With the Revival (or better said New televised Doctor Who, since Ncuti’s Run is its own Show) approaching 20 Years, I find it always interesting to look back and kinda compare where classic Who was when it approached its 20th Year.
Which brought me to this Question: With the various Changes, that came over Time and especially now with plenty of Seasons/Series for both Iterations of the Show, which are Things you believe that New televised Doctor Who could learn from the classic Show?
Personally, for me, it’s definitely the Companion Variety. As much as I do have a big Heart for many of the Companion Actors of the Revival or even their Characters. I do however get a bit tired and a little sad about the fact that nowadays we don’t get too many Companions, who break out of the Mold. Like we had plenty of Companions from other Planets, the Future, the Past, or even other Parts of the World besides the UK. While yes there are some Companions who don’t fit in the typical mold, often they aren’t really a “Main Companion” or even feature in all the Episodes of the Series, which they are a part of.
Would be curious seeing what other People think and what Aspects they perhaps wish the Revival would adopt from the old Show.
Agree so firmly, the companions need to stop being contemporary British 20somethings. I know the theory is supposed to be audience relatability, but I’d rather be interested than find it relatabe.
I would also like to see the slowness come back. I know that this won’t happen because of the way modern TV works and what the generic modern audience wants, but I miss meandering and little moments between characters that don’t really do much for the plot. I feel this about most modern TV, it has nooooo breathing room.
Thing is, I don’t even see why this should stop a Companion from a different Background. There are some Moments or Struggles which you could pull off regardless, which many would find relatable. Personally I don’t need a Companion to be relatable, especially since relatability can be such a subjective thing minus maybe some more “universally”, which many can relate to. If I can relate to a Companion, especially if it’s a more personal struggle, that’s of course a big plus, but really not needed. I do get the Point of this Theory/Argument, but also find it super limiting.
Again, on the same page as you. Thinking back, we only really got a few Moments of that in the last Series, which I find disappointing. Yes those Moments may not bring forward the Plot, but I find a huge appeal of Who is that you can set the Characters doing almost everything, and it could work, if you enjoy the Characters enjoy. At least that’s for me the case
This was like my number 1 issue with S14 - it was just too short. Doctor Who, especially Nuwho at least, is an episodic show and you need “normal” episodes to actually get a feel for the companion(s) + their relationship(s) with the Doctor! I think the show really does need to have more episodes per season and to slow down its pacing a lot. Having that time to develop the Doctor-companion relationship is one of the biggest benefits to the serial format and it’s sad that there’s no way modern Doctor Who would ever return to it…
And like y’all have mentioned, I would also love to have more companions that aren’t 20 year olds from the present day UK! It just makes the world of Doctor Who feel… smaller? Like even though they’re going all around the universe, the Doctor is still just ending up with people from the same country and general time period. I’d really love to see more companions from different countries or even at least different time periods, and I think it’d also be nice to see more older companions.
Honestly great point! Feels a bit odd that they were so willing to invite plenty of People with different backgrounds, only for it to change a bit drastically for so many Incarnations. If they are still unsure if they should do Alien or Future/Past Companions again, you can always do Companions from different Places on Earth, like we had with Tegan or Peri!
It’s not a want, it’s a Need. Seriously, I really want this, even shaking up a bit the Age would do a lot to give me Variety, especially since we didn’t have this at all so far. GIVE ME OLD LADY COMPANION, TELEVISED WHO!!! DO IT RTD DO IT!!!
Two things I prefer in classic over New Who is the lack of Doctor romances and how the Doctor had an otherworldly persona.
We’ve discussed the on-screen shipping topic at length on the forum, but I feel like the New Who Doctors come across as a lot more normal than the classic folk.
Totally agree about the modern show just being too fast. Series 9 is my favorite, and a big part of that is how it’s mostly two parters, and where it’s not, they’re closely related single episodes (Girl Who Died/Woman Who Lived, and of course the three at the end), the only true standalone one was Sleep No More. Two parters get it closer in length to a classic 4-parter, and I think having that extra time allows them to tell a more detailed story. I’d like 2-parters to be more commonplace, if not just standard.
Also agree on companion variety. We’ve had enough present day young adults.
I think the modern series makes the Doctor too human-like for the most part too. I think the classic Doctors feel far more distinctly alien aside from maybe 12. And there’s more to an alien feeling Doctor than just making them wacky or goofy sometimes.
Honestly, I think the only thing the modern series really has over the classic is that it looks a lot flashier, but while there are still plenty of modern series episodes that are brilliant, overall I think classic Who is the better approach to storytelling, even if it looks a lot more dated.
Well, based on the little clip in Unleashed, you should get ready to flip those tables. Just pick a cheap one!
Anyway, I’d like to see more alien worlds. It feels as if the Doctor is on Earth much more these days than during Classic (except for early Pertwee of course), even though the budget was way smaller. I want to see imaginative worlds and not just space stations or future Earth.
Also, pure historicals. Why do they have to force in an alien threat every time, when oftentimes, it’s not even needed (such as Rosa)? Give us a proper, character-driven historical in the style of The Crusade, and I’m happy!
Oh, true! Seems like we don’t get that much these days, which is a huge shame. I would also like to add I would like to see more alien worlds inhabited by more alien-looking citizens than humanoids! Feels we have been lacking with new original Aliens that can comeback every once in a while in NuWho, which is a shame, since RTD1 had many brilliant ones.
YES! Feels like the closet we have ever gotten to that was in the Whittaker Years and even then never truly (I still like the Whittaker Historicals for that reason the most, to be frank).
I totally agree with this one, personally I often find I actually relate most to the characters not necessarily intended that way since their struggles actually tend to be more deeply written and often what is most relatable is actually not a copy of my feelings but rather a mirror. And what with my gender and indeterminate brain weirdness, more often than not it’s actually the aliens I relate to most!
Also I really want some lower stakes in general. It doesn’t always have to be the whole universe that’s in danger, if the story is executed well, then the survival of one person feels as important as the world! And in companion exits too, for example, I know it’s a bit of a joke that all the classic companions run off to get married, but I really like it when the characters just make choices for their life instead of it having this whole big tragic thing all the time (I really liked how this was done with Thirteen’s companions, too). I feel like this probably goes a bit in the same direction as just a slower pace actually.
And I’d love to see gallifrey the way it was in the classic series again too, just randomly showing up for a story and then the doctor runs off again, no need to destroy or save the planet every time.
completely agree, not all adventures have to be life threatening, the Romans from Vicki and The Doctor’s perspective is a good example, they’re just running around being a micheivous double act, I like it when the Doctor finds themselves in the middle of a situation and doesn’t do much more than nudge people, happens a lot with the seventh Doctor I think. Off the top of my head Boom Town and Time Heist are the best NuWho examples I think.
Back in classic, the Doctor could barely control his TARDIS, and no one really knew who the Doctor was (other than then the Cybermen and Daleks). He was just some guy that turned up right when everything went haywire. There was no big mystery about the Doctor’s name. He wasn’t the last of the time lords.
One big thing with new Who is just that the Doctor’s position and importance has been inflated. I think I prefer it when the whole universe doesn’t resolve around the Doctor.
And definitely new Who should slow down and take its time with stories, which is something that continual shrinkage of seasons hasn’t helped.
And I do agree that there was a lot more companion variety in classic who. We had people from the past, the future, another universe, and even an American! We need more of that.
I agree about lower stakes stories, too. Maybe the time lords are back, and after the Doctor to pay has back taxes from the past 15 regenerations…
