Pratchett Attacks Doctor Who

[chozo_hybrid]

He's not even a science fiction writer (correct me if I'm wrong)

You're wrong I'm afraid. He did quite a few Sci-Fi as well. Only You Can Save Mankind & Strata for instance.

Given what he's said is about the horrid examples in RTD's episode, I think he's quite justified.

Fair enough, thanks for pointing that out ^_^

I do admit the series has it's issues, but it's not as bad as he makes it out to be most of the time.

Although I do prefer the old school stuff, the new stuff is entertaining.

Someone takes Doctor Who waaaaaay too seriously. The show is definitely NOT trying to be hard Sci-FI in any way. The shows geared towards kids for god's sake. It's not meant to be grounded in realism like HG Wells type stuff is.

The show is not geared toward children, it's made more for all ages. Have you seen the older stuff? A lot of kids would have trouble following those episodes.

 

[Rutskarn]

It's not a documentary Mr Pratchett, it's meant for entertainment.

Well, yeah, and he thinks it's more entertaining if there's a consistent and well-thought-out magical system.

That doesn't make him right or wrong, but it validates his grievance.

@Rainheart: Well, I mean, come on. This is just some guy saying why he doesn't like a show. If he wasn't Terry Pratchett, nobody would pay much attention.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Dr Who is the epitome of soft science fiction. I mean the Weeping Angels are a great villain, and they try to explain it with some crap about quantum states. Like Yahtzee says its science so soft you could spread it on a croissant. I still love it though.

 

[gmer412]

The solution is obvious: Terry Pratchett should write an episode for the new series, and show us all how it's done.

This. I watched The Pirate Planet a while back, which was written by Douglas Adams, and that was pretty brilliant. So, if he thinks the solutions are too implausible, he should write better ones! Problem solved, and I can have time to catch up on all his novels before he writes a new one.

 

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

Is he fucking serious?

He makes his living writing fantasy novels, with clairvoyants, magic, and all that shit.

And yet he calls out Doctor Who?

What a lunatic.

Yet, in the end, just about everything in Discworld somehow makes sense within context. And he resorts to fewer narrative cop-outs. Give the man some credit.

 

['Stache]

Pratchet needs a hobby. Like collecting buttons. Give him something better to do than look for faults in a random television program.

Well, on weekends he writes astonishingly popular books.

 

[i64ever]

While Prachett is known for writing the comically strange, he is quite good at constructing endings to his stories. The solution usually makes a lot of sense, and you the reader have the feeling that you should have seen it coming.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I can't say he's wrong because i've had the same thoughts myself to be honest but i think it's the fact that it's aiming for the kids more than adults that causes it.

But as the man himself says it's damn entertaining!

 

[Deleric]

I skim over the technobabble. I continue to watch without taking things too seriously.

But then again, I'm not the critically acclaimed technopunk writer.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The solution is obvious: Terry Pratchett should write an episode for the new series, and show us all how it's done.

That's precisely what I was thinking. If Pratchett has such criticism for Dr. Who, he should pen a episode for them and show them how to do it "properly."

 

[Knight Templar]

I think I agree 100% with Mr Pratchett, and I think most people would as well because often favorite ep's are those that don't rely too much on the deus.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

While a well-played DEM is worth it, it is occasionally more invigorating to see one that doesn't work, and there have been a few examples in the restart series that have done just that, where no matter how slick the Doctor is, he still can't arrive in time to make everything perfect. Davies had a few good strokes early on, but used it too much to make it plausible, and that carried into the Tennant days, pretty much forcing the new writers to include it as a means of their styles from time to time. In the Empty Child set, when Eccleston says "Just this once, Everybody Lives!" It really should have been something that we can see doesn't happen nearly enough as he'd like, despite the overwhelming amount of power at his hands. After that, with few exceptions, the Doctor wins, almost every time. It's often the ones where he doesn't that stick most in my mind, like The Girl in the Fireplace, The Fires of Pompeii, and Fear Her (even if it was a bit weird). There's plenty of examples where the Doctor pulls a victory out of his rump with nothing more than some excited babble, which is all well and good, but there are those times when we want to sit there and go "What? No....the Doctor...he has to fix it...he has to...He's the Doctor...but there's nothing he can do...", because watching the him trying to get there when he's too far away shows that he's not the omnipotent creature his companions et al believe him to be, and that not even he can do everything. Even with a time machine, you can't be two places at once, and I wouldn't mind seeing him come to that decision, Dark Knight style. Or, hey, if we wanted to really give him a moral quandary, show him confronted with such a decision, only to be lied to, and miss the opportunity to save both, and watch as he contemplates trying to go back on his own time line and change things or live without whatever he lost.

Now that would a developed narrative worthy of watching which way they take the DEM, no?

The solution is obvious: Terry Pratchett should write an episode for the new series, and show us all how it's done.

...I think my head just exploded from trying to pin that much awesome in one thought-space. Brilliant.

Fry will be awesome, Gaiman will be awesome.

Is Fry still set to write one? I thought that had fallen through?

 

[Dirty Apple]

I think I am in agreement with a lot of the other posters here...

Terry Pratchet is complaining that someone's plot is being held together by a bit of string and chewed bubblegum?

Pot, meet kettle.

I can't help, but disagree here. I've always found Pratchett's stories to be consistent within their universe. The rules have been set down, and he plays within them. If Doctor Who exists within "our" universe there should still be rules that apply.

 

[Ih8pkmn]

(nerdrage)

OH, Bugger off, Pratchett!

And, OK, So maybe the Doctor is getting a little Deus Ex on us, but HE CAN TRAVEL THROUGH FUCKING TIME. Who the hell wouldn't become a God in the Machine after a little while of that?

And the Doctor's been at it for over 900 years, so I think Pratchetr can go eat Dalek Plunger!(/nerdrage)

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

I agree with Pratchett's opinions about Doctor Who.
He seems in many episodes to be a jesus like... "we need wine? got any water?" although in one episode he became a tinkerbell equivalent....

I want him to go head to head with something like him that isn't a dalek, the Master or a cyber-men.

a person that can magic wand his way through the story just as well as the doc ...and doing it for reasons that aren't misguided or wrong but ultimately best for everyone. He gets defeated by not Doc's wand or this person's wand...but by glaringly obvious science or psychology.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

Terry Pratchett (who, I will admit, is one of my all-time favourite writers) invented an entire new world that, while being fantasy, had entirely logical internal laws. Hell, even MAGIC became a elemental force, like water or wind or something, and characters in his books CANNOT break or bend those laws. So the interest of his books often lie in finding out how the characters respond to the organised illogic of the laws of the Discworld (as well as in the very clever satire on real world institutions and conventions). So, it would make sense, that the writer of a world where the characters are obedient to their fantasy world laws, might be a little frustrated at a series where the main character can basically do anything.

The problem with Dr Who, I think Terry Pratchett is trying to say, is that his powers are inconsistent and often just devices to move the storyline along. I think if we were all to make a list of various powers Dr Who has demonstrated in one episode, and then inexplicably lost in the next, it would be quite extensive! But, again as Terry Pratchett seems to imply, kudos to the Dr Who people for making a watchable and compelling series that people watch DESPITE the glaring inconsistencies of the Dr Who universe.

I like Terry Pratchett. I like Dr Who. I consider Terry Pratchett to be well within his rights to comment on a TV series... although whoever labelled this thread "Terry Pratchett attacks Dr Who" may have been a bit misguided

 

[LANCE420]

I'm sorry, BSG is a good Sci-Fi show. Dr. Who was decent when they had the first and second actor Mr. blah bleedle and frank tagwhoever and only three dumb earth bimbos following him
But what are they on now? the 11th Who and the billionth bimbo? Want soft sci? Go with a good stable one, like Lexx or Farscape.

Some shows need to know when it's time to die.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Is he fucking serious?

He makes his living writing fantasy novels, with clairvoyants, magic, and all that shit.

And yet he calls out Doctor Who?

What a lunatic.

You do know that Pratchett's novels are usually parodies of regular fantasy tropes? Therefore he has every right to call out Doctor Who.

For what it's worth, I agree with him. This show needs more Chekov's Gun and less Deus Ex Machina.