Monday, April 24, 2006

Spin Off - Turn Off

New Earth didn't really get the new series of Dr. Who off to a good start, but Werewolf more than made up for it... until the end. What a blatant plug for the new spin off show Torchwood.

I'm not opposed to spin offs, in fact I'm rather looking forward to the much darker Torchwood, but when I read today on the Broadcast website that yet another spin off was being planned I couldn't help but think that maybe they're milking it all a little too much. With CBBC planning a cartoon of Dr. Who aimed at younger children and Jetix Europe confirming that they are going to make a CGI version of K-9, could my favorite programme be about to suffer from overkill?

Yes, I understand that programme makers want to exploit the audience's thirst for all things Dr. Who but doesn't flooding the market with the product shorten it's life? We all know what happened to Star Trek when the producers created new shows to satisfy public demand; the show failed. It failed because to satisfy that demand quality had to give way to quantity and because of this old stories were remarketed with new crews. The show had nothing new to say and the audience soon became tired and moved on.

It's obvious that more money has been spent on the new Dr. Who series but the scripts have still been a little raw in places, especially the first episode New Earth. I'm worried that in their desire to satisfy demand quality might be lost and in a season or two we might well see the demise of Dr. Who from our screens once more.

2 comments:

Piers said...

The difference here is that Doctor Who has a proper showrunner.

American TV manages to put out 22 episodes in a full season. We should be able to manage 13 per series, dammit.

Robin Kelly said...

For whatever reason RTD's writing was the worst of the first series with moments only a writer who also produces could get away with (belching bin anyone?). Actually it's probably having to produce as well that's meant less time to write the scripts properly.

The spin-offs don't bother me as they are aimed at different audiences but they have to make sure the main series is right even if it means delaying production until the scripts are ready (which will never happen).