Doctor Who

[Nathan G]

It is interesting to note how television shows are affected by different generations, and as Doctor Who has been going on for over 50 years, it spans multiple generational eras. The primary audience for each era is whoever are the rising adults. I have thus divided the different Doctors accordingly:

The "Awakening Doctors", from 1963-1984, spans the careers of five: Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Davison. The primary audience are the Baby Boomers. At this time there was a lot more dialogue than action, focusing on the philosophical meaning of the characters' actions. The Doctor himself is the ultimate Prophet type, acting as a wise, old guardian who always know the right thing to do. If his intentions are ever questioned, they always turns out to be good in the end. Villains are usually cold, emotionless robots, mad scientists or secret masterminds.

The "Unraveling Doctors", from 1984-1996, includes only three: Colin Baker, McCoy, and McGann. The target audience here is Generation X. Baker and McCoy would regularly commit grand schemes of almost ambiguous morality, including the assassination of enemies and abandoning of companions. This was also the appearance of the Valeyard, the Doctor's evil personality. Paul McGann's Doctor was the ultimate Nomad type, a humanized personality that helped people in their ordinary lives.

The "Crisis Doctors" since 2005 has included Eccleston, Tennant, Smith and Capaldi, where the target audience has been the Millennial Generation. These Doctors reflected a Heroic, almost messianic type that combines both idealist and pragmatic personalities. The Doctor has uncompromising ideals that guides his effort through each crisis, but he also has a deeper, humanistic side that relates to his companions. His enemies are thoroughly evil and occasionally insane, but have very real power and are realistically dangerous.

Just a random thought,
Nathan G

[John]

Your analysis of Doctor Who is very interesting. Have you thought
about Star Trek versus Star Wars?

[Nathan G]

Your analysis of Doctor Who is very interesting. Have you thought
about Star Trek versus Star Wars?

I have had some thoughts on Star Trek:
The Original Series is one of the best examples of awakening-era science fiction. The Federation is essentially a Baby Boomer utopia, where all social problems from prejudice to poverty have been done away with. Almost every adventure is a study into some philosophical issue in the twentieth century, and the solution always stems from Kirk's Prophet-like moral compass. Every villain is either devoid of emotions (such as mad computers or alien scientists), or displays an ambiguity of morals (such as the Klingons or the Romulans), or otherwise reveals their evil by ignoring the dignity of humanity in some way. Like other shows at this time, there is more dialogue describing the meaning of their actions than action itself.
The Next Generation and most of the movies all come from the unraveling era, and thus the show takes a dramatic turn. The heroes' ideals will not always save them (hence the deaths of Spock and Data, and the demotion of Kirk), the evil in villains are not so easily defined (such as Sybock, Chang, and Shinzon), and in general the Federation deals with much more pragmatic problems than before.
Enterprise and the reboot come from the crisis period, so their audience is the Millennial Generation. These adventures focus on a heroic, "boldly-going" mood that replaces the earlier philosophical discussions with more realistic, humanizing conversations.

I haven't put much thought to Star Wars though.

[John]

Good analysis. May the force be with you.

[gerald]

Interesting, when I was in grade school in the early 1950's, some teachers did not think science fiction writing was real literature or worth your time. Today science fiction is part of the culture, is this part of an evolutionary development? It sure looks like it. -- hmmm

When I first saw Star Wars ( when the movie first came out and long before I became interested in ufo's etc.) I had the distinct feeling that the movie was not all fiction and was based upon some truth.
You have to understand, that at that time I was studying myths and how myths affected the art of various cultures ( I was an art student ) An example of a truth hidden in a myth are the Greek myths regarding the golden fleece, the fleece was related to wealth, honor, etc. Is a golden fleece mythical? Not really. A fleece, or more accurately it use there of, was a method of procuring gold "Strabo (63 B.C.-A.D. 19?), the Greek geographer, recorded method of winning gold: "The mountain torrents are said to bring down gold, and these barbarians catch it in troughs perforated with holes and in fleecy skins." http://www.minelinks.com/alluvial/goldLore2.html -- simply stated, water carries down the placer gold and the gold becomes trapped in the wool. The wool is then burned and what is left is the gold.

The problem with myths etc. is discerning what is true.

[Nathan G]

Interesting, when I was in grade school in the early 1950's, some teachers did not think science fiction writing was real literature or worth your time. Today science fiction is part of the culture, is this part of an evolutionary development? It sure looks like it. -- hmmm

I believe that science fiction has always existed in one form or another, we just didn't always call it that. As Robert A Heinlein said, any scientist will tell you that a ship moving faster than light is just as likely as a wizard casting spells. Like everything else is society, the appeal for science fiction changes seasonally. Also, the version of science fiction changes from one cycle to another.

Maybe later I'll expound on this phenomenon more.

When I first saw Star Wars ( when the movie first came out and long before I became interested in ufo's etc.) I had the distinct feeling that the movie was not all fiction and was based upon some truth.

Interesting. I guess the real question is whether Star Wars is a product of the Idealist or Reactive generation.

Nathan G

[gerald]

Nathen G --- way into the twilight zone --- Star Wars was an explanation of what has happened, so as to explain why we are where we are. It is very complicated.-- At the time I saw the movie I also thought my ideas were a bit nuts , however, as time goes by, the basis of the movie appears more valid.

From one who entertains the twilight zone, or may be -- reality.

cheers

It has been said that information can be transmitted from "others" to provide an awakening, which of course is crazy, however having "experienced " some things -- I am not always so sure what is real.

hmmm -- cheers again