Dr Woo last night. Can anyone tell me when it stopped being a kids program please?

[OrmIrian]

Now I know it's been more scary recently than back in the 70s but usually watchable for older DC. Last night scared the bejesus out of my boys - the oldest is 12! It really was quite unpleasant. Trailer for next week looks bad too. I am going to have to ban it in this house I think

Actually, I remember when Mary Whitehouse was complaining about some of the Tom Baker/Philip Hinchcliffe episodes (one episode ended with an extended freeze frame of Tom Baker's face being held under water by an assassin) part of the defence was that it never was technically a children's programme - being made by the Drama Department, not the Children's department.

Ohhh i see rusty. You see I remember it when the monsters were made of wobbly rubber and the scenery shook when anyone bumped into it

Oh, for the days of the spray-painted bubble wrap special effects. Children would be laughing hysterically instead cowering behind cushions these days.

Yes they would! I was still hiding behind the sofa though

agree not as scary as Blink. And the WW2 gasmask one was really upsetting - not scary but 'Are you my Mummy' was really distressing for me. Can't stand the idea of a lost child! (Last Torchwood also v. bad from that point of view.)

We always let ds watch Confidential to deconstruct the scary bits anyway - although it did mean a late night yesterday. A bit like pulling back the curtain to see the wizard of Oz is just a man, although much more interesting and not a let-down like Oz.

Exploring the doctor's dark side with no companion to ground him is a bit, um, worrying. Don't want DT to leave as a baddy!

And bringing back the master as a hoodie promises to be hilarious.

Yes the WW2 one was distressing rather than scary. Mind you that scarred DS#1 for life too

My son, also 12, was terrified as well, Orm. We had a very bad night. I thought 8pm was a bit early for it to be quite so bad. I wouldn't have let him watch it otherwise.

It was quite scary and ds (5) said he wanted to sleep in my bed. I refused and let him watch the first 20 mins of Dr Who Confidential instead. That explained all the special effects and ds went to bed (his own) quite happy.

Oh, so do I, Orm!

I always maintain that the Daleks are never so scary in colour as they were in B&W, though. (I still remember how scared I was when the Dalek rose from the Thames at the end of the first episode of Dalek Invasion of Earth but that may have something to do with the fact that I was 8 years old!)

But the mid 70's episodes, when Philip Hinchcliffe was producing & Robert Holmes wrote a lot of the stories, were definitely darker than before ( eg Deadly Assassin, Planet of Evil, The Brain of Morbius, The Hand of Fear and The Talons of Weng-Chiang)& if the production values had been as good as they are now they would have been a lot scarier than anything we're getting today!
There were a lot of complaints and when Hinchcliffe left in 1977 the new producer was apparently told to 'lighten up' The 'dark' episodes were the ones that had the highest ever ratings, though; after that it was never quite so popular again, until the New Who in 2005.

See, this is an example of what I mean about the production values - this is a crewman in Ark in Space (1975) being consumed by a roll of green-painted bubble wrap- I'm sure that if Millenium FX had done it, it would have been a lot scarier...

Please God don't let them bring back Rose, that would be so crap.

Dts (nearly 8) understood that she had killed herself in the end. They weren't overly scared of the water aliens as "we don't live in Mars do we?" Dts2 has decided that he'll go visit Jupiter instead where the aliens are presumably less vicious

They were delighted that the Master is back though.

RustyBear did you do the OU Film & Television History course by any chance?

No - I've just been a Dr Who geek for that long! (DH has every issue of the Dr Who magazine...)

I think this may be relevant to the Christmas/New Year special (see 2m50secs) And if it's not, well, you can enjoy it anyway.....

dd's been more scared by Sarah Jane ! It wasn't pleasant but it had largely lost its effect after the first few minutes of wateryness.

I am just particularly terrified by zombies and DD can drive DS#2 to screaming fits byt walking along with her head lolling making hollow groaning noises

Have to agree you with you rusty - even though I'm not nearly as informed as you are

It was never really a kid's programme and it was always the show that you watched from behind the sofa that was it's whole USP wasn't it?

Personally I can't get enough of it...

my younger two weren't so much bothered by the watery-ness, but they were deeply disturbed by the Dr going all power-crazed - dd kept saying "why's the doctor doing that" - and tehy certainly realised the captain had killed herself, but couldn't really follow why - I think it was very dark for 7pm ...

and neither of them could sleep properly so we had a rubbish morning and were late to school - pah

I didn't think it was that scary ,
aybe because everyone ws saying it was going to be the scariest yet, to me it was more upsetting that the Doctor is showing signs of stress that are presumably building up to the regeneration . Sniff. Sob.
I have warned DH already not to laugh at me as I remember crying when jon pertwee and tom baker "died".

It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. DS (6) and i watched it together cuddled up on the sofa. Most of it did go over his head.

DS only watched WWII one last week, as the "Are you my mummy" still sends shivers up my spine. DS still hasn't watched Blink...I'm not sure I could watch it again - it really freaked me out !

As for the last Torchwood......[heads off to the corner to rock gently]...I'm still trying to recover.

DS and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Doctor Who !!!!

xx

Ds1(8) loves Dr Who and usually watches but the trailer for this one really scared him and he was quite happy when we suggested recording it and then 'vetting' it for him. Having watched it, I'm pretty sure he'd be terrified - it's the fact that the water zombies are so near human and their horrible grins. He seemed very relieved when I said thought he'd better wait a while before watching it . Mind you, I overheard him discussing it at school today and you wouldn't guess he hadn't seen it!