More Television Annoyances

Well, for a start, why on earth do we have to have 'what's coming up' on some television programmes? They do this with 'Bargain Hunt.' Why spoil things if you're going to give away some details? Are producers worried that we are going to turn to another channel or just loose interest unless there's 'peaks' in the show which we have to be told about in advance? If you're reading a really good novel, do we have to turn to the end to find out how it's going to end? Why do television dramas have to have the 'next week' or ''next episode' bit after the credits run at the end? It's an American thing I'm sure, because so many of our television shows are sold to the U.S.A. and a lot are co-produced with American television stations. There's no sense of surprise if we know that a certain character is going to be in the next episode or some major plot-point is going to be revealed. Doctor Who used to be one of those shows which had an element of surprise about it, that is, in it's original format, running from 1963 up until it was taken off in 1989. When a story of so many episodes, usually 4 or 6, came to an end the Doctor and his companions would get in the Tardis and fly off and we wouldn't know where they would end up until the doors of the Tardis opened at the beginning of the next episode. Now, since the 'new' version, which started in 2005, we have to be told exactly what to expect, well in advance. The difference is that now we only get about 13 episodes a season (or series) together with a Christmas special, but we have pages and pages in the Radio Times and elsewhere about the different stories and what monsters will be appearing, whether it's the Daleks or Cybermen or hopefully new monsters and villains. Not knowing is obviously not an option and any surprise is totally lost. In it's original form Doctor Who ran virtually all year round. I think it may have had breaks at some point during the year, probably Easter and during the summer, but when it began in the '60's it seemed to be on for most of the year, certainly not in bursts of 12-13 episodes. This is another American thing, also, having it as hour episodes (not actually 60 minutes, as it has to be sold to commercial networks it has to run for around 45-50 minutes so that 10-15 minutes is left for advertising.) I'm sure it was better when it was 25-30 minutes, and each story was told over 4-6 episodes so you got a cliff-hanger at the end of each episodes so the excitement of 'what will happen next?' was built in. The longer episodes don't always work as the writers have to create stories which tie up within the longer framework, although some stories cover two or more episodes. They may have thrown more money at the new Doctor Who stories, so we have better sets, locations and special effects, but it doesn't always mean better stories. The production values are a good deal higher than the original show, but some of the C.G.I. effects look totally obvious. Some of the computer-generated monsters, for example, look sort of 'pasted on,' almost Photoshopped onto the video footage. In film and television you should never be able to spot what is 'real' and not. If it stands out too much it's not working properly. It's a bit like 'seeing the joins' in something.

Do producers and others who are involved in television not realise that they spoil the impact of the stories they're attempting to tell by giving away plot details? What's the point to putting so much effort into something if you are going to give away these details in advance? Just crazy.