I think it's fair to say that there are 4 main elements of Dr Who episode, Scary, Cheesy, Funny and Other. Episodes contain different balances of the 4 and normally focus on one main ingredient. So you get The Empty Child which is Scary. The Christmas Special where David Tennant has a sword-fight on top of an alien spaceship is pure Cheese. The recent pirate episode was Cheese and Scary. The episode where the Doctor plays football was Cheese and Funny. (Cheese is a big part of DW :D)
All types and balances are good and I think peoples enjoyment of an episode can be predicted quite well, depending on which blend people prefer. However I want to make the case for Other.
By definition, Other is that little ingredient which you can't fit into the categories, the special thing that makes you stop and think about this episode in particular.
Midnight, where the Dr is a trapped on a ship with just a handful of people which is supposedly about a monster stealing someones voice but the real monster is the speed with which a group of people are willing to kill another human being, just because someone won't stop copying someone else is Other.
The Van Gough episode, pretends to be about a monster-of-the-week, is actually about the analysis of a flawed but brilliant mind that saw the world in a way that no-one else could, and what you can do for a man who you know, in the end, will kill himself because he can't ever quite come to terms with himself.
The special part of a Christmas Carol was the way which a man has to deal with loving someone, when he knows exactly how little days he has left to love her and how that can destroy the persons soul and character. Something, which isn't Cheesy, or Funny, or Scary, but is altogether brilliant.
Of the latest episodes, the Doppelgangers were scary, but again the best part for me is how people tried to learn to accept there being someone else in the world who is them too and the way in which memories define a person.
All these episodes and many more like them are the very best that DW has to other. To those not Other oriented they seem boring. Nothing happens. But I feel, it's the little touches of special which allow us to enjoy the cheese and humour. Because beneath all the fun, DW who has a heart that will always make us stop and think, which something very little else does.
Other - A review of many episodes past and future
I think it's fair to say that there are 4 main elements of Dr Who episode, Scary, Cheesy, Funny and Other. Episodes contain different balances of the 4 and normally focus on one main ingredient. So you get The Empty Child which is Scary. The Christmas Special where David Tennant has a sword-fight on top of an alien spaceship is pure Cheese. The recent pirate episode was Cheese and Scary. The episode where the Doctor plays football was Cheese and Funny. (Cheese is a big part of DW :D)
All types and balances are good and I think peoples enjoyment of an episode can be predicted quite well, depending on which blend people prefer. However I want to make the case for Other.
By definition, Other is that little ingredient which you can't fit into the categories, the special thing that makes you stop and think about this episode in particular.
Midnight, where the Dr is a trapped on a ship with just a handful of people which is supposedly about a monster stealing someones voice but the real monster is the speed with which a group of people are willing to kill another human being, just because someone won't stop copying someone else is Other.
The Van Gough episode, pretends to be about a monster-of-the-week, is actually about the analysis of a flawed but brilliant mind that saw the world in a way that no-one else could, and what you can do for a man who you know, in the end, will kill himself because he can't ever quite come to terms with himself.
The special part of a Christmas Carol was the way which a man has to deal with loving someone, when he knows exactly how little days he has left to love her and how that can destroy the persons soul and character. Something, which isn't Cheesy, or Funny, or Scary, but is altogether brilliant.
Of the latest episodes, the Doppelgangers were scary, but again the best part for me is how people tried to learn to accept there being someone else in the world who is them too and the way in which memories define a person.
All these episodes and many more like them are the very best that DW has to other. To those not Other oriented they seem boring. Nothing happens. But I feel, it's the little touches of special which allow us to enjoy the cheese and humour. Because beneath all the fun, DW who has a heart that will always make us stop and think, which something very little else does.