DOCTOR WHO AND MALCOLM HULKE: Is Political Messaging Harmful To The Dr Who Narrative?
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Doctor Who being used as a political platform or football by various writers, including RTD, has often been cited as a criticism and praise by those in fandom.
In the first of a mini series, with the biographer of a Malcolm Hulke book due out next year with Telos Publishing, we discuss the political narratives in Dr Who and where it has gone too far and where it has diminished.
Malcolm Hulke was an accomplished writer in the earlier, formative days of television, working on various channels and across a range of genres.
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Abiding thanks, Brendan, Michael and Hugh, for this excellent, informative discussion.
Too many insightful points from all to possibly recount and it's easy to imagine this being a platform for further examination of the topic.
The more prominent classic Doctor Who writers were a breed of no nonsense stalwarts who simply got on with the job and, upon delivering their best efforts, let the magic work itself. Malcolm Hulke was one such and I judge every one of his contributions to exemplify the most successful elements of the show.
I sometimes forget that, on the cusp of series seven, Doctor Who was facing a genuine crisis; a large gamble was being undertaken, the failure of which would have meant it becoming, whilst still creditable, short-lived and much less the cultural icon than it eventually did. In this regard, Hulke was among those pivotal in keeping the show alive, and on its now familiar course; moreover, I believe he was hugely instrumental in establishing the tone and uniqueness of the Pertwee era.
There are those writers who are so focussed on ideology that they insert it into stories on an entirely non sequitur basis, unreasonably yet invariably, expecting fundamentals like plotting, storytelling, causality and logic to somehow thrive without sustenance.
Then there are those who have the presence of mind to make the ideology the actual story, realising that in such a case, most if not all of the necessary context is provided, and in the hands of a good writer, one need not undermine the other.
Malcolm Hulke fits squarely into the latter category. He undoubtedly had a message to put across, often doing so quite firmly, but always with measure and reason, never once allowing a good yarn to take second place.
Under circumstances like that, I have absolutely no objection to ideological, political, ethical or any other such nuance being applied to Doctor Who, because it can amount to nothing less than a well-intentioned, thought-provoking story which invites the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions.
Thanks again and all the best for now.
Paul
Thanks for your kind and generous comments. I enjoyed that chat and yes we have plans to delve into greater detail
@@noblerees1Look forward to it; cheers.
Really enjoyed doing the show, thanks to Michael and Brendan. I learned a lot from Michael about Malcolm who seems to me to write about the complexity of politics more than a message.
Hugh
You were a great wing man - thanks to you. Your contributions were enjoyed massively by the viewers
A top-drawer writer like Malcolm Hulke really epitomises the difference between Classic and Modern Who. Every one of his stories was actually about something, populated by well-drawn characters you might meet in real life. New Who's scripts rely far more on spectacle and gimmickry, populated by two-dimensional cyphers who quip at each other on cue. You could take the monsters and the time travel out of a Hulke script and easily make it a real-world drama - 'Colony In Space' and 'The Green Death' are about the power struggle between short-term corporate interests and long-term environmental preservation that with tweaking could have been Doomwatch episodes. 'The Silurians' and 'The Sea Devils' about culture clashes and land rights disputes between aboriginal natives and the descendents of colonial imperialism, explored through many television series and films. Take out the fantasy from 'The Timeless Child' or 'Space Babies' and what are they actually about?
This doesn't mean that Classic Who always got it right, as Warriors of the Deep demonstrated, or that New Who never has anything to say, but in Classic Who, especially when written by Hulke, Whittaker, Holmes, etc, actual storytelling was a feature of the show, whereas in the 21st Century, stuff like 'Children of Earth' feels like an anomaly.
I'm convinced that RTD uses AI to write his episodes and especially dialog. It seems soulless.
I've tried getting it to generate plots, not seriously, just to see what happens. They always come out clichéd and vague, and it canot come up with an ending.
@BackUp-nx2de so just like RTDs recent stuff
“Seems” 😂
It was soulless! Didn’t make sense and is bad on so many levels. Soulless is a perfect description.
It is interesting that back in the 60s&70s that the BBC never dumbed down on content for the family or children. Malcolm Hulke’s scripts have conflicts between two adversaries but he lets it up to the viewer to think for themselves on who they consider the goodies or the villains. The Doctor is the man caught in the middle. Albeit, working for UNIT. There is no way I would have understood the plot back when I was a kid but then there is still the Sea Devils and Dinosaurs to keep me interested. Proper Dr Who.
Be interesting if your daughter would approve of being treated like an adult rather than infantilised by season 1 stories
Really enjoyed the focus on Malcolm Hulke's writing. Fascinating.
Thank you - more on weds with invasion of the dinosaurs
Great documentary; Hulke is not the typical ice cold , dispassionate Communist you imagine far left antagonist to be, and conversely appears to have had real heart for his common man. If anything, circa 1987 and the start of the Sylvester McCoy era arguably saw the most subversive change in the writers line-up; in with would-be Tory overthrower Andrew Cartmel and his merry band of post modern writers - all professed haters of Margaret Thatcher - and out with the trusted old guard, some of whom had been around since the 60s and 70s.
In retrospect the change appears to have been a part of a left wing coup at the BBC at the time that served a “common purpose” and followed a post-modern trajectory in its drama series storytelling, which passed all the way through into Nu Who in 2005 and right up to the present day. Staff were sent on courses to teach them how to “lead beyond authority in the post modern world” and on “diversity and inclusivity” courses that used neuro linguistic programming that implanted trigger words and other trickery into the attendees’ psyches like Manchurian candidates, which served to ramp up policial correctness to absurb and extreme levels, effectively planting the seeds for discord that have led to the divisive and societally and culturally corrosive wokism we have today.
And who was appointed the BBC’s new Deputy Director General in 1987? Technocratic “Change agent” John Birt, who arrived at the BBC with a brief from even higher above than the BBC to reform the BBC from the inside out and prepare it for the incoming digital era. Controversially and devastatingly, Birt gradually withdrew the BBC's remit to make all its own content in-house; a winning and cohesive formula for over two decades, and the very environment into which Doctor Who had been born.
And change the BBC he did for the worse, turning management against management, department against department and staff against staff, making the once harmonious melting pot and fusion of ideas known as the doughnut in White Lane, west London, an unpleasant and toxified place to work right up until its closure in 2012.
Great points. We had to compare nuwho , cartmel who and classic who in their motivations for story writing and whether they preach or try to convert or give due reside t to the audience to make their ish mind up
Watchimg a replay bevause i was busy burning my beans and oversleeping when this was live.
How very dare you! Lol. Great you recovered lol
The chat about Hulke's book on writing got me curious and I bought a copy. Seems RTD should do the same! Here's a few sentences from it: 'Avoid using dialogue for special pleading. If you want to make political or other points, which you have every right to do, let them emerge from the play as a whole. Sam Goldwyn is supposed to have told his writers, "If you want to write messages, use Western Union." Today's television producers want plays that say something, but they don't want it spelt out in one solid wedge of dialogue.'
I'm glad we never had to suffer Ben Steed writing for Doctor Who. His writing was always deeply misogynistic and he over used the 'battle of the sexes' trope.
Listening to your demands is nit the same as asceedimg to your demands. (My reply to the intro)