All becoming a period drama?

[PTeppic]

Just been watching 28.07 (The Idiot's Lantern).

Don't get me wrong, excellent episode (and I'll comment when the thread get's created... )

BUT, watching the "Confidential" thing on digital Three, Mark Gatiss said his brief had been "to write a fifties episode". Which is my point. Are they just picking periods from history (since they're Auntie Beeb [to non-UK peeps that's a colloquialism for the BBC] and have endless period wardrobe supplies) and ticking them off a checklist?

Since the resurrection we've had, going backwards, the seventies (Father's Day), fifties (Idiot's Lantern), forties (Empty Child / Doctor Dances), Victorian (Unquiet Dead / Tooth and Claw) and Regency [though set in France] (Girl in the Fireplace).

I suppose as an alternative to the ubiquitous which sci-fi cliche do we do next, or (it seems) which horror sci-fi is next, which famous personage from history or, indeed, which of Dr Who's previous enemies is next... it's another thread of ideas to consider for the writers...

So, any takers? Sweepstake on what comes next?

Swinging 60s? Flapping 20s?

Or further back? There are loads of costumes from the 17th century lying around: gunpowder plot, civil war, restoration... even Blackadder (!). Or further back, Henry VIII or Elizabethan (and back to Blackadder... )

[As an alternate line to this thread, as if it isn't complicated a post as it is, which period would you like them to consider? Personally, if I was the Companion, I'd be going much further back than a hundred years or so. I'd be there, visiting Da Vinci (loads of scope there!, including satire on certain recent novels/movies), or seeing the Great Wall, Hadrians Wall (?!) or the Pyramids being built, etc.]

[Dave]

Oh! I agree with you, but is that so wrong? Why not put Aunty Beebs enormous Wardrobe to good use?

I actually thought this was a good period to go to. I don't think we have had many dramas set in the fifties. All I remember is something a couple of years ago with Letitia Dean (Sharon Watts in Eastenders) though I never watched it. And 'That'll be the day'. Certainly Doctor Who has never gone there before. When it began in 1963, the fifties was hardly classed as history, but they did originally start out doing the Cavemen, the Aztecs, the Vikings, pretty much what you just described. The Doctor is apparently well aquainted already with Da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Shakespeare from what he has said!

Originally, the idea was that the show would be educational for children, if you can believe it! It was supposed to be completely free of bug-eyed monsters. The Daleks put an end to that, but it didn't go seriously into the space opera genre until Tom Baker. Even so, it has had some great period pieces - The Horror of Fang Rock, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Black Orchid - I don't know if you've seen those, but they are some of the best stories too.

BTW Don't wait for me to start episode threads, I'm a bit slow at the moment being otherwise busy. Also I've stopped looking at too many spoilers on future episodes (hard, I know, when they spoil them at the end of each previous episode, but I'm trying!)

What would I like to see?

That's a hard one, since the best things have probably been taken - your suggestion of Hadrian's Wall, or maybe Aqua Sulis (Roman Bath) might be good.

What about 'Blackadder Goes Forth'? - the First World War trenchs seem like 'hell on earth' from what I've read while researching my family history.

[PTeppic]

Originally posted by Dave
Oh! I agree with you, but is that so wrong? Why not put Aunty Beebs enormous Wardrobe to good use?

Fair point - there has to be some plot, and randomly picking each week from "period", "sci-fi", "history" and "nemeses" is as good as any...

On the costume front, I recall seeing that one of the episodes of Firefly used an original costume from the famous Yul Bryner film "The King and I". Returning to Dr Who, it's entirely possible that BBC Wales in Cardiff doesn't have access to the main wardrobes in London?