Times new who became a literal parody

[burrunjor]

I don't just mean a decline in quality, I mean when they got so out of ideas they actually turned to spoofs of the show for inspiration and became indistinguishable?

I've got two examples.

The slug man in Extras. To be fair this was a riff on Twin Dilemma which was awful, but in all honesty it reminds me of the most recent episode. 




Then of course there is Curse of Fatal Death where EVERYTHING that was a joke in 1999 actually became canon. Doctor wanting to quit, marry his companion, the universe brings him to life because he is so special, Master gets tits and wants to shag the Doctor, Master in the sewers, the bribed the architect crap etc. 

[rushy]

There's been an ongoing trend of writers trying to tap into the Tom Baker/Douglas Adams style of Doctor Who. I'm so tired of it. I barely liked it when THEY did it, let alone imitators. People don't think the show can be Doctor Who unless it's madcap and random. Unless there's an Orient Express in space, or cocktails on the moon, or the end of the universe is shaped like Belgium. F*ck that.

I'm a bit hypocritical here, because I'd totally eat it up in Red Dwarf, but that's because it's Red Dwarf and also the comedy is better.

For Doctor Who, I prefer the default tone to be Hartnell's aka slight Jules Verne fantasy but mostly played straight.

[Deleted]

Jun 4, 2024 22:49:14 GMT rushy said:

There's been an ongoing trend of writers trying to tap into the Tom Baker/Douglas Adams style of Doctor Who. I'm so tired of it. I barely liked it when THEY did it, let alone imitators. People don't think the show can be Doctor Who unless it's madcap and random. Unless there's an Orient Express in space, or cocktails on the moon, or the end of the universe is shaped like Belgium. F*ck that.

I'm a bit hypocritical here, because I'd totally eat it up in Red Dwarf, but that's because it's Red Dwarf and also the comedy is better.

For Doctor Who, I prefer the default tone to be Hartnell's aka slight Jules Verne fantasy but mostly played straight.

Monkey cheese humour. There are times it can work well, but only if there's the appropriate comic edge to back it up. In Doctor Who it's just so lame.

[burrunjor]

Jun 4, 2024 22:49:14 GMT rushy said:

There's been an ongoing trend of writers trying to tap into the Tom Baker/Douglas Adams style of Doctor Who. I'm so tired of it. I barely liked it when THEY did it, let alone imitators. People don't think the show can be Doctor Who unless it's madcap and random. Unless there's an Orient Express in space, or cocktails on the moon, or the end of the universe is shaped like Belgium. F*ck that.

I'm a bit hypocritical here, because I'd totally eat it up in Red Dwarf, but that's because it's Red Dwarf and also the comedy is better.

For Doctor Who, I prefer the default tone to be Hartnell's aka slight Jules Verne fantasy but mostly played straight.

No, no, you are quite right. For the record I don't think Douglas Adams stuff was as bad as that. City of Death for instance does still have a serious and proper sci fi storyline, and the villain is played by a top actor who takes it seriously. 

To me it's unfair to lump it in with modern crap of fart monsters and Anne Droids. 

It's also not hypocritical in the slightest to say it works in Red Dwarf, or Futurama or Lost in Space, or Rick and Morty for that matter as they are all meant to be sci fi/fantasy comedy series. Characters like Rimmer, Rick Sanchez and Dr Smith would be horrifying in a serious environment when they betray and kill people. 

Any writer who thinks sci fi should be like that in general because it's a silly genre, has no business being in the genre quite frankly. I agree that DW should always take itself more seriously. Yes the Doctor can be a bit wacky and there is nothing wrong with deriving some humour from that, but the stories have to be taken seriously. (Again hence why I have 0 issue with something like City of Death that derives some humour from Tom, but doesn't turn the story into a farce unlike say The Maestro.)