Speeding up Classic Who

While me and my partner have been watching classic who, they complained about how slow it can be. I can’t say I disagree, especially with the first few series. I decided to give playing it at 1.2 speed a go. It works great. The voices don’t really change but the plot seems to be at, what I’d call, a more modern pace. We both agree that for at least the First Doctor this is how we will be watching them.

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It’s not something I’m doing for my current watch through but it’s something I think I’m pretty likely to do if I revisit some episode

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I can’t believe I hadn’t thought to this this myself, especially considering how many times my cat walked on my keyboard and accidentally changed the playback speed of an episode I was watching. Might try this the next time I have trouble getting through a serial.

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I think it will be helpful when we get into the recons. Some of them can be a slog.

Also a 2h 30 min serial is just over 2 hours. Doesn’t sound like much but its amazing how much it helps.

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I might try this when I try to watch “Delta and the Bannermen” again. Or maybe put it on 2x speed :laughing: /j

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Watching things at 2x speed, or any faster speed, seems counterintuitive to me because it’s not the intended viewing experience. This also applies to rewatches, but it’s even worse if you do it on a first-time watch! It’s a bit sad that in our postmodern society today, we live in a constant flow of information and entertainment, but we don’t have enough time to consume it all, so we have started to watch movies and TV shows, listen to podcasts, and devour media at artificial speeds to keep up with everything. However, this destroys the product’s flow, as intended by the creators. I blame TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Instagram reels for this development.

I’m also guilty of this crime, as I cannot sit through The Web Planet or Underworld without speeding things up. However, I would never listen to a Big Finish audio with a faster speed, as that would totally destroy the feel and flow of the adventure (no matter how boring it is).

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I can’t watch things at sped up rates.
I wouldn’t either listen to music sped up, rush through an art museum or read an abridged book - just doesn’t feel right to me, but I suppose that’s a personal preference really :slightly_smiling_face:

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I used to listen to podcasts 2x speed but have chosen to stop. I enjoy stuff more now.

But I might do this for telsnaps in the future.

One of the things Owl House left me with is that I cannot see/hear “Blasphemy!” without thinking “Blasphem-you!”. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Personally, I can watch things with the speed increased, but not a show, just things that are educational, where I’m just trying to learn something from them…

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Yet something I haven’t seen :slightly_smiling_face:

It was a great scene, said by one of my favorite characters in the show. Though they are really good at writing characters, so I rather have a good number of them.

It is a show I did enjoy a lot. Though it is a show where the best of it is kinda the last fourth of season 1 on. (The first 3/4’s is good, though.)

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Maybe I should try watching Flux Episode 1 slowed down then - it was way too fast & disjointed for me to keep up with

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Oh I’m so glad others have been into the thread and said they couldn’t do this ‘speed up’ thing because when I read the post I thought I was being incredibly old and grumpy in my adverse reaction.

I don’t see how watching it at an increased speed improves the pace of the plot at all - the plot beats will still be in the same place and order. Surely a plot’s pace could only be ‘speeded up’ by editing.

But aside from that, I actually think it does a disservice to the directors of the time. There are choices they have made for length of shots, pace of scenes etc. This also applies to the actors too who have made choices of when to pause, reactions etc. Now I’m not saying Doctor Who is some great art form and that some stories aren’t clunky and shoddy in both performance and direction - because we all know they are - but I really think watching any classic Who speeded up is missing the point of watching the show. Classic Who is bound to the era of television it was being produced in and therefore we need to acknowledge that context when we watch it.

But I get that I’m old and grumpy and clinging on to the past. I can be as guilty with modern media - if a instagram reel or youtube short is longer than a couple of minutes, I’m skipping to the end or skipping it altogether. But that’s because those are designed to be in short form and consumed quickly.

Doctor Who should be savoured not gobbled down.

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I am happy to be old and grumpy alongside you :+1:

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Now, that’s just mean :cry:

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Thirding the old and grumpy club, I’ve never seen the appeal of speeding things up, Doctor Who or anything else. It was made that way for a reason, and everything is so fast these days that I like having to spend time slowly. I’m also the kind of person who listens to full albums in the right order, so I guess that says something about me :rofl:

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I listen to a lot of individual songs, but there are definitely some albums you really should listen to in full, in order, especially if it’s a concept album. Things like Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century”, or Alan Parson Project’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination”, or ELO’s “Time”…

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I don’t feel very old yet, but can I be young and grumpy?

I also do this, and it’s not unusual because many albums follow a specific idea or theme, giving them a distinct flow. This applies to other albums than concept albums as well.

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