[AkibaSilver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The conception of the character's arc was that he'd start prickly and insufferable, but grow to be the the more heroic Doctor that fans were used to. Problem was, while the writing team knew they were on an arc about character growth, the viewers tuning in each episode were like Why Is This Show About This Asshole. It ended up really not working, despite seeming like a pretty cool concept. (Of course, I'm sure there were plenty of other reasons why the show didn't work for that era. Like I said, I didn't watch it.)

You fool, you've mentioned Doctor Who, so now it is my time to chat!

The Doctor Who related thing this is reminding me of more than anything is probably Series 9 of New Who (The last Clara one). The overarching theme losely woven through is about the Doctor and Clara's relationship, whether or not it's good for them, how much it's changing them, etc, and it culminates in the final episode, Hell Bent, which is one of the most divisive episodes I know purely because of the reasons we've been talking about. It's effectively a whole episode where the plot is a device for these two characters to analyse their bond. If you vibe with the pairing, it's one of the mose heartfelt and personal episodes ever made. If you don't, it's an hour of pointless navel gazing that meanders between wasted settings. It's not a 100% similarity, but it kept coming to mind.

(Incidentally, the reason I don't like Hell Bent and don't want to watch Faiz is because I really don't vibe with people being jerks to bad for each other purely because that's how they are. Like, I get that it's interesting and all, it's just not what I enjoy watching. I have enough problems with comminicating with people in real life, I don't wanna watch it!)

(Also, you're not wrong with there being lots of reasons why Colin Baker's two series didn't quite work out well. My personal favourite is how the writer of his final episode died before finishing it, and the person who'd been trying to fix it quit after an argument with the producer (and thus they couldn't use any of his work on that serial), so it had to be patched up by writers they'd already had do a story, withoug looking at either previous persons' notes on how it was meant to go, in the space of a week or two.)