I suppose the fact that I only discovered the show in my late 30’s has something to do with this tragedy, but I have never found Doctor Who to be anything more alarming than “tense.” One hears all the time about kids hiding behind the sofa; of adults who still find Daleks unsettling, especially in person; of how scary this or that monster is—but I’ve never been able to relate.
I feel like I’m missing out on some essential part of the experience.
Honestly, though, while I’ll readily admit certain ideas are definitely creepy, nothing on Who has ever actually frightened me. Daleks? They may be megalomaniacal killing machines, but they look more quirky than scary. Cybermen? At their best they have a great body horror factor, but are barely even threatening. Weeping Angels? Don’t make me laugh—they let you live to death! So what is so scary about Our Show?
I’m sad to say I don’t know. Sure, it’s made me squirm a few times. As every good writer knows, the threat you can’t see is vastly more terrifying than one you can. That’s why something like the Vashta Nerada works: you never see them and don’t know exactly when or where they will strike.
It’s also why certain monsters fail. To take a recent example, the revived Ice Warriors (as seen in Cold War) are disappointing, in my opinion. Grand Marshall Skaldak was built up brilliantly as a threatening, chilling monster-in-the-dark. He felt like a wonderfully ominous creature to me. Then they had to go and show his face. “Oh,” I thought. “He’s just another scaly green guy.” All of the fear of the unknown went right out the window. He was no longer some nameless horror—the stuff of nightmares created by one’s imagination; suddenly he was just another alien much like all the rest. Ho hum.
I’m not sure if that’s the main reason I’ve never been scared while watching Who or not. Maybe it’s simply what I said at the beginning, that I’ve always watched as an adult. I certainly get sucked into the emotions of the show (and any other show, book, or film I enjoy) readily enough, so I know I’m engaging on that level, but fear is never something that registers more than peripherally. Is it because I don’t particularly like to be scared, that I somehow know how to divorce myself from that part of the fiction while immersing myself in the rest?
Meh. I’m probably just old.
Whatever the case, I can never go back to childhood and watch these stories. I’ll never know what it is like to see all those creatures on my screen, and half-believe they could actually hurt me (or permanently do in the Doctor). I’ll never have the experience of wanting to hide behind the sofa. I’ll never insist to my friends I wasn’t scared (when I really was) as we reenact the latest episode on the playground. It makes me kind of sad, because I somehow feel like I’m not a “real” fan without those experiences. Maybe someday my kids will mature enough that they can stand more peril in the things they watch, and I can live vicariously through them.
Hope springs eternal.
Kidstuff
The only memory I have of being scared was being told by my parents to come in to the room and watch Planet of the Daleks, rather than watch it through the crack in the living room door. I was aged 7, and I have no idea why I found the Daleks scary I can just remember the visceral gut feeling of fear. Eventually my parents told me to come in or they would turn the tv over. Such sink or swim parenting made me the well balanced individual that I am today
Experience
Well, at least you’ve had the experience of being scared, even if it was only once as a nipper. You’re one up on me.
On being too old
I do think it is your age. I don’t actually remember being scared by the programme per se (and I’ve been watching since I was four!) but certainly images like the Cyberman in ‘Tomb’ almost holding up the closing hatch made a very deep impression on me. I was /extremely/ nervous of shop window dummies following the broadcast of Spearhead From Space (I was eight then). BUT I did used to get scared (at least when thinking about them at night) by old horror movies – Universal, Hammer, et al. They don’t scare me now, not remotely. About the only film that still makes me even slightly edgy is the original ‘The Haunting’ – where, surprise surprise, you never see the horror. But I do have grown-up (whatever that means!) friends who simply won’t watch horror films because they can’t cope…so I guess we’re all different.
And anyway our sofa was pushed against the wall, so hiding behind it was never an option.
Ouch!
Way to hit me where it hurts! 😉
I’m not a horror fan, so I’d be one of those people who “can’t cope” (though I think that has more to do with gore than anything). At any rate, I’m afraid I’m too… jaded? Well adapted? Inured? Something that comes with age and experience, anyway, that prevents me from getting frightened by a Who story. So in essence, you’re absolutely right.
Kind of a bummer I’ve missed my window for appreciation of the show on that level. ~sigh~
Old vs. new
I think you’re absolutely right about age being a factor. I started watching Doctor Who when I was three, and I have vivid memories of moments that scared me during Tom Baker’s first two or three seasons (and also Earthshock!). Which, tellingly, are the stories I would’ve watched when I was the youngest.
These days, I find that the new series barely even gets me sweating. I thought maybe I, too, had gotten too old to be affected by DW’s “scary, but not TOO scary” stories… and then there was “Blink”, which had me looking over my shoulder in a way that I hadn’t done since I saw “The Blair Witch Project”. (But apparently it didn’t affect you the same way!)
If not for that one story, though, I would’ve assumed that I had just outgrown being scared by DW. But now I think maybe the series pulls its punches more than it used to… I mean, can you imagine a villain getting killed in a compost grinder in 2013? (To be fair, though, it’s probably some combination of the two.)
Blink
Interesting perspective! I think you’re right that in many ways, the show doesn’t dare do things now to quite the degree it used to.
For me, my not-overly-nervous reaction to Blink may be in part because it was just one episode in a huge marathon, and I knew there was another series plus still to go (at the time), so nothing too terrible could happen, right? Or maybe I’m jaded. Or old. 😉
Weeping Angels!
Haha, yeah, I don’t think I was worried that Really Bad Things would happen to the regulars either (since they were barely in it!), it was just that the Weeping Angels were sooo freaky, especially in that last scene with Sally and Larry. And even scarier on rewatching, once you’d figured out that they really were as creepy as the episode was making them look. So if you were able to watch that scene without being too concerned, then I might have to go with either “jaded” or “scared by different types of things” 🙂 Like how some people aren’t particularly bothered by spiders, but others (like me) will climb the walls to escape them? (I’d be curious to hear what TV shows or films HAVE scared you… maybe you can work backwards and figure out what DW is lacking 🙂 )
Scary stuff
Interesting point… I have to say, I don’t generally watch things I find scary; I don’t care for them. I’d have to put a great deal of thought into it before I could come up with a clear answer to your proposed exercise.
I guess the main thing I find lacking in Who is that real sense that a character I care about is honestly about to lose their life. Especially with Moffat, people don’t die (and stay dead). 🙂
TRUE.
You’re so right about that! Although maybe, if you’re not generally a fan of scary stuff anyway, this is a point in DW’s favor? 🙂
Scary v. Tense
True, that might be better for me anyway. 🙂 I find the lack of believability (with respect to peril) makes the overall experience less tense overall, though, and that detracts from the story. For comparison, I found the Harry Potter novels (particularly the last one) tense-but-not-scary, which made for a more engaging story. I didn’t find He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or any of the other antagonists particularly frightening per se, but I was constantly on edge, because I didn’t know which character might die at any moment.
That’s something sorely lacking in recent Who.