Doctor Who Series 9 is almost upon us, which gives Christian Cawley and James McLean the chance to mull over the recent prologue and look forward to the forthcoming run… Plus we’ve got recommendations and some interesting news about the immediate future of the podKast.
Series 5 Episode 31 Shownotes
- Doctor Who Series 9 Prologue
- Kasterborous Doctor Who Series 9 Preview Page
- Recommendations: Death in Paradise Series 2, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis, Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds, Community, Philip Hinchcliffe,
The podKast theme tune is by Russell Hugo. He’s excelled himself this time, hasn’t he?
It’s true that multi-parters are a bigger risk, especially in shorter seasons, but I think it’s a better format than the 24 episode long-running American format with boring, unambitious filler. At least with Doctor Who, the point is random exploration and new settings. In other shows, often times there is an end goal for the season and the long run has characters inexplicably not pursuing those goals for reasons that are quite clearly “we can’t progess the plot until the finale” and we often get very meta-dialogue trying to explain this to the audience, and it harms the show.
I’m ready for Moffat to move on, but I am still excited for Series 9; I think Capaldi and Coleman will do an excellent job, and some of the experimental premises are interesting. I do think Coleman should leave at the end, simply because we can’t stick with the same companion forever (Coleman is great, so it’s nothing personal); I wonder though if they can have a great exit for her. Last Christmas was a prime opportunity, even though I enjoyed the happier twist with her continuing her adventures; I just hope they can craft a fitting resolution for her, whether comedic or tragic.
And I do have to say, Community is a great show. I’ve only watched the first three seasons. I’ve heard the 4th suffered due to NBC getting rid of its creator from the show, and the following seasons lost some of their charm due to some actors moving on to other projects (again NBC, shuffling its time slots, putting the show on hiatus, and just generally trying to destroy it). But I’d recommend it highly, and I need to finish the series myself.
Regarding Community, keep an eye out for INSPECTOR SPACETIME. I was watching Community before Doctor Who, and I knew it was a parody of it (or a loving homage), and I think that actually sparked my interest into getting into this show. It’s very interesting how it comes about: one of the characters is an eccentric TV / film addict. Another character introduces British TV to him, and he immensely enjoys it. But he soon comes to despise it because of the short seasons, and the shows’ short length (one season and done); it can’t satisfy his addiction. So, in desperation to satisfy him, they introduce a science fiction show that is immortal; they can never run out of ideas, and even if all the actors / writers / directors / producers quit, the show can survive. What a brilliant concept!
Nothing I can disagree with there. I do agree short seasons/long seasons have pros and cons in each. Re; Community – yes just got to see Inspector Spacetime in season 3 I think, interesting given Abed mentions K-9 in season 2 – oh, the discontinuity of it all!
James did you ever see the K-9 Australian (TV series), I recently re-watched it and although they cannot have direct links to Doctor Who apart from the first episode which has K-9 Mark 1 being destroyed and regenerated into a new model. I found it enjoyable and it was good that K9 got a full series after they tried with K-9 and Company in the 1980’s.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that I think everyone on Kasterborous.com does an amazing job and I’m really looking forward to your next run of podkasts for series 9!
Why thank you, rare for someone to take the time and energy from their already short life to offer such feedback. It’s very much appreciated. We’ll do our best.