I think we've got our blog ratings pretty right. 2 all time clangers (Underworld, Invisible E), a struggler (Invasion), 1 reserve grade (Image), 2 minor classics (neither of them near THE top) (Horror, SunM's)
But the quality of the scripts is a serious problem. It shows what a remarkable achievement the previous 8 series has actually been. The script mess is not unprecedented (hello Series 6) nor is it never gonna happen again (hello series 23).
The series average rating from the DW Marathon Blog has mostly maintained or increased every series since John Wiles reign.
The series 15 plunge from mid 80's to high 50's is sudden and unprecedented. But it might be a thing made of the statistics. Arguably if the top and bottom scores are removed we've still got another horrible clanger and a classic. The average rating is a product of DUAL clangers in a short 6 serial season. (Series 3 had 3 clangers out of 10 with 2 good and the rest very ho-hum. Series 13 had a clanger too and ended up no.2 on the list.)
| Series | DW MBlog Avg. Rating |
| 1 | 58.2% |
| 2 | 64.8% |
| 3 | 54.1% |
| 4 | 67.2% |
| 5 | 69.2% |
| 6 | 60.3% |
| 7 | 77.4% |
| 8 | 72.3% |
| 9 | 72.1% |
| 10 | 72.2% |
| 11 | 72.6% |
| 12 | 76.0% |
| 13 | 83.5% |
| 14 | 84.8% |
| 15 | 57.1% |
80% + = classic!
70-80% = 1st division
60-70% = 2nd division
50-60% = 3rd division
40-50% = trouble
<40% = clanger!!
It was an amazing run. It had to end. But this way? This bad? Unlike in Series 4 the climb back will be long and hard, full of false dawns and not all in the right direction.
But why? Was it the (effective) sacking of Hinchcliffe? Was it the way Robert Holmes' departure was managed? Is Anthony Read a unsuitable as script editior? (Alongside other DW script editors he does seem a bit second division....) Clearly the handover of script editors is reminiscent of Series 11. But the biggest obvious difference is the new guy has never worked on DW before. If the script ed had been Robert Banks Stewart or Chris Boucher or even Bob Baker he would have coped better with script fall throughs. (He'd have seen it happen before, at least.)
Is Graham Williams a poor producer or just failing to achieve when faced with the impossible? If George Gallacio or David Maloney had been appointed producer then maybe someone with a bit more care for the product would be in charge.
Given the budget troubles they may not have had any better success however. It is very f-ing hard to be innovative and have artistic integrity when headaches about how to pay the bills take over the daily agenda. There is a rumour that the 26 episodes of Series 15 had a 40% budget cut compared to Series 14 ON TOP of the rampant inflation. If that's true the miracle is that there's 26 episodes at all, not whether they're any good or not.
The decade of DW's unalloyed excellence is over. It's hegemony is just beginning.
The world of SF (movies and TV) is waking up. Before 1977 the highest grossing movies were things like Gone With The Wind. Now in 2019 Avengers Endgame just passed Avatar as the highest money taking reel of moving pictures ever. The rest of the Top 10 are all SF/Fantasy. That change started with Star Wars in 1977/78.
It's well recognised that el cheapo DW suffers and suffered in comparison to Industrial Light and Magic but I think it's possible to argue that DW also prospered (overall) because of the increased popularity of (and demand for) SF and fantasy movies and TV.
There's still more than a decade of classic DW to come. There will be moments when we don't want to go on ("Where is the Chimeron queen? ") and others when resurrection and redemption are acting in unison ("-One of the readings is ectopic, sir. -What does that mean? -That one of the lifeforms has two hearts"...) Some of it is memorable and among the best of the series. Other bits less so but we've discovered in this blog that the early days were not completely perfect either. And the new series is more than a quarter of a century away yet.
479 episodes down, 372 to go. Not even close to finished.
Are we having fun yet? This is gonna get a bit harder from here.
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