When Doctor Who Forgot To Be Frightening

[Si Hunt]

I'm sure we all have our own "list" of things which we think Doctor Who should be. But arguably the thing it has been most known for down the years, albeit at times in retrospect, is for its scares - sending kids (and adults) behind the sofa.

I remember reading an analysis of "The Five Doctors" once which quite uncharitably tried to list the Doctor Who-ish things it WASN'T. And "frightening" was one of them - it can't be denied; however magical this story is, scary it isn't. And the same could be said of a lot of this era. Looking back, Doctor Who in the early seventies was calculatingly scary - things leaped out, waved claws, lingered in the shadows. It's an aspect that New Who seeks very keenly to ressurect, with its gas-mask children and deadly screaming statues. There are very contrived moments to send you behind your hands, which is great.

But the comment about "The Five Doctors" makes me wonder if this was one part of Doctor Who that JNT perhaps overlooked a bit when he took over the show. I'm the last person to criticise John, I'm one of his greatest admirers. But I do feel that the Who I grew up with often forgot to be scary, a state of affairs that perhaps only got ressurected during the McCoy era. It's true I did GET scared, but usually by weird things that I just happened to find spooky, like cannibals or snakes and things. Doctor Who never tried very hard to chill me as a kid... and "The Five Doctors" isn't really at all scary, which is perhaps a shame.

Did Doctor Who lose its ability to scare in the early eighties, and why was this?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I don't know about JNT making it less scary. He said that every episode, he prayed by his bedside that Mary Whitehouse had hated it, because it automatically put a couple of million on the ratings.

The Five Doctors was a celebration, but I'd argue that it WAS terrifying! I remember as a young kid seeing the scene with the Dalek at a friend's birthday party. It gave me nightmares for years! Paticularly when the Dalek's squiggly brain was revealed.

Perhaps it's that the fans in the 70's had grown up by the 80's and no longer found the same things scary.

Conversely, I found just about nothing scary in any of the 70's stories I watched on VHS. Probably only the pull-back and reveal of the gold Dalek in Day of The Daleks, which made me jump!

I would say that Doctor Who didn't become any less scary. The fans just became less scared.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm weird in Doctor Who circles it seems; Doctor Who never ever scared me in the least. But I'd argue that some of its most scary bits are indeed from the 80's, Kane melting, Gustave Lytton being tortured by the Cybermen and the transparent Dalek in Remembrance to name but three.
The 70's has it's fair share of scare moments but a lot of it was more psychological in nature although the 80's had its clowns & haunted houses too.

So in answer to the original question no the 80's never lost its ability to scare but also the Five Doctors was & never will be by no means scary.

[Lord President]

I found the Cyberscout in Attack of the Cybermen quite scary in the sewers of London, most of the McCoy era was terrifying (for the wrong reasons, but hey!), and recently The Empty Child scared the living crap out of me!

[Dave Lewis]

Watching as an old git, there's nothing scary about pre-JNT Doctor Who whatsoever, and I find it difficult to imagine watching it as a kid and being scared. However, when I actually was a kid watching Doctor Who in the JNT era, in particular the Davison years, I remember being scared many times. I can't really recall many specifics, but I can remember a couple, and they still freak me out a little now.

When the Doctor tries to find what is hidden in Tegan's mind, and the Mara's voice comes booming out of her. Scary! And again involving the mouth on legs, in The Awakening, when she's in the barn, and sees the psychic projection of the old man's head that zooms towards the camera. Spooky!


I don't think JNT forgot the fear-factor at all.

[Jeff]

I'm weird in Doctor Who circles it seems; Doctor Who never ever scared me in the least.

By the time I really got into DW I was 15 and already a veteran of the Freddys and Jasons and Texas Chainsaws and other horror fare, so nothing in DW ever remotely perturbed me (even those aforementioned horror movies didn't bother me by then). Yet, the horror based DW eps are some of the more interesting to me, maybe because of my fondness for horror settings... Then again there are a lot of 80's stories with few horror elements that I love just as much. 5 Docs may just be my favorite episode of all time, after all.

[Andrew Curnow]

Probably only the pull-back and reveal of the gold Dalek in Day of The Daleks, which made me jump!

Oh yes! Because in those olden days, we didn't know that scene was there did we (it's not in the book that's for sure) so it was just such a surprise. I love that moment!

But it didn't scare me!

[SiHart]

Lots of things in the early 80s scared me- The Marshmen coming out of the lake, the Vampires dying, The Cybermen, anything to do with the Mara- especially when they possessed Tegan and she put on the deeper voice, the way the androids made people all green and squidgy... I think i was at just the right age to be scared between 1980-83.

The rest of the 80s was generally ok for me, but I can remember my brother was absolutely terrified of the Haemovores, and the bit where the dead body under the water suddenly opened its eyes in Fneric. He had nightmares about that and was banned from watching Doctor Who again for the rest of the season, just in case.

So, I think it kept its potential to scare, even if it didn't scare me. I'm sure I've read that people found the Vervoids scary too, somewhere on the old PS.

Si xx

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Being slightly older than Si Hart (just slightly older), I have memories of lots of dark Tom Baker stories where there would be monsters hiding away in the dark etc. In my brain nearly every story seemed to be set underground in those days!!!
I dont remember too many specifics maybe I have sub-conscious memories of creature from the pit or something. Wasnt there some underground stuff in the Ribos Operation too?

Two actually memories of things scaring me (both pre JNT are):

1) The Ogri approaching the house in the Stones of Blood- I really did have nightmares that they were approaching our house mind you I used to have nightmare about suits on coat-hangers walking down the garden in the dark and towards the back door!! (I used to see these black silhouettes of a suits kind of floating towards the house, with a coat-hanger hook where the heads should be ) Now theres an idea for RTD the coat-hanger monsters that will scare the c*ap out of kinds!!!!

2) The Daleks smashing through walls in Destiny of the Daleks that really did frighten me A LOT!!!!


During JNTs tenure I think I thought Meglos was scary and I hated the spiders in Full Circle. As mentioned already the Cyberscout in Attack of the Cybermen is quite scary in fact the opening 5 minutes of that story is pretty creepy. The Mara was creepy too.

I don't think JNT forgot the fear factor as such - I do think his era of the show suffered a bit from society being too afraid to show anything remotely scary on TV - I think the Mary Whitehouse types were forcing a lot of the visual scary stuff out anyway. I believe even the Kane melting moment was heavily eddited as JNT was worried that if they televised the full version that he would get a slapped wrist from his bosses.
You're right about 5 Docs though - not scary at all - apart from sarah Jane's bright pink coat - that's quite scary!!!!

[SiHart]

Being slightly older than Si Hart (just slightly older)

@ Andrew! I'm never going to be forgiven for that am I?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I used to think Shockeye was hiding under my bed, and regularly used to jump the last half metre to make sure he couldn't get me!

Si.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

@ Andrew! I'm never going to be forgiven for that am I?

Si xx

Nope!!!!

Shockeye was kind of scary in a violent mad-man kind of way!!
Mind you Colin's waistcoat in that story is pretty frightening too.

Did anyone find the Tractators scary? To me thay are a bit cuddly - not as cuddly as Mandrells of course!

[daleks are supreme]

The only bit that's slightly creepy is in one of the 2 cybermen episodes(series 2 of the revived series) When the music and screams go through the whole factory. That's just creepy!
not even the torchwood episodes matched that in my opinion.

[Mike Saville]

I think simply children's tastes got a little more sophisticated, and they were exposed to things that the kids viewing a decade earlier hadn't been. By JNT era Dr Who, I'd seen Sapphire & Steel for instance.

Dr Who did have its moments that scared me on first transmission. The Autons bursting out of shop windows, guys getting swallowed by plastic sofas, Sea Devils coming up out of the sea. Some of it was so evocative that I remembered vividly stuff that was never in the show, and was suprised watching 3 decades later that those scenes didn't exist.

We had no video (that's a bit like DVD to our younger audience) and no real certainty of a repeat so we anticipated it more. We also had 3 channels only in most homes too. Dr Who didn't have that much competition.