There has been a tradition of viewing the Bidmead season as a break from the Williams era because the was ‘the most openly pro-science and anti-magic script editor’ Who had had but, as El Sandifer points out herself, this has largely been put to bed (1). Hoe doesn’t simply do ‘a wretched job of removing magic from the series’ (2) but, as Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood put it, he goes ‘out of his way to make the science big, charming and fantastical’ (3).
But a second perception has persisted, that where Adams was funny, Bidmead was serious (4 – El Sandifer’s actual term here is ‘straight drama’ but I can’t quite imagine anyone trying to make Who that – and 5). Sandifer points out that this gap ‘is in many ways a product of Nathan-Turner’s own invention’ (6) and Hugh Sturgess, on Doctor Who Ratings Guide, includes Bidmead in stating Season 18 was a reaction against Season 17 (7). All of this is true, but it doesn’t mean that’s what Season 18 actually did.
Hugh Sturgess states that under Bidmead the Doctor, though he ‘still has jokes, physical humour [and] the same presence’, loses ‘the playfulness that he had ever since Robot’ (8). I can see some truth in that onscreen but, reading Logopolis, it’s difficult to imagine this was Bidmead’s doing even if it was his intention. The Doctor here is both an inscrutable force of nature and, as far as anyone who observes him can tell, a complete lunatic. In fact, his lunacy is really a result of perception being far keener than everyone else’s, but that’s what makes him a lunatic.
Okay, that’s not very clear but trust me, it will be by the time you’ve waded through everything I have to say about Logopolis…
1. ‘the strange paradox of Christopher Bidmead – the fact that despite being the most openly pro-science and anti-magic script editor Doctor Who has ever had he ends up overseeing some of the most magic-filled stories in Doctor Who’ (Elizabeth Sandifer, Tardis Eruditorum, ‘That’s The Lion King’, eruditorumpress.com/blog/thats-the-lion-king-full-circle)
2. ‘the most interesting thing about Bidmead’s tenure is that he does such a wretched job of removing magic from the series’ (Elizabeth Sandifer, Tardis Eruditorum, ‘Like a Computer, But There’s Something Wrong With Its Pitch’, eruditorumpress.com/blog/like-a-computer-but-theres-something-wrong-with-its-pitch-meglos)
3. ‘Bidmead […] went out of his way to make the science big, charming and fantastical (if not necessarily more accurate…)’ (Lawrence Miles & Tat Wood, About Time 5; p.15)
4. ‘Bidmead viewed Doctor Who as a more or less straight drama, whereas Adams, though not the cavalier jokester his detractors portray him as being, clearly preferred a mixture of comedy and drama’ (Elizabeth Sandifer, Tardis Eruditorum, ‘Fish From Space’, eruditorumpress.com/blog/fish-from-space-state-of-decay)
5. ‘There are fewer jokes in Season 18 and those that follow. This would most likely be the case without Bidmead’s involvement, as John Nathan-Turner also wanted the show to be more serious’ (Hugh Sturgess, ‘Adams vs. Bidmead: What’s the Difference?, Doctor Who Ratings Guide, pagefillers.com/dwrg/frames.htm)
6. ‘the gap between the Williams and Nathan-Turner eras is in many ways a product of Nathan-Turner’s own invention’ (Elizabeth Sandifer, Tardis Eruditorum, ‘You’ve Discovered Television’, eruditorumpress.com/blog/youve-discovered-television-the-leisure-hive)
7. ‘Bidmead and JNT said that they were reacting against the "jokiness" and "undergraduate humour", that Doctor Who had previously been too "silly"’ (Hugh Sturgess, ‘Adams vs. Bidmead: What’s the Difference?, Doctor Who Ratings Guide, pagefillers.com/dwrg/frames.htm)
8. ‘The fourth Doctor of Season Eighteen isn't that different from that of Season Seventeen, just spectacularly less entertaining. He still has jokes, physical humour, the same presence, but the playfulness that he had ever since Robot has been smoothed away. The result is something faintly sad, a worth-out hero from our childhood’ (Hugh Sturgess, ‘Adams vs. Bidmead: What’s the Difference?, Doctor Who Ratings Guide, pagefillers.com/dwrg/frames.htm)
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