Day 116: Don't Shoot the Pianist

So this story is set in the genre of Western, a genre familiar to viewers of the time. This story, first broadcast in 1966, is in a time when audiences were enjoying adventures in the Wild West, most of which were American imports. So the audiences are watching this with prior knowledge of the tropes and natures of Western adventures, however it was actually poorly received at the time. There are several reasons as to why this could be. The stock response is to say that the reason why people said that it was bad is because it is bad. This is wrong, because it's actually a very funny script that's had some excellent direction from Rex Tucker, although some of the accents leave much to be desired. Another reason could be that audiences are snobby, as this serial is one of, if not the, first British productions in the Western genre. The audiences of the day would be used to the American serials, and so there could be some disappointment if the production values didn't meet their high standards for drama production. Then again, a couple of weeks ago we had monsters whose defining characteristic was that they had Beatle wigs and a singular eye made from a ping pong ball, so production values aren't probably on the viewers' mind. The key reason is probably at the top of this entry, where it states Day 116. 116 episodes of Doctor Who so far, and although it visits varying locations, and meets varying people and aliens, it is getting a bit old. It signals that perhaps it's time for a change, and not just in terms of production, but in something far more visible.