Meta: A question of scale

[unfeathered]

I think I've finally worked out what my problem is with Russell T Davies. It's his belief that drama is only drama if it's on a massive scale. He doesn't get that human drama, the drama of the people we're invested in can be just as epic.


This finally made sense to me today when I was thinking about Children of Earth and the recent Who stories and realised that everything in Who is on a bigger scale than it used to be in the series I grew up watching. And the important part of that, for me, is that in this new series, the general public are now aware that aliens exist and are/have been on Earth. This was never, as far as I can tell, the case in classic Who. (I asked about this at dwcanon_fodder too, just to confirm, and it does seem to be the case: as a couple of people have said, the budgets simply didn't permit the awareness of the general public.)

But the point is that the world that classic Who was set in could have been the world we live in. There are several stories where national or global governments were made aware of aliens, but they were perfectly capable of keep it from most of the general public. That's a hell of a lot harder nowadays, in an age where 'news' can be spread globally in a matter of minutes. And it's also a hell of a lot harder when you have things that people really aren't going to miss, like 10% of the Earth's population sleepwalking onto rooftops, or noxious gasses everywhere and the sky burning, or the Earth moving to a completely different location, or all the world's children talking in unison.

And I've realised, that's what I don't like. Because that makes it a different world to the one I live in, and that means I'm not so emotionally invested in it. I also think that, on the whole, these are stories I've felt less happy with on the whole since I first saw them. Even things on the scale of the destruction of Cardiff in End of Days and Exit Wounds bothered me because that was the sort of thing that would be on the news, and blowing up Roald Dahl Plas in Children of Earth would definitely be noticed! This, of course, is the problem of a show (i.e. Torchwood) set entirely on Earth, but somehow the Third Doctor managed several years on Earth without destruction on this scale.

It's made me realise that the 'epic' stories/finales I prefer are the ones that are generally either on a slightly smaller scale (the Battle of Canary Wharf, for instance, could have been ignored by most people, and the chief drama was on a human scale – the Doctor losing Rose) or actually set in another world time (e.g. The Parting of the Ways – still Earth, but a future Earth). Even the Master's Year of Hell is relatively okay with me because it was reversed – no-one except the characters we care about remember it. Coming back to Children of Earth, the biggest drama for me of that plot was Jack having to kill a single child who was close to him. The rest of it – the images of parents watching their children torn from them, soldiers breaking into homes and carrying children away, children running, screaming, with soldiers close behind them – that wasn't drama, for me. That was horror. And it has lasting effects on the population. Or it should have, anyway. Whether it will or not remains to be seen.

But that, it seems is my problem with Mr Davies. He's brought Doctor Who back and for that I'll always be eternally grateful. But he's also changed irrevocably the kind of show it is, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to accept that.

Ah well. At least I have years and years' worth of classic Who to catch up with. :-)

ETA: I guess this is what Jack means by "The 21st century is when everything changes"... *g*

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

To quote The Tick "You can't blow up the Earth, that's where I keep all my stuff."

Meaning- I agree completely. SG1, SGA, TW, DW, etc- the Earth isn't going to go boom. So it's harder to accept the idea of a cyberman in every home (or whatever) which makes the whole story that much more unbelievable and takes you out of it as a drama you can get sucked up in and you start looking at it as DRAMA for the sake of drama. If that makes sense.

[unfeathered]

That. Yes. That is what I was trying to say. *g*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I found CoE a little ridiculous because of that. How did the governments expect to keep things a secret? And how did only one digital tv station get footage? Today? In the day and age when 90% of people have cellphones with cameras and there is youtube and whatnot to instantly upload footage too?

I know how this world works and the way they showed it? That's not how it works. It just isn't and I can't put aside that much common sense to accept it as such.

[hexiva.livejournal.com]

See, I just don't see how you could possibly have missed the Cyberman invasion in 1986. There's no way the general public in the old series could have been totally ignorant of it, is there? I mean, I realize 1986 was the future then, but in my point of view it's the past.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Yes, Old Who showed those six extremely scary Cyberman coming down those steps in front of Parliment (excellent camera shot!) and, yes, all of London knew about it, but even still the scale is different. I think unfeathered's point is that the big drama overruns the little drama that was explored in the old series. Take, for instance, "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". We got to see one little band of guerilla fighters do their thing. Granted, there thing was part of the epic, but it still had character development. Of course, there is the fact that more production money nowadays translates to audience expectation of flash that simply wasn't possible on the old shoestring budgets. There has to be some glitz now or it won't sell.

[hexiva.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I mean, Earth was going to be destroyed in that story; that seems like a pretty big scale. It wasn't the same scale as Davros's reality destroying thingy (or whatever that was, I'm afraid I didn't understand Journey's End that well), admittedly, but it was on the same scale as Utopia-LotTL and most episodes.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Part of it has to do with the story pacing. Today, the fast and showy stuff --- explosions, guns, and all that running --- is front and center. While you hear the Doctor or Capt. Jack talking about what's the next step he's going to take, it's most often accompanied by the fast flash. That's not to say it shouldn't be. In fact, given audience expectations, it's damn near mandatory. But it is very different from the pacing the old stories, with their limited budgets, were able to employ. Another example --- compare Four and Sarah Jane silently and stealthily skirting around the big abbey in "Pyramids of Mars" with Nine running through the department store basement with Rose in "Rose". Danger situations in both stories, but the delivery is totally different. Tom Baker once said he had to creep around doorways because if he didn't the door jamb would come off in his hand. The way he crept around the door, though, had it's own level of excitement.

I'm afraid I didn't understand Journey's End that well

You Are Not Alone ;-)

[hexiva.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like the story pacing a lot more in the old Doctor Who, partly because, to me, too fast story pacing isn't a problem with Davies, it's a problem inherent in television and movies, or at least all of it I'd watched before -- I think it was Scream of the Shalka.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

I agree --- today, speed is demanded of everything, including Davies' story lines. It was the slower pacing, made necessary in part because the technology didn't exist to support the speed and partly, perhaps, because humans just had more patience then and could sit and follow and enjoy a story line, that allowed for character development, the "little dramas" unfeathered addresses, and just good storytelling.

[unfeathered]

I haven't seen that serial, I'm afraid, so I can't really comment, but even if the general public were aware, then it was one isolated event and easier to gloss over in their minds than the continued invasions of recent years.

Also there probably wasn't global awareness, was there?

That's what I mean by problems of scale - the events of the new series are just too big for the general public to continue to ignore.

[hexiva.livejournal.com]

Mondas was sucking energy out of all Earth in that serial, and I believe it was on the news, too.

It may not happen as often in the old series, but that may partly be because most serials aren't set on present-day Earth like they are in the new series.

[unfeathered]

Yeah, and I think that's also a big part of my problem these days. :-(

[hexiva.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, definitely. Aliens are more interesting. Failing aliens, there should be more Silurians in the new series.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Very well put.

[unfeathered]

Thank you. :-)

And thanks for doing all the explaining up there while I was asleep! *g*

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

I sort of hi-jacked your journal, didn't I. But it was so fun!

[unfeathered]

*shrugs* Eh, it's nice to see other people talking in my journal! :-)

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Watch out, though. We come in, we talk all night, we drink all your beer and eat all your cheese. Shameless, we are.

[unfeathered]

Heh. Well, as long as it's only virtual beer and cheese, I'm fine with that! *g*

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Well, all right then! But now, I'm off home, to my bed, and hopefully some sleep (wipes cracker crumbs off your couch and takes empty bottle to your recycling bin).

[unfeathered]

Thank you for tidying up! *g*

And I'm off to work...