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Post by Mark Senior on Jan 22, 2007 18:03:52 GMT -5
More to the point the first time I watched the reimagined Battlestar Galactica it made me give up on Star Trek in all its incarnations but it never made me want to miss an episode of Doctor Who. Maybe BG would have been a better target for some Trekky ire.
Okay, Trek and Who are sixties series that were dumped, revived and came back strongly. To my mind the ever larger weaponry and technology of Trek, warping in to save beleagured star systems, seems to reflect one aspect of American culture while the eccentric-with-a-screwdriver popping into council estates to see off some dodgy scrap metal dealers from another planet is peculiarly English. Maybe the contributors who write along the lines of 'Why should we care if the majority of Americans don't get it?' are right.
'Spock's Brain' was very funny, though, and nowhere near as bad as 'Star Trek V: This Nonsensical Script Will Do' or any of the (yawn) holodeck (yawn) episodezzz. DS9's Tribble show was pure class, and I'd love to see a Who episode where the Doctor runs around in the background of one of his earlier incarnation's stories.
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Post by The Thinker on Jan 24, 2007 15:38:15 GMT -5
More to the point the first time I watched the reimagined Battlestar Galactica it made me give up on Star Trek in all its incarnations but it never made me want to miss an episode of Doctor Who. Maybe BG would have been a better target for some Trekky ire. I thought Star Wars would've been a better target. From what I hear there were only ever 22 episodes of BSG made.
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Post by Mark Senior on Jan 28, 2007 16:46:19 GMT -5
Nah, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, not the cruddy Star Wars rip-off from the 70s. It's the best thing on TV at the moment. And don't get me started on Star Wars. Or the Clangers.
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Post by The Thinker on Jan 28, 2007 16:55:56 GMT -5
Nah, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, not the cruddy Star Wars rip-off from the 70s. It's the best thing on TV at the moment. And don't get me started on Star Wars. Or the Clangers. That's of course a matter of opinion. The reason why I said that Star Wars would make a better target for Trekkie ire is due to the immense popularity of the six films etc. Really, in comparison Battlestar Galactica was never as popular, and as for the new version; although it may have a larger fan base, it seems unlikely that it'll develop one the size that Star Wars has, for the moment.
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Post by doctornk9 on Jan 28, 2007 21:17:25 GMT -5
you have to remember also that this program is aimed at children as well as adults,it isnt on one of the u.s's bigger channels and to be holy honest it is very much aimed at a uk audience,to class it against trek(of which im a fan to)is rather here nor there as trek was for the worldwide audience and even trek was battered by the critics something i was reading the other day was for DS9 some viewing figures were as low as 3million. Also international broadcasters dont go spending lots of money on programs they dont think have the ability to catch an audience and lets face it it wouldnt have made the longest running scifi if it was totally bad,anyway most of our u.s. cousins ive spoke to have enjoyed DW
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Post by doctornk9 on Jan 28, 2007 21:22:19 GMT -5
sorry cant help myself,but from what ive learnt about u.s's scifi channel there top billing progs ie trek battlestar etc only grab around 2-3million viewers and isnt scifi a cable channel in the u.s??
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Post by Mark Senior on Jan 29, 2007 18:16:02 GMT -5
Obviously, as this thread started with a point about audience figures you both make excellent arguments. I was actually writing about the quality of the various shows under discussion. I've always had a soft spot for Doctor Who even though I'm very aware that there were a few stories (okay, years) where the standard slipped markedly. But it's just one of those progs that you love for its failings as much as for its successes. Perhaps I should do the same for other series, but Voyager and the Trek movies after #4 were pretty poor and (yes I know its a matter of opinion) so were the last four Star Wars movies. Now maybe I'm biased because Who is British or because its part of my childhood nostalgia but I just like it, and except for a couple of episodes in the New Series it seems to be stronger than ever. I liked DS9 and Enterprise (till BSG came back and blew it away). My kids watch Star Wars, BSG and Doctor Who. The world would be worse if they didn't.
By the way I completely lost track of what I was saying back there, did you notice?
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Post by cindylouwho on Sept 19, 2007 11:08:36 GMT -5
Actually, I do care how this series performs in America ... since I'm, well, American, and I don't want them to cease to broadcast them here. While this 'member' (using the term loosely) may have been here posting for the wrong reasons (maybe he go lost looking for the picard vs kirk forums, that'd be my guess), he still does have a point. Why did this series not perform well here in the states? I'm sure there are a number of reasons but one that I'm wondering about is lack of publicity.
I've seen the new series advertised here but only on BBC America and Sci Fi channels where it runs, neither of which commands a very large viewing audience. BBC America typically is assigned a rather high channel number and therefore often unconsidered by most Americans for regular viewing (3-digit channel numbers? I was told there would be no math...). The more popular shows from BBC are normally carried on another network lower in the channel list, so generally people don't watch the actual network they came from.
When I say the current series is run here, its a bit sketchy. You can only catch them once a week on sci fi network, no replays. If you missed an episode, well..., maybe you can calculate the area under the channel-surfer curve, fight back the vicious Home Shopping Network monster and all its cousins, and divine the location BBC America. They have 4 viewings each week with replays. I imagine this schedule is similar to what you might see in the UK?
Also, all the classic Doctor Who episodes have been completely removed (Same old story ... 843 channels and nothing on ... ). This is unfortunate as they could run these and advertise the new series during the run. Plus, I'd love to watch the older series once in a while. Do they still run these in the UK?
I know I only recently found out about the series myself and I do consider myself a fan of the old series, but I imagine this is mostly because I don't watch much television. All I can say is I hope at least some of the reason is lack of publicity. I'd hate to have to wait for these to all make it to DVD format before viewing them.
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Post by bigman012 on Aug 7, 2011 0:12:07 GMT -5
ok who cares if i didn't do that well in america. Iam american and i say that doctor who is the greatest Science fiction show ever created. And maybe thats the problem people just don't seem to like a pure science fiction show anymore they would rather see something that has some sort of fantasy plot or science fiction plot but instead of it carrying out with the science part of science fiction people would rather see dumbed down violent shows. Or they would rather see a show that is like a science fiction soap opera. Best example is that crap show stargate universe. That show made me hate the stargate series. Science fiction as it should be is dying out and the fans of older shows like Star Trek and Star wars are unable to find real science fiction shows.
Unfortunately the Sci-Fi show might die off if this keeps up.
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