Audience Reaction Report for ‘Doctor Who’ for 1987...

[Pyan]

 

[CupofJoe]

Sophie Aldred's Ace was always my favourite Dr Who buddy.
I'd like to know the wording of the questions as they were asked, because they seem to be be somewhat skewed from the way they are reported. But that could just be the spin put on them.

 

[Bagpuss]

Mel was always an awkward character, because she's never really explained. She turns up in the Trial of a Time Lord series as a participant in one serial and a witness for the Doctor in the second serial, but it's never explained how she met the Doctor or started travelling with him or how they know each other. She just basically appears out of nowhere and then she and the Doctor randomly leave together at the end of the final serial of the series, although clearly they'd never met at the start of the series.

On an unrelated note - what the hell was "Boogie Outlaws" and "Pulaski"?

I'd like to know the wording of the questions as they were asked, because they seem to be be somewhat skewed from the way they are reported.

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Interestingly, this page of the report doesn't actually give Aldred's rating for her serial (I'm assuming it's Dragonfire). It states Langford's rating for the series (and how did they arrive at that figure?). It states that Aldred's is more, (at that point Aldred had been in 1 serial and Langford had been in for 6) but it doesn't give the actual figure - how much more would be my question? Why not give the figure?

More questions that answers, I think. Do you have more pages of the report?

 

[Vladd67]

I think Pulaski was a series about an American actor playing a detective in a UK series who solved crime on the side.
Ah yes all IMDB has is this

Actor Larry Summers stars in the TV-series 'Pulaski', about a brave and honest private detective and former priest. Off-camera, Summers is a drunk and general bad-boy - his television character's exact opposite. Problems arise when Summers begins to find it hard to separate fiction and real life.

I remember it being around at the early days of mobile phones as his PA carried a large box on a shoulder strap with a hand set attached. Probably something like this.

 

[Vladd67]

The change in time slot did Dr Who no favours, it was always on Saturday evenings along with The Generation Game etc. but then along came Michael Grade as the new controller of BBC1 who hated Dr Who. He moved it to Monday evening at 7:30 where it was up against Coronation Street, a popular soap opera, on ITV, now I was lucky that my mum didn't really watch "Corrie" and so didn't insist on turning over, plus I had a portable tv in my room, but in an era before mass ownership of video recorders, or at least the early days of their popularity, many Doctor Who fans must have missed out. When it came down to a choice between a Mum's soap opera and a Sci-Fi fans programme the soap usually won.

 

[Vladd67]

@Bagpuss found this.

 

[CupofJoe]

Boogie Outlaws sound great!
A dystopian future where the army help the police enforce the law...

There is a band. Nothing special until one of them gets arrested by the army. Easier to rescue the drummer they've got than find a new one. Then they're notorious - and valuable!

 

[Bagpuss]

I think Pulaski was a series about an American actor playing a detective in a UK series who solved crime on the side.

Thanks, I think I see why I don't remember it.

Boogie Outlaws sound great! A dystopian future where the army help the police enforce the law

Sounds great, reality probably less so. Are we living in that now? Oh no, my mistake, silly me, the police don't really need any help to enforce the laws they make up.

He moved it to Monday evening at 7:30

Which I remember as being GREAT!! - I wasn't a soap opera fan, and my parents were never Corrie fans, so I remember watching Remembrance of the Daleks on a Monday night. It was great. As were Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.

 

[paranoid marvin]

As Alan Partridge found out, when the guy running the tv station doesn't like your show then you're history. It's a bit more difficult with a popular, cult tv show, but it is still possible. Having said that, the magic years of the earlier Doctors and script writers was long gone, the last of them being Robert Holmes (who sadly passed away in the Colin Baker era). But then Michael Grade decided that he wanted 'more comedy, less violence' (which is exactly what you're looking for in a sci-fi drama, right?) that pretty much ensured the end of the series. And it has never recovered.

 

[Pyan]

I don't think becoming a series instead of a serial helped, either.

I was under the impression that Dr Katherine Pulaski was one of the Chief Medical Officers on the USS Enterprise 'D'...

 

[paranoid marvin]

I don't think becoming a series instead of a serial helped, either.

I was under the impression that Dr Katherine Pulaski was one of the Chief Medical Officers on the USS Enterprise 'D'...

I agree. New writers could come in and choose vastly differing adventures for the Doctor. One week he would be surviving the attack of alien entity in a lighthouse on Earth, the next solving a murder on a secluded space station millions of light years from Earth. Occasionally there were links, but most stood on their own as independent stories. And the writers could take more chances with storylines, because if it wasn't like there was an ongoing narrative to tie them to.

There has been plenty of stuff 'fixed' that was never broken, but that is the way with long-running series.