This past year since the show was last on the air, I’ve been rewatching a bunch of classic serials, and quite enjoying the longer format. It’s delightful to have big chunks of story developing over several episodes, not unlike the double (or rare triple) whammys we’ve had in the modern show.
It’s got me thinking, given the difficulties the BBC seem to have shouldering the expense of producing Doctor Who these days — wouldn’t it be feasible to release one or two multi-episode “event” series per year, one finished story each, plus a holiday special?
Altogether they could land at eight or less episodes a year, with lower production costs (say, locations and casting) across each serial. I’m sure there are still quarries and stately manors that weren’t used during Tom Baker’s stint, or deserve a revisit…
Maybe it will even be more realistic to fit a few blocks of shooting in between the main cast’s other engagements, and we could have a steady TARDIS team for (gasp!) three years or more?
Yeah, I’m reaching. Anything would be better than this current “hurry up and wait” BS.
Or the cyclops people from that original Hartnell series. Where they wore mops on their heads, covering most of their face. And had a ping pong ball with a dot on it that they moved with their tongue as an eye.
Hey now, that was top of the line special effects 😄
I still watch the classic series more. I don’t know if it’s just nostalgia, or if I really just enjoy the quarry most of it was shot in. For me the jump in the budget didn’t really add anything of value. Yes it was cheap and hokey, but Pertwee and Baker eras were definitely peak storytelling for me.
To be fair, I believe there just is more of the classic show? 🙂 I like either incarnation of the show equally, but I do think some of the very early nuWho episodes have aged worse than classic era serials. That could also be because I was an adult (of a sort) through the aughts and cringe at the way contemporary society was portrayed…