Introducing Baker\u2019s Fourth Doctor, taking the Time Lord back out into the stars and introducing a new style of stories inspired by classic horror, Hinchcliffe\u2019s era was composed mostly of four- and six-part stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a serial,\u201d he told RadioTimes.com<\/a> while promoting \u00a0The God of Phantoms<\/a>, the latest in his Philip Hinchcliffe Presents\u2026 series from audio drama producers Big Finish.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo the whole idea was that every week, there\u2019s an episode with a cliffhanger, and the audience talked about it during the week, and then they came back. <\/span>Four half-hours, or four 25 minutes, <\/span>is pretty much the length of a movie. And so that that was the ideal story arc, over four half-hours.<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong>\u00a0Doctor Who\u2019s Philip Hinchcliffe admits he didn\u2019t consider \u201cthe repercussions\u201d of the Morbius Doctors<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c[Doctor Who showrunner] Chris Chibnall and I talked about this when I met him a couple years ago \u2013 <\/span>we had our natural cliffhangers. He said that he\u2019s trying to construct within his story structures to have \u2018cliffhanger moments\u2019, if you know what I mean, going through. But it all happens much faster, at a much faster pace.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Asked if working in the modern show\u2019s format of single episodes, running to 45 minutes each, would appeal to him, Hinchcliffe replied: \u201cI don\u2019t think it would. <\/span>I don\u2019t think that the 45 or 50 minutes story is as satisfying in some ways, because you don\u2019t get to know the characters much, or <\/span>as well as in my stories.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou need to invest something in the characters and care about what\u2019s going to happen. And that\u2019s not always just the Doctor and the companion, it\u2019s the other people in the stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He voiced a preference instead for the modern show\u2019s two-part stories, suggesting that these \u201coften work really well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause again, they\u2019re movie-length,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think there is always a danger [with the single episodes] that, you know, if the Doctor has to solve the whole thing, you have to have shortcuts, [in terms of] the way he manages to defeat everybody.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI always remember when I first started, Barry Letts [Hinchcliffe\u2019s predecessor as Doctor Who producer] and Terrance Dicks [Doctor Who script editor from 1968 to 1974] said to me, \u2018We\u2019ve got this thing called the sonic screwdriver, but we ration how much we use it, otherwise it\u2019s one bound, and the Doctor\u2019s free.\u2019 And I think that\u2019s a danger with modern storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I\u2019m not actually thinking of any particular story recently, because I haven\u2019t watched a lot of them. But I think that is a danger when you\u2019re trying to set up a mystery, the danger, defeat the enemy\u2026. you know, and get back for tea-time!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite his reservations about the single episode structure, Hinchcliffe called the revived version of Doctor Who \u201ca fabulous success\u201d, praising it for having \u201creinvented the show but keeping the core values.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI went down a couple of years ago when Chris Chibnall took over \u2013 they were marvellous, showed me everything that was going on,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve met a few of the modern directors when I\u2019ve been at conventions and things like that. So I\u2019ve talked in some detail to them about how it\u2019s been made since it came back.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought Russell T Davies, and then Steven Moffat, have done a fantastic job. And that\u2019s, I think, why there\u2019s still fans discovering my era. Without the programme having come back in such a successful form, I think that my era and the previous ones would have kind of just dwindled\u2026 but somehow there\u2019s a new focus on them. So that\u2019s terrific, it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Philip Hinchcliffe: \u2018I was pushing the envelope on Doctor Who, but not irresponsibly\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents Volume 04: The God of Phantoms is available now from bigfinish.com<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n Visit our Sci-fi<\/a> hub for more news and features, or find something to watch with out TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hinchcliffe, producer on the series from 1974-77, says four 25-minute episodes provides room for “the ideal story arc”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3635,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/philip-hinchcliffe-says-new-doctor-who-is-fantastic-but-45-minute-episodes-arent-as-satisfying.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Hinchcliffe, producer on the series from 1974-77, says four 25-minute episodes provides room for \"the ideal story arc\".","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Philip\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/Philip-Hinchcliffe-5d39cf4.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Philip\\"")
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