45 vs 25

[SiHart]

Season 22 pioneered the 45 minute episode length format that the new series uses to this day. Back in 1985, this seemed like a failed experiment meddling with the show- but was it?

Do you think it worked as well as it could?

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't think it really worked, but at the time I remember not really wanting it to, if that makes sense. I was quite 'annoyed' at the change I think.

As for the actual show, I expect if they'd had more time to plan it/had planned it properly, it would have worked a lot better. There's a different pace to a 45 than a 25, and I'm not quite sure season 22 really embraces that (except maybe the final story, by which time I guess Eric Saward had got the hang of it). If nothing else, I'm sure it would have worked a great deal better in the original season 23, because the stories would have started for that format as opposed to being change.

I occasionally wonder what would have happened if season 22 had effectively been what we got in 2005 - ie, 45 minute episodes, but largely self-contained stories, and with a moody Doctor in a more sombre costume (ie, what Colin originally suggested). We might have been ready for it in 2005, I suspect in 1985 we would have all been in an uproar!!!

[Si Hunt]

45 minute stories work today because TV is faster. Back then, they simply couldn't have afforded to do it like that anyway.

I don't think it worked, and to tell you the truth I'm not fond of the 45 minute episodes. The stories are as long as before, so it just means less cliffhangers, more time required to watch a single episode and, back in the day, more dedication required to get someone to watch an episode in one go. In Hines-sight, it's hard to see what they thought the advantage was! Doctor Who had worked for 22 years in lovely bite-sized 25 minute chunks, and all this did was make every episode harder to digest.

Si.

[Jonno]

Is this a thread where in 18 months time I can compare my life to that of 20 years earlier?!

In all seriousness, I had been quite excited about this development at the time. I'd really enjoyed watching Resurrection in double length episodes, but that was fast paced and simply two normal paced episodes stitched together whereas for me most of the S22 episodes are so slow paced - and I'm not just comparing them to modern episodes, but felt it when they were being released on video.

Much as I like Attack on the whole, it does take an age for the Doctor and Peri to finish all the wandering around modern day London tracking down the signal. In Varos they spend the first quarter of the story in the TARDIS. In Two Doctors they don't even get to Spain until half way through the story, and again in Revelation they wander aound in the snow for half the story!

Of course, when they reverted to 25 minute episodes, we had technically one story lasting 3 months but that's another argument...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

In Hines-sight, it's hard to see what they thought the advantage was!

Jamie-vision?