Saturday, April 23, 2011
INTELLECT AND ROMANCE OVER BRUTE FORCE AND CYNICISM:A Doctor Who season premiere filmed on location in the US? The return of River Song and her continuing effort to figure out in what order she intersects with the Doctor? The Doctor explaining how Stetsons are cool? The return of the "The Doctor can't remember what he likes to eat" joke? I'll take that! (Not sure how I feel about the Amy Pond premise-explaining opening voiceover, but I can understand why it might be necessary for new audiences, which they're clearly hoping for given the substantial promotional campaign BBC America has undertaken.) Discuss.
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Ahh- we didn't get the Amy Pond voiceover here in the UK. Overall it was a highly enjoyable enjoyable episode with lots of good stuff- though the husband was annoyed by the amount of set-up content vs. actual content. A larger question- is this the beginning of global TV? Will the UK and US be sharing it's programs with less and less lag time? Isn't it interesting that it's being spearheaded by a company not set up to be for-profit? (The British bias against things being for-profit is astounding!)
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing about the voiceover is that it reinforces the idea that Moffat's Who is the story of a young Scottish woman and her strange alien sidekick, instead of the other way around. Which is fine, but kind of a departure.
ReplyDeleteI dunno about that. There were largely chunks of the Eccleston/Tennant era where Rose seemed to be the main character as well. It was only when Martha and Donna came in that the modern show seemed to tilt more in the direction of being about the Doctor's journey.
ReplyDeleteI found the vo very annoying, but understood it for new US viewers. Over time, some of the companions have been used pretty explicitly as the surrogate for the audience. I don't think I'm being sentimental when I say this, but that was how Sarah Jane became so beloved--and set a standard for companions to come.
ReplyDeleteI think the VO skews things to Amy's perspective, and naturally, the show seems Amy-focused after the end of Tennant's run with the specials, which were very focused on the Doctor's journey and acceptance of his mortality (or lack thereof).
ReplyDeleteAs for the "global TV" question, we've already seen it with the success of Canada/US coproductions (Flashpoint, Rookie Blue) and the new Torchwood mini, which is a BBC/Starz coproduction. (Arguably, Rome also counts, since that was BBC, in part. Doctor Who is getting day and date because it attracts a substantial and quite tech-savvy audience, which means piracy is a real problem. Other popular British shows, far less so, particularly since it's heavy on soaps.
I wonder how much the day and date approach will help reduce piracy from those who have previously pirated Doctor Who, given that the BBC America is still airing cutdown versions that are about 15 minutes shorter than those aired in the UK. The BBC had said they would begin airing the uncut hour in the US, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.
ReplyDeleteAs for "global TV" in general, it makes sense that the day and date capitulation for international distribution occurred within a single entity like the BBC, as the execs at the parent company can force the decision. It's happening much slower in the commercial TV market, because many companies have been willing to take lowered amounts of copro funding (because piracy and "spoiling" arising from the global reach of industry press has eroded values for secondary market exhibitions) to maintain their exhibition exclusivity. This general approach appears to be a real deadweight loss that the BBC can avoide because of the corporate tie to its distributor. At some point, the commercial market will figure out how to price this all effectively, and then we'll see something approaching day and date for most international coproductions.
My understanding is that aside from the voiceover, the premiere was substantially uncut from the British version (which was 45 minutes). It also helps that these episodes in particular look GORGEOUS in HD with all the location shooting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Matt. That's great. It seemed to me that pieces were cut out because one or two of the act breaks felt sudden, but I guess that may be because the program may not be initially written for act breaks.
ReplyDeletewhat exactly did the voiceover say? i watched the british version.
ReplyDeleteI have to reitterate Alan here. Didn't someone actually say how the Rose Tyler era was actually Rose's story? It was certainly seen through Rose's eyes.
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