In the same article that Larry mentioned previously, Russell T. Davies brings up another interesting idea, as quoted by io9:
He also explained why he insisted that Doctor Who must be the only BBC show without a message board on its official site: he doesn’t want to hear from the fans. “I’m sorry to say this, all the science fiction producers making stuff in America, they are way too engaged with their fandom. They all need to step back.”
Now, that is an interesting perspective. We all saw what happened with Heroes this season: fans were unhappy with the show, and Tim Kring vowed to fix what they didn’t like. At the same time, I can recall not too long ago fans were up in arms at comments Stargate Atlantis producer Joseph Malozzi made comments that implied he didn’t care what the fans thought of the show.
Davies is very right, fans are becoming more and more entwined with the shows that they love. They’re mounting campaigns to save shows, they’re working in “street teams” to promote the episodes. The simple fact is that without fans and ratings, these shows wouldn’t exist at all.
But do the fans know best? If you spend any time on a fan forum, you can see that large groups of fans almost never agree with each other. There is probably no good way to get a good feel for what a large group of fans thinks about anything, message boards are full of arguments.
So I ask, what do you think? Who actually knows better where a show should be going next? The writers and producers, or the fans themselves? Is there an easy answer to that question?
February 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Though I can be an opinionated fan, I agree with Davies. As you said, not all fans agree, even when they all disagree with the show-runners. The vocal majority ends up getting their way, and the show may suffer.
In cases where there is a true show runner (Davies, Wheadon, Lindelof and Crus, Moore, and even Tim Kring), as a fan you should trust in their vision, or stop watching. The minute they change the vision to address the fans, things usually fall apart.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:54 am
I think writers do need to be able to write without just doing what the fans want. The fact that Lost was able to kill off almost anyone raised the drama but wouldn’t have been possible if the fans had the overriding influence on the direction of the show. But the other view is that Russel T Davies is a div. making Catherine Tate the new assistant is just plane dumb and he keeps doing rubbish like this again and again. He needs to start listening to someone.
Or maybe he just needs to be replaced by a better writer.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Davies is correct, I feel. However, like George Lucas, he is a person who desperately needs some quality control — people with talent who are between him and the end product who make the end product better than it would be if it just followed his whims.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I agree with you evil:cat. George Lucas is best when he has other talented people tempering his ideas and making them into something wonderful.
The Lawr: Lost actually is an interesting one, because they did kill off two characters simply because the fans didn’t like them or respond to them. But overall, they do seem to be doing things the way that they want to.