Today's Doctor Who in the 1970s...

[The Thinker]

I've just been thinking, what if today's Doctor Who stories were broadcast in the 1970s, adapted to feature whoever was Doctor the Doctor back then of course?

What would be the public reaction to episodes like 'The Impossible Planet/The Satan' pit back in 1975 or something like that?

Would they have been held in a different light back then? Or would they have received the same praise and criticism?

I certainly think that Mrs Whitehouse would have a few angry words to say that's for sure, especially if she saw the likes of 'The Unquiet Dead'! Also, I have a feeling she'd have filed another blasphemy suit against the BBC if she saw 'The Satan Pit' two parter.


So, what if...?

[clocketpatch]

What was the blasphemy suit for? I know she went nuts over the Deadly Assassin for the drowning scene...

Personally I didn't like the Satan's Pit story arc, and I know I'm in the minority there, but huh, raging plot holes alert. As for how Doctor Who would have done during the 70s, weelll, I happened to miss that decade by seven years so I wouldn't have a clue. 70s DW is top-notch though, epecially early-mid-70s DW, much better than the likes of Love & Monsters or the evil Christmas Specials of Doom.

[lord13]

Honestly you can't compare today's television with that of the seventies because things have changed so much - for example I don't think you could have a homosexual in control of what is ostensibly a children's programme (John Nathan-Turner was also gay, but kept it quiet) due to attitudes being a lot less relaxed in those days.
Today's television (and today's Doctor Who) is largely like fast food - attentions spans are so short that a slowburning six-parter like Genesis of the Daleks wouldn't get the audience needed to justify the BBC making it - but if you dumb the series down and get a good-looking but largely hopeless actor (ahem *Tennant* ahem) you'll get an audience who'll watch it just for eye candy, as nobody wants to THINK anymore.
Saying that though, the past four Who episodes have been GREAT -
all you non-Brits are in for a treat if you can get past the disappointing first half of the season.