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Dec. 31st, 2005 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe other thing I noticed watching Doctor Who all in a row like that was the way that they saved money by being more about arc. Sort of arc anyway. Or maybe what I mean is that no arc makes it more difficult to save money.
See if they have monster of the week episodes, stand alone one off related to nothing episodes, that means making a new monster, every week. In a new location. New nearly everything except the regulars.
That 'new monster' part has to be the big budget item. I mean this season they made Slitheen and Daleks. And one episode full of as many kinds of monsters as can be. All the rest of the time, humans, but not in a lame way because 'where are all the aliens' became a plot point. So they saved up their monsters to make a big splash (well, since they were at the start it could look like they used them all up, but since it was all filmed in advance they just decided to put them all at the start). And then they reused the Face of Boe a bit. And the station a lot. And because of what they did with the story it wasn't just them being cheap, it worked out.
If there is a story arc, or multi part episodes, then monsters come back. Slitheen and skin suits get to be used a bunch of times. Very efficient.
If everything is supposed to be stand alone, no reference to before, very episodic, then either you have one kind of monster only and use them a lot (which leaves you with a much poorer universe, and an us against them kind of setup)(but worked out in Alien Nation), or you need a humongous budget because of inventing new monsters every week.
Okay, nothing new or exciting there. Just stuff I was thinking on.
See if they have monster of the week episodes, stand alone one off related to nothing episodes, that means making a new monster, every week. In a new location. New nearly everything except the regulars.
That 'new monster' part has to be the big budget item. I mean this season they made Slitheen and Daleks. And one episode full of as many kinds of monsters as can be. All the rest of the time, humans, but not in a lame way because 'where are all the aliens' became a plot point. So they saved up their monsters to make a big splash (well, since they were at the start it could look like they used them all up, but since it was all filmed in advance they just decided to put them all at the start). And then they reused the Face of Boe a bit. And the station a lot. And because of what they did with the story it wasn't just them being cheap, it worked out.
If there is a story arc, or multi part episodes, then monsters come back. Slitheen and skin suits get to be used a bunch of times. Very efficient.
If everything is supposed to be stand alone, no reference to before, very episodic, then either you have one kind of monster only and use them a lot (which leaves you with a much poorer universe, and an us against them kind of setup)(but worked out in Alien Nation), or you need a humongous budget because of inventing new monsters every week.
Okay, nothing new or exciting there. Just stuff I was thinking on.