine it would be a very dressed-up-with-CGI quarry--as an alien planet is beyond shallow.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

You know, I think a bad review or four are just what this show needs. As long as it keeps winning awards, there's no incentive to try anything new, because obviously the existing formula works. ::hits head on desk very, very hard::

[icepixie]

I think they could've used some bad reviews for much of the second season, particularly towards the end. Obviously, there's been a change of opinion on LJ, but who knows if that translates to the rest of the world.

Can we just have the quality that was much of season one (with...certain exceptions... *attempts to firebomb AOL/WWIII*) back again, please?

[alto2.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd be willing to put up with the occasional AOL/WWIII if it meant we also got TEC/TDD and its ilk most of the time. I can handle an occasional clunker. I'm not happy if they're mostly clunkers, though.

Can you believe most folks at Outpost Gallifrey are big Rusty fans? I keep wondering if/when the other shoe will drop, and what will happen when it does. I stuck my head into non-sale/trade forums this weekend and just boggled.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Right! I mean, yeah - everyone joked about the "forests of Vancouver" with SG-1, but it was far from being bad reviews. In the end it was the story that mattered. To me, this is such a imagination-limiting attitude, which surprises me a bit from the DW camp. It's like, "We don't feel like doing alien episodes and are going to blame the budget, so shut up about visiting other planets."

This is "Doctor Who," right? I mean, they didn't just hang out on Earth/London in the past, right?

[alto2.livejournal.com]

It surprises me from DW, but it does not, alas, surprise me from Rusty. I'm becoming more and more convinced that he should not be running this particular show. You're absolutely right about the way the universe did NOT revolve around London in the past, and the more it does, the more it ceases to be DW, as far as I'm concerned.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Alien planets are "too expensive."

Oh, for the love of Pete. What a crock. I shouldn't even go read that article, should I, because it'll just make me want to throw things. What, so one or two establishing shots of a planet or a city are so damned expensive? Funny how the classic series managed to do alien planets on a regular basis, even though it had a crap budget. And as you point out, it's not like they haven't done plenty of other pricey stuff.

GAH. I am really starting to dislike you, Rusty.

[icepixie]

Indeed. There are not enough *rolls eyes* in the world for Rusty.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

There really aren't.

Who's that in your icon? How cool that we have thematically matching icons from totally different sources! :)

[icepixie]

Who's that in your icon?

Mahandra, from the brilliant but short-lived Wonderfalls. This icon, and all my mood icons, are also from that show. Dude, get the DVDs from Netflix (there are only thirteen eps). YOU WILL LOVE IT, I SWEAR.

(No, really. An "overeducated and underemployed" retail clerk, Jaye, gets hit on the head and then inanimate objects start telling her to help people. She's not too happy about it. Brilliant TV, similar in execution to and by the same guy who does Dead Like Me.)

How cool that we have thematically matching icons from totally different sources! :)

Hee!

[aervir.livejournal.com]

What. The. F...?

They could always film in quarries! Quarries are cheap! And cool!

[icepixie]

I love quarries!

Or hell, at least we could have more historicals, or things set in the future on Earth?

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Well, let's be grateful for small mercies, i.e. for the fact that he doesn't rule out past-Earth or future-Earth adventures as well.

I bet season 4 will be entirely set in a chip shop in London.

[icepixie]

Well, let's be grateful for small mercies, i.e. for the fact that he doesn't rule out past-Earth or future-Earth adventures as well.

Doesn't rule them out, but I don't expect to see many of them, somehow...

I bet season 4 will be entirely set in a chip shop in London.

It horrifies me that this is not a completely absurd suggestion.

[elflore.livejournal.com]

I know we've talked this one before, but...I think the article's probably making a bigger deal of this than it really warrants. I don't think RTD is saying we're going to get less alien planets than we have, just that we won't get more...and after a season that gave us New Earth and a 2-parter on the Impossible Planet, plus that gorgeous shot at the beginning of Army of Ghosts, I'm not feeling *too* stranded on Earth. And I'll sacrifice an alien planet or two if it gives me a werewolf (as you pointed out), or the Doctor on horseback crashing through a mirror (a moment they almost had to cut, until they found they could do some other episodes more cheaply).

I found it particularly interesting, though, that he says the ratings are always lower for unearthly eps. Hmmm. Might be sadly true--he probably has a point about the niche market of even Star Trek and Star Wars. I think, too, whether because we're scifi geeks or Americans we think of Doctor Who as science fiction, whereas to a lot of Brits I think it might be more fantasy-horror, closer to Buffy than Trek.

In any case, I have to say...I don't know that any alien planet could get me half as excited as I'm to know they shot part of the Shakespeare ep for next season at the Globe!

[icepixie]

Yeah, we've been over this, and I don't think either of us will change our opinions. *g* I was irritated at that gorgeous AoG shot, because how hard would it be to have that as an establishing shot, and then shoot everything else indoors for an episode?

he says the ratings are always lower for unearthly eps

I just boggle at this. Are there really people out there who will watch a CGI werewolf or CGI Teacher!Bats, but can't deal with a spooky story set on a far-out space station? Are they really that shallow?

I think, too, whether because we're scifi geeks or Americans we think of Doctor Who as science fiction, whereas to a lot of Brits I think it might be more fantasy-horror, closer to Buffy than Trek.

I see what you're saying, I think. And yet something like TIP/TSP was superficially rather similar to some Buffy eps I've seen, so I still don't get the alien planets = bad meme. Star Trek forehead aliens, sure; I can see why people who automatically hate that kind of stuff would be turned off. (Much as I disagree with them. But that's another debate.) But it's not like DW has ever tried to make its aliens look very alien...

Shakespeare does sound excellent, though.

[elflore.livejournal.com]

AoG World: But if you don't have a story to backup those images, and if you can't make an interior as wondrous as the exterior...wouldn't that be just as much of a copout, and maybe more? I rather like just imagining that world for myself. Letting it tease out ideas and stories in my head.

Ratings: People that shallow? I may believe people are capable of the best, but I never really underestimate their shallowness either, especially when it comes to TV. *snerk* And I think certainly in American TV, the sci fi stigma is pretty broad. I find it fascinating how Lost has managed to go so huge and so mainstream, because it pitched itself as a slightly weird survival drama and stays rooted in the people...they sneak the scifi elements in the back door, so people don't freak and run away like they do from Trek or Stargate...or even BSG, which itself does better than a lot of SciFi shows by avoiding aliens and minimalizing the robots. (Which is not knocking Lost, which I adore of course, just saying I find it interesting the little differences which make a show marketable.)

[icepixie]

But if you don't have a story to backup those images, and if you can't make an interior as wondrous as the exterior...wouldn't that be just as much of a copout, and maybe more?

Yes, but my point is that it is possible to use that as an exeterior shot and tehn have a story set indoors on an alien planet, with aliens, taking the place of one of the many modern-day-Earth stories. I just feel like with Old Who--let's say Fourth or Fifth Doctor era, since I've seen the most of those--the ones set in 1970s or 1980s England were more special because they were rarer than they are now. (Maybe that's just the impression I've gotten with my scattershot viewing of them.)

Lost: Lost is sci-fi? Huh. Shows how well their marketing campaign is working, I suppose. ;)

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

Okay, if RTD is going to blame his bad writing ON THE SCENERY... can I get off the bus now?

And I'm totally out of the loop, and you've probably seen this ages ago, but.. woah (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5271054.stm).

On the scrapped Rose spin-off: "It spoils Doctor Who if we can see Rose... if we see as a concrete fact that her life continues to be as exciting without the Doctor," he said.

!!!

We can't see her with her dignity and self-respect uncrushed! Woe!

Idiot.

And did people not like The Impossible Planet 2-parter? That was my favorite episode in the history of ever. I'm going to go to my happy place now, where everybody enjoys homages to Dante...

[icepixie]

Okay, if RTD is going to blame his bad writing ON THE SCENERY... can I get off the bus now?

If Season Three isn't an improvement over S2, then I'm heading out the emergency door.

On the scrapped Rose spin-off: "It spoils Doctor Who if we can see Rose... if we see as a concrete fact that her life continues to be as exciting without the Doctor," he said.

Aguh...gah...ack. No, I hadn't seen that. I think I remember the kerfluffle over the spinoff itself, but I don't remember hearing about that quote. GAAAAAAAAAAH. *hate spirals up another notch*

We can't see her with her dignity and self-respect uncrushed! Woe!

She wails for eternity on a Norwegian beach!

And did people not like The Impossible Planet 2-parter? That was my favorite episode in the history of ever. I'm going to go to my happy place now, where everybody enjoys homages to Dante...

I don't understand this AT ALL. How can they not like two of the three best episodes of the season? How?

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Nobody (not even Rusty himself) said that the viewers didn't like TIP/TSP, but they got the lowest ratings. Which was due to the incredibly hot and sunny weather when they were broadcast.

As much as I started to dislike RTD, we should be fair to him. The quote about the Rose spin-off is for real, though. I posted a more than slightly ranty post over at rose_lives when I first read it.

[icepixie]

Which was due to the incredibly hot and sunny weather when they were broadcast.

See, I can totally understand that. Now I want to know why the article didn't mention it. *g* Implying that it means people don't like alien planets is uncool.

*makes note to go read your rant*

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

If Season Three isn't an improvement over S2, then I'm heading out the emergency door.

Climb out the roof hatch!

I really like DT's interpretation of the Doctor (unlike...everybody else ever? apparently?), but I think the season had waaay more potential than RTD knew what to do with. Maybe he'll get distracted and wander off...

GAAAAAAAAAAH

DITTOOOOOOOO.

She wails for eternity on a Norwegian beach!

All the cool kids are doing it!

How can they not like two of the three best episodes of the season? How?

What would you say the third is? Girl in the Fireplace? Because of its inherent awesomosity? Yeah, I worry about this fanbase...

Hey, I realized last week that now that I'm free of the chains of AOL, I can download new episodes THE NIGHT THEY COME OUT! And then we can mock them together without a week's delay on my part! When does season three start, anyway? Easterish?

[icepixie]

I really like DT's interpretation of the Doctor (unlike...everybody else ever? apparently?)

I like him, but sometimes he's just...too over the top. Or something. He was better in Casanova.

What would you say the third is? Girl in the Fireplace? Because of its inherent awesomosity?

Nah, that one has The Magic Mindmeld of Luuuurve working against it. My very favorite is School Reunion, because of my unabashed Sarah Jane love.

Yeah, I worry about this fanbase...

Sigh.

Hey, I realized last week that now that I'm free of the chains of AOL, I can download new episodes THE NIGHT THEY COME OUT! And then we can mock them together without a week's delay on my part!

Wheeeee!

When does season three start, anyway? Easterish?

Around then. Of course, there's the Christmas special, too.