What makes a Blockbuster? And why Doctor Who wasn’t

Sunday saw the Power of the Doctor, the final episode that had Jodie Whittaker playing Doctor Who. Was it any good?

I have always been a hot/cold/lukewarm fan of Dr Who. I think Patrick Troughton was my first Doctor, though I just about remember William Hartnell. Of the early days, like many, Tom Baker was my favourite, though I did end up working on voice overs a lot with him, which was fun and occasionally challenging, so that might have twisted my perception.

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Special mention goes to John Hurt who was the most incredible actor — they missed out on not having him as The Doctor much earlier.

Enough of that, for this is about what makes a blockbuster, not about the history.

There are many elements to a blockbuster.

So, did The Power of the Doctor check any of the boxes? I will start with my own expertise as a former sound engineer. (Which means I am about to waffle.)

How did it Sound?

I probably made a mistake by listening on professional, mastering headphones. A mistake because they very quickly expose how spatial (or not) the sound mix is.

A blockbuster, like one of the many Avengers movies, is primarily mixed in surround — a minimum of 7:1. That means seven speakers spread around the room and one big subwoofer to make the chairs shake, with any luck. (Remember Sensurround and the Earthquake movie?)

But even when mixed to stereo, trying to get that feeling of an infinite space and the sound swimming around you is vital.

This also affects how you treat the dialogue voices. In big budgets, they will often re-record the majority or maybe all of the dialogue with the original actors coming into the studio. This is often because huge sets with lots of mechanical bits can be noisy, but the wrong kind of noise.

But mostly, it is to get a good, dry recording on a great studio mic that can then be placed in the sound design to best advantage. Your ambiance might be very ambient and dancing around you, but you want the dialogue in your face — up close and personal.

Something like Doctor Who doesn’t have the budget. Sadly, that showed here. The tonal quality of the dialogue heard on my professional headphones was, umm, limp. It didn’t have enough punch. And I felt like it hadn’t been run through clever professional tools like iZotope’s RX to give it a good start.

As for the rest of the audio, it felt narrow and small. I didn’t get the sense of being in big places, or of the sound moving around me, taking me on a journey.

I don’t really remember the music much, but I think that was because it was run-of-the-mill orchestral arrangements. It lacked the modern touch.

So, a big thumbs down for sound.

Visuals

Good visuals, of course, are what makes a blockbuster. And considering the BBC budget on this (nothing like The Avengers), I think they did pretty well.

Some of the rendering was weak, but good rendering costs a lot of money as it utilises entire server farms of processing power.

I think in places, the computer effects were far too busy, and it became hard to focus on any one idea.

That is quite important.

You must always understand the context of any scene, and despite planets and spacecraft flying around, your eyes should always be drawn to the focus, the story. That is a hard trick, and it was missed a few times here.

If you want a great example, check out the title sequence for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, with Baby Groot, a tiny character, dancing to Mr Blue Sky. Despite a huge number of actions and effects around him (intentionally), we never lose focus on Groot. But it is more than just the gag. He remains clearly in vision and his own actions are kept to just enough to get the joke across. It is a perfect visual balance.

On to the Script

Now we get to the one of the biggies in a blockbuster.

If your script is not punching through, then you have an insolvable problem.

That punch comes in two elements:

Firstly, The Plot

I was once told that the best action plots could fit on a cigarette packet. I have heard that said about opera too, actually. Take the arias away, and you have very little story left. But it is why operas are so good, assuming you like the musical style.

If you look at most of the big, action blockbusters, they can be summarised very easily, and the twist and turns of some of the sub plots and back story are often shallower than the die-heard fans will admit.

But that is a good thing. It helps the film keep its focus. The simpler the plot is, the better it cuts through.

The Power of the Doctor had so many twists and turns that it became ridiculous.

Made worse because some of them were obviously inserted by management purely for ratings: lots of cameos (which required awkward, implausible justification), multiple villains (let’s pick the most famous ones), and back references all over the place. They could have easily cut out swathes of that.

And the dialogue?

This is the second main element. If you look at the drafts of successful blockbuster scripts, two things stand out about the dialogue.

1. It has gone through more revisions than anything else in the script
2. More and more is cut till there is half as much as there was originally. Less, probably.

And the script has been revised by a whole list of people!

A film script is NOT a book. It doesn’t have the luxury of that kind of verbose storytelling. It needs editing on a level far beyond anything in print.

The dialogue in The Power of the Doctor was complicated, had no rhythm, had no punch (that important word again), and was simply unconvincing.

You can’t have characters beat around the bush mindlessly, even if that is meant to be who they are. You haven’t time, and you will stretch the audience’s patience.

I like to relate this to a cartoon brick wall. A realistic painter will paint every single brick and every imperfection in the wall. A cartoonist draws a rectangle, three or four carefully placed bricks, and a few cracks. Yet it tells the same story.

And overwritten dialogue is rough on the actors. Not even the best actors in the world can rescue a dodgy script. Jodie et al tried, but the script (and the scripts of previous episodes) did them no favours at all.

Lastly, Direction

I would hate to direct a blockbuster. I think it takes a narrow focus of vision that I don’t have. My brain is too much like a scattergun.

You can see why the best blockbuster directors are often fans of comics.

I know comic fans love to wax lyrical about how “dark” the best comics are, and how “deep and profound” the story is within them.

But actually, no. They aren’t. And that is their joy. Whether they are Dennis the Menace, The Black Knight, or something from Japan, comics are sublimely well focussed. The limit to their “darkness” is the amount of black ink used. And when it comes to profound back stories, “I saw my father die,” is all they need to justify all kinds of pictures.

But because they are like that, a great comic is easy to navigate. You never lose the sense of plot or direction of the story.

In a complex book narrative, if you are not concentrating, you will often find yourself declaring, “what?” And flipping back a few pages in a hurry to see what you missed.

But never in a good comic. And never in a blockbuster.

It is the director’s job to keep that focus, even if that means throwing half the dialogue and plot twists in the bin.

There is a saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. (Terribly unfair on the poor, well-designed camel, I should point out.)

But I am sorry, The Power of the Doctor was a camel, and I suspect the director had no opportunity or authority to kick out enough of the script to end up with a racehorse.

There is one other important element of the successful blockbuster, one that ensures the future for that all-important money spinner: The Sequel.

Ratings and Reputation

I am not an expert in Doctor Who, but I suspect that the current series with Jodie Whittaker has not had the success of other outings.

This is not Whittaker’s fault. She is a good actor. But she has been hampered by the production.

I think the BBC is well aware of the problem. And that is why Russell T Davies has been coaxed back.

I think they have made a very good choice for the next long-running doctor in Ncuti Gatwa. He is a very good actor, and a clever one. If you have ever watched Sex Education, he is the real star of that show. He not only has the “comic relief” element down pat, but he has also shone in the most dramatic and thoughtful moments too.

But the BBC have obviously felt that they need to give him a good high springboard to jump from. They are right to do so.

But the series thus far has contributed a very low diving board with very little spring.

So, they did two things. Firstly, they filled The Power of the Doctor with as many fan-pleasing elements as possible, to far past overflowing.

It was almost embarrassing to see the number of “can we shove someone famous in here please!” moments.

The second thing they have done is to add a mini-series between the end of Whittaker and the entrance of Gatwa.

And for that, they have brought back “The Doctor and Donna.”

David Tennant and Katherine Tate were probably the most electric team Doctor Who has ever had.

They punch far above their weight with ease. If you want to see how good their chemistry and their skill is, just watch the teacher sketch they did for Comic Relief. You’ll find it on YouTube, and it is linked on the Medium version of this podcast.

I don’t know who wrote it (possibly Tate), but that sketch says so much about why the BBC needs them back for three episodes. If anyone can move them above the 3.8 million viewers the Power of the Doctor got on the night (Strictly got 4.4 million), then they can.

And the BBC needs them to.

But it is a pity. Ncuti Gatwa should be able to pick up the show and run from the first second; he has the talent to do so. But the show is not in the right place right currently.

If it was, if the BBC themselves believed it was, then the miniseries with Tennant and Tate wouldn’t have been even considered. I can’t imagine those two came back for nada!

So, how well did The Power of the Doctor do on the blockbuster scale?

Not great. It was never going to tick all the many boxes because it doesn’t have the budget. But it failed on more than it should have done.

I know the critics are quite spread on this one, with most being okay to reasonably positive. But none are giving it a screaming, top-rating five stars. And I don’t think any are giving it one star either. It is comfortably in between.

But is that good enough for a huge, much-hyped, prime-time show?

No.

Let’s face it. If Amazon or Netflix had been the commissioners, it would now face cancellation.

A good thing it is with the BBC then, who has more patience than those accountant’s-pen-driven services. because it has another chance. I wish Ncuti Gatwa, Tennant, Tate, and Davies good luck with it. Between them, it could be a great show.