Planet of the Dead

[glory_jean]

Well, I watched Planet of the Dead. And I liked it- stuff at the end, I'm pretending that I didn't hear, aside.

I might as well face it: I'm RTD's bitch. Use me, abuse me and I come back for more. It remains to be seen whether the Moff will have that effect on me.

I still hate the comic book story arch. I still hate the idea that it's desirable - or even acceptable - to take your hero, wreck him with survivor's guilt, fix him and then proceed to deconstruct his life bit by bit. That's clearly sadism and I feel a little dirty even watching.

Comic book writers say that kids don't want their heroes happy and settled. (Sound familiar?). But I don't see that being true. They may not want to see adults kissing, but that doesn't mean they want them miserable.

My son was only seven when he saw DD and his only comment at the time was "If Rose wanted to stay with the Doctor she should have held on tighter." But I noticed, where before he would bounce off the walls when he heard a new ep was coming, chattering non-stop during the ep and for twenty minutes after, as S3 progressed, he was more and more blase about it. By S4, he watched almost as an afterthought. He would consent to be in the room with us and glance at the screen from time to time. We haven't bought S4 (more due to money trouble than anything else) but we do have S3. Whenever I can manage to coax my son into a DW watching, he always asks for an S2 or S1 ep. He never wants to see S3. And this isn't a kid who's lost interest. We have a permanent TARDIS in the living room. He spent an hour shopping in the dealer room at Outpost Gallifrey. He pined for an R/C Dalek that we couldn't afford. (And bought anyway on the sly. Happy Easter!)

So when they say this is what the kids want - you couldn't prove it by me.



ETA: I just asked my son if he wanted to watch POTD and he responded "no, thank you." So, I asked why and got the shrug. But when I asked if he thought that the show was too sad now, he answered with a sad little, "yeah." Put that in your pipe and smoke it, RTD.


ETA x2: Well the little one watched and enjoyed for the most part. Then when the end turned dark, I could see the dismay in his eyes. The only saving grace was that it was brief and the previews were sufficiently distracting.

Comments

[glory_jean]

That is probably a very good point. The only people who think pining and suffering are romantic are roughly the teens to early twenty-somethings; that brief point in your life when it's all about misery loving company.

Traditional children's lit may be dark but they always have the "fairy-tale ending." You can spend an age with Jungian analysis of kiddie lit, but it boils down to hope. Young kids can't survive without it. Adults trying to bring up these kids can't survive without it.

The creators of Doctor Who still think they are producing a family show. But they have lost their way. They need to decide who their audience is. If it's families, they need to turn back now, they are rapidly heading for a cliff. If it's the teen angst, Twilight/The OC crowd, then by all means continue. Just don't expect the rest of us to join them on the journey.