Tag: science-fiction

Crippled Doctor Who Program to Continue

On By southwerkIn Opinion

It is truly depressing to write about this show. I own many classic Doctor Who episodes as well as some of the more modern ones like the Matt Smith era.

(Looking for a new doctor?)

Over the last few years, a program designed to interest young people in science has become a bizarre experiment in bad writing.

Stunts like the first female doctor and then the first black doctor and then Billie Piper as the latest permutation of the doctor are failures to do good writing or naturally and logically continue the series. Before you insult me as disliking women and minorities, I am very much a fan of female characters, the women who played The Master and the Tardis would have made grand Doctors. Idris Elba would have been a wonderful doctor. It is not race or sex, it is the choices.

When you choose a doctor, getting a rise out of the audience and creating controversy is not what you’re supposed to be doing. You are supposed to be casting a strong actor who will convey the essence of the character — and continue the BBC’s stated goal of encouraging young people to engage in science.

Far more significant than opinion I might express are the ratings. You might think I’m mistaken in my dislike.

But do you think the fans are mistaken when the ratings border on tragedy? Does the opinion of those who in huge numbers found other things to do and other shows to watch matter? I think they do.

How few people have to take the time to watch this before the fat lady sings?

And I have to confess after the decisions made by the show runners over the last few years, I can’t help be fear what they are going to do next. I mean just what kind of nutty, illogical nonsense are they going to pull out of their hat given new episodes to play with?

The BBC claims that the show will continue. What is interesting is that they made no commitment to who will run or act in that show and what form it would take. The only guarantee is that we would see the Tardis. Remember the devil is in the details.

Michael Savage writing for the Guardian reports that Doctor Who will continue, BBC reassures fans

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/aug/21/doctor-who-will-continue-bbc-reassures-fans

It has been attacked for running “woke” storylines and criticised for falling ratings. Its leading actor made a surprise departure at the end of the last series. Yet the BBC has now issued a reassurance to Doctor Who fans worried about the future of the show: “the Tardis is going nowhere”.

Speculation around the show had grown in recent months after Ncuti Gatwa played the eponymous Doctor for only two series before departing in the finale of the programme’s 15th series in May.

Since then, both the BBC and Disney+ – which has co-funded the last two series – have been tight-lipped over the show’s future. However, speaking at the Edinburgh TV festival, the BBC’s content chief, Kate Phillips, told anxious fans it had a future, whether or not Disney+ stayed onboard.

What is the business ethics here? Well, let’s say a hypothetical program that was once a ratings blockbuster was re-designed to attract a very small niche audience depriving its regular fans of their entertainment and their wishes. Hypothetically. Would that be wrong? I think there might be circumstances under which that could be justified. If political points of view are important enough to overtake a show’s original purpose, I believe that is a legitimate choice.

As for those who like the original program, they have other viewing choices.

But if the ratings show failure, should the show change course or end? I think those are also legitimate choices.

I personally believe that show should go on hiatus while they develop a new creative team and select new actors starting from scratch.

That is what I think. Here is more about the ratings.

DOCTOR WHO Ratings Plummet Amid Reports That The BBC Has Axed Ncuti Gatwa As The Time Lord By JoshWilding

https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/television/doctor-who-ratings-plummet-amid-reports-that-the-bbc-has-axed-ncuti-gatwa-as-the-time-lord-a8933

A big-money deal with Disney+ was meant to bring Doctor Who to a global audience, with Russell T Davies considered a safe pair of hands to put the franchise in after he successfully relaunched the show in the mid-2000s with actors like Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Billie Piper.

However, his “woke” storylines have drawn widespread criticisms, with even longtime fans feeling that the show has become too heavy-handed and preachy with its messaging. Ncuti Gatwa, meanwhile, has supposedly been axed from the series (the BBC responded to those claims by calling it “pure fiction”).

This newest report has analysed the seven-day viewing figures for the first half of Gatwa’s second year in the TARDIS, and they don’t make for pretty reading.

To summarize, the ratings are worse than dismal. The fans are voting with their watching habits and they are not watching Doctor Who.

That is a legitimate concern for all of us.

If you love the core ideas that made doctor who a classic, then let us advocate for a strong show that continues the tradition.

James Alan Pilant

Scott Bakula May Return In New Star Trek Series

On By southwerkIn Editorial

I watched all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise. I very much enjoyed it. And as a writer in business ethics, I could not fail to observe the intensely moral approach the show took to major idea like Fascism and tolerance for other races. It showed a society moving away from a capitalist outlook to a standard of individual achievement, a planet where wars were no long fought between the different nations where technology had brought all humans to a high standard of living.

A very optimistic show, you might say, a show that embodied the very American concept of progress, tolerance and justice continuing on the march, a concept very much in doubt as this time.

Should Bakula return, I have no doubt the new series will make me proud as an advocate of ethics and morality. And should it return I will do a moral analysis on episodes that draw my interest.

By http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Enterprise_(NX-01), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15537017 (Borrowed from my friends at Wikipedia with my thanks!)

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/20-years-star-trek-enterprise-220304144.html

(Quoted directly from the article listed above.) The premise for this potential show originates from the Enterprise episode “A Mirror Darkly Part II,” where the evil Mirror Universe read information about his Prime Universe counterpart found in the database of the USS Defiant, a Prime Universe ship previously seen the Original Series episode “The Tholian Web” that had been sent back in time. There was a graphic showing that Archer entered the political life after retiring as an admiral in Starfleet and eventually achieved his presidential position in the Federation, which founded six years after the main events of Enterprise, as seen in the controversial series finale. Well, it turns out it was Michael Sussman himself who came up with this piece of trivia. (End Quote.)

I hope Scott Bakula returns and that the new show is a big hit. We need more like it.

James Alan Pilant

Doctor Who Ratings Disaster

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The last three Doctor Who episodes are some of the lowest rated shows in the entire history of the franchise. That is in all of the sixty years of this formerly successful show. This horrible performance is not surprising considering we went from science fiction to a promotional vehicle for alternate life styles. That’s not Doctor Who.

How about Rotten Tomatoes? A 95% score for the critics and 28% from the audience. When transgender themes are significant in a program, the critics find this novel and worthy of their approval. It’s not novel anymore and dramatic lecturing about how wonderful these lifestyles are does not make for good story telling. The intellectual bankruptcy of modern criticism is everywhere evident and any intelligent human being will rely on the audience reaction.

What should be done? The British should fire everyone and I mean everyone. Fire the showrunner, the actors, the producers, everybody, find the guy the that sweeps up at night, fire him too.

And then wait for the memory of this “entertainment” to diminish in the public mind. At least five or six years until some innocent can say “Whatever happened to Doctor Who?” And then let’s find a new actor to play the doctor, an experienced actor with gravitas and a good track record in dealing with the public (someone who doesn’t tell the audience to “touch grass”). Maybe even someone who performed Shakespeare?

Then above all we have to find good writers who know and love science fiction — and who intend to write science fiction stories that motivate good acting and entertainment. It could celebrate heroism, good deeds and honor. It could tell coherent stories that are each uniquely interesting while being related to the development of the whole. Quality writing for a change.

And if you want a quality show, no one and I mean, no one gets hired because they’re female, lesbian, bisexual or just plain nuts. Hiring is based solely on merit and if the person with merit is a white male, well, we’ll manage to deal with it.

Let’s have a Doctor Who that celebrates its tradition of the human race confronted with the vastness and complexity of space. Let’s see adventure without an unhealthy fascination and advocacy of alternate lifestyles.

James Pilant

Doctor Who Bombs.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I was about 16 when I first watched Doctor Who. The idea that someday it would become a home for gay and crossdressing themes would have surprised me. But here we are.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a gay character if the writing and the science fiction is good. But this show is no longer about good writing or science fiction, the focus is clearly on convincing you the viewer that alternate sexuality is utterly, completely, without any question normal and very, very important.

I started Doctor Who with Tom Baker back in the mid-1970’s. In classic Doctor Who, the stories take place all across space and time and are adventures in which a space alien of enormous age and experience protects the earth and its inhabitants from various dangers. It has run for many years. During that period it has generated high viewership numbers some of them record breakers.

Not any more.

I’ m one of that most hated species of all in the world of “woke” entertainment, I’m a fan. Our insistence on good writing, sensible plots and perhaps even a willingness to watch white men act heroically makes us incredibly obsolete in a media world where all character for some reason need to be reimagined as different sexes and races while often behaving as psychopaths. And it’s all our fault when feminist themed superheroes and science fiction fail — every single time. It’s not bad writing, nonsensical characters and pitiful marketing choices, it is because people like me are racist, sexist and intolerant. At least, that’s what the producers, directors and actors say after each multimillion bomb. So, obviously it must be true.

It is time for me to give up. It is time for all of us fans to give up. The good writing and science fiction themes we valued as basic parts of the franchise are gone forever. The Disney Company is providing financing. They are dictating a multi-sexual cast propagating a political agenda in each and every episode. They have billions and billions of dollars and if no one watches it, they don’t care. They will simply claim that the BBC viewership numbers are just small part of the picture and it is doing fine on other venues —- all of which they control and keep totally, completely secret. They could run 90 minutes of static and claim success and who know, at some point in the future they just might.

This isn’t good business ethics. If you’ve been watching a show for forty some years plus and it is good science fiction while having some of the finest writers in television, you get used to that. It is poor ethics to provide a bad product that no longer resembles the basic themes that made it successful. Poor writing, blatant preaching and silly characters are bad for any series and they are bad, bad business ethics. Let’s be blunt – you don’t market watered down bleach as fine wine. People can tell.

Don’t despair. There is fan fiction and we have years of past wonderful episodes to watch. None of which has been in anyway touched by the Walt Disney Company! That world where people traveled with the Doctor on behalf of humanity in a continued adventure still exists in the past episodes and continuing radio shows and novels. There is still a lot of Doctor Who left.

James Alan Pilant

BBC Doctor Who branded ‘woke’ and ‘unwatchable’ as TV ratings plummet following return to screens (msn.com)

Noisy and crude but accurate especially in its assessment of viewership numbers.

The Unifying Concept between the Three Great British Classics, Quatermass, Doctor Who, and Sherlock

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment
A British creation that depends on intelligence and rational judgment rather than action.
The Doctor quite often simply uses his intelligence and experience to solve problems.
A truly massive intelligence.

A few nights ago I was watching “Sherlock” for the fourth or fifth time. In this watching I am in now in the 4th season. I realized many similarities to Doctor Who and then I realized that it was also related to Quatermass.

I realize that while many Americans (my most common readers) have a passing knowledge of Doctor Who and Sherlock, Quatermass may be too far in the past for my readers. So, let me explain.

If you watch American science fiction from the 1950’s you get spaceships, bug eyed monsters, ray guns, a militarized exploration of space and considerable amounts of fighting. British science fiction in many ways rises from the Quatermass films both from live television and the cinema. To quote wikipedia:

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the British Experimental Rocket Group. He continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Quatermass

YouTube has several of the original British programs some them apparently filmed live. And of course, you can see the movies, a number of which star the American Brian Donlevy. I heartily recommend them. A good start would be film. “The Quatermass Xperiment.”

That said, what common themes link all three of these very successful and very long running heroes? Each series deals with extraordinary problems, far more serious and often outside the realms of our real life experiences and even probability. Quatermass struggles against alien plots and obstructive government officials, Sherlock struggles against highly intelligent often diabolical criminal masterminds, and Doctor Who while primarily concerned with alien dangers faces a somewhat larger variety of opponents. All of the heroes have incredible skills and useful experience. Each has extensively prepared for these struggles.

Yes, but what is the unifying concept that makes all these not only similar but successful? It is the belief that applied intelligence and moral force can change what happens. Each one very often seems to be a minor player in a world gone made, a world in which the powers of government and law enforcement seem helpless, in which the smallest hope seems ridiculous. And yet, they still win. One of the reasons they are compelling entertainment is enormous odds arrayed against our heroes and the moral power and confidence of their stand against those odds.

The world that we live in often makes us feel helpless and useless. Maslow’s “the Jonah Complex” is very much in play these days as we confront an online world which empowers every totalitarian impulse, internet loon and international grifter. These three epics of heroism and meaning work to give us hope, examples of words and intelligence making a difference, changing an apparently pre-destined unfair and destructive outcome to a positive one.

Each of the three carries several of the same messages, that struggling for what is right is important and worthwhile. That good can and does often triumph. And finally, human intelligence, will and courage make a difference all the time every day in every way.

Certainly, art expressed in the form of television and movie entertainment carries moral responsibility. You do unfortunately see nihilism and other negative moral themes in some of this but currently this is still a minority. All three have serious faults, in particular, Doctor Who, which I believe peaked with Matt Smith and has been in decline ever since. But in spite of their faults their messages of moral struggle is a good one and worthy of an artistic endeavor even one devoted to mere entertainment.

James Alan Pilant