I like to call it the Twin Dilemma Effect, where an absolutely amazing story (The Caves Of Androzani) is immediately followed or preceded by a terrible one (The Twin Dilemma). It’s a strangely common phenomenon I’ve noticed with this franchise, not just on TV, and I wanted to pool some thoughts from others on what you think the biggest shift in quality has been (can be in terms of story, visuals, acting, soundtrack; anything you can think of). This isn’t about some kind of objective scaling, as what is the best and worst differs from person to person; just what YOU think of in terms of the best being right next to the worst.
Aside from the above example, the biggest one for me is going from Deadline to Exile in the Unbound audios. A story about how vital the existence of Doctor Who is as a show for both fans and the people who made it… and then a story that reduces the show down to a bog-standard pub comedy. Invaluable right into disposable.
I know this has sprung from our discussion elsewhere but I think it’s a hard one to quantify because every story is someone’s favourite and whilst some may think there’s a massive dip in quality between two consecutive stories, that chasm may be much less for someone else or even reversed (I’ve even seen people not particularly like Androzani!).
That’s the idea. I recognised what you said about how different everyone’s tastes are, but even with that in mind, it seems like that effect is still a common occurrence for whatever reason. Episode you really like, followed by episode that you don’t. That difference in opinion on where the biggest gaps are is why I wanted to ask, I’m just curious.
For me the biggest example of this is Spyfall part 1 going into part 2. Spyfall part 1 is an amazing action packed spy thriller with a great supporting cast, fun twists, and good mystery. Part 2 on the other hand has some very questionable scenes, and in my opinion one of the worst decisions a showrunner has done in NuWho (destroying Gallifrey again), beaten only by the other worst decision in the same season.
It’s such a tragedy because it had such great potential but instead it just has this black mark on it. I think the 13 era is overhated, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some real baffling choices.
Part of it probably is just that some stories had to be written on short notice or have major changes happen to them, and as far as positioning, you don’t really want all the bad episodes in a row, or people might stop watching.
Though sometimes you’re probably just too close to an episode when writing/filming it to know how it’ll come off to someone who hasn’t seen it before.
And here’s the rub - I recently rewatched this story and absolutely, Part 1 is brilliant. But I don’t think Part 2 is that much of a let down at all. Yes, it loses a bit of the excitement but it still has the Doctor teaming up with Ada and Noor, it still has the three companions saving themselves from the plane crash, it still has the Master being crazy at a Victorian science fair. It wasn’t chalk and cheese really.
I also think there is this assumption that the production team know they have a ‘bad’ episode on their hands which I don’t think they do because they may actually like it a lot themselves. And often the ‘hits’ surprise the team because something just catches the audiences imagination. And something they think is a bonafide certainty in terms of winning over an audience may, for unforeseen reasons, fall flat on its face.
This is why I’m sceptical about this phenomenon being an intentional thing. I don’t think lowly enough of the people who make the show, even its worst moments, to think that they put out subpar material on purpose.
Torchwood: Children of Earth, followed by Torchwood: Miracle Day.
Miracle Day has its good parts but overall is such a letdown as we were all expecting something on the quality of CoE. It kinda killed Torchwood as well
Yeah, I don’t think there is anything objective about this, it’s purely a subjective opinion, I wouldn’t go as far as saying Spyfall part 2 is objectively a bad episode, however, I just really hate that they destroyed Gallifrey again .
I wonder if there’s a way to examine any objective elements of production though.
To take the OP example of Androzani vs Twin, can we look at the direction? The costuming? The set design? The performances? Is that where the perceived drop in quality is (bearing in mind Androzani is a bit of a retread of a much less loved story, The Power of Kroll).
I tend to feel like sometimes they do know they are putting out a bad episode just because they don’t have time to make it better (and may even literally be writing scenes for the episode while they are filming), and other times they don’t.
And, of course, sometimes the episode they rushed out at the last minute ends up being a fan favorite, too. (Wasn’t Midnight dashed off really quickly as filler?)
(From having seen the leaks in a different franchise, sometimes more time can be a double-edged sword, too. Some episodes were majorly improved by changes from the original drafts, but there were also times where most of an episodes problems came from changes…)
Personally, I chalk up the performances as a big reason why the former worked for me and the latter didn’t. Going from two of my favourite one-off villains to the twin clones of Adric was a rough transition. And that’s without getting into Sixth’s particular brand of post-regeneration mental troubles…
“I remember we turned up- in a quarry - to do those opening scenes of Delta fleeing her planet and she had the natives of the planet with her. And the people who were responsible for making the aliens look alien, what they’d done was stuck some cotton wool on their faces and dyed it green. We were all working to the limits of our professionalism. Then me, John and the director turn up and you’ve got aliens running around with cotton wool stuck to their faces. And none of this is planned, nobody wants this to happen. I remember when we were doing the press screening at BAFTA and I was sitting next to this woman journalist and she saw this guy’s face and she snorted with derisive laughter. When we turned up for that day on location and saw those aliens, we were so enraged. Everyone tried so hard, to the best of their abilities but somebody else had thought well, we can just get away with something. And then that journalist’s response, people just can’t take it seriously after seeing that. Someone just didn’t try”. - Andrew Cartmel
I don’t know if they would know that they’re putting out a bad episode, but as someone in another thread mentioned, I do think they do strategically place “weaker” scripts. However, by weaker I wouldn’t say they’re bad, but like Doctor-lite episodes because they understand that the Doctor is the main draw of the show, or experimental episodes like Sleep No More.
Yeah, that’s the tricky part. Maybe I should rephrase what I wrote before: I don’t think the people who make the show put out subpar material on purpose as a form of malice. Production issues happen, and they were rampant during the '80s, so I sympathise with anecdotes like that. But I see that as more a matter of “our hands are tied, let’s work with what we have” rather than any deliberate attempt to screen bad content.
