Yes, Who was regarded as a children's programme, but I'm not so sure all of SF prgramming, such as it may have been, was considered the same. Much as we'd like it to be otherwise, even the BBC had to take into account popularity - was serious SF in demand in those days, or perceived as such? Soap-SF or not, Survivors was an adult show, as was 1990. B7, on the other hand, was a space opera more or less, but a very popular one.
Didn't TN go to the US to try getting the Daleks launched into a series of their own? You couldn't exactly call him an SF writer, despite them and B7. And the high-ups at the Beeb weren't overly sympathetic to Who or SF in general, it seems to me. It hadn't had the revival in popularity it's got now. Perhaps they just didn't get it.
As for Nigel Kneale, did his switch to ITV do him that much good? I confess I don't know a lot about his later career. I do know he hated Who, though :-D
I do wish we could have more serious SF drama, though. I love space adcenture shows and things like Primeval, but I want to see drama that has SF ideas just as we see cop shows and medical shows and so forth, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-06 08:25 pm (UTC)Didn't TN go to the US to try getting the Daleks launched into a series of their own? You couldn't exactly call him an SF writer, despite them and B7. And the high-ups at the Beeb weren't overly sympathetic to Who or SF in general, it seems to me. It hadn't had the revival in popularity it's got now. Perhaps they just didn't get it.
As for Nigel Kneale, did his switch to ITV do him that much good? I confess I don't know a lot about his later career. I do know he hated Who, though :-D
I do wish we could have more serious SF drama, though. I love space adcenture shows and things like Primeval, but I want to see drama that has SF ideas just as we see cop shows and medical shows and so forth, too.