Next Time on Doctor Who…
The 45-second “Next time…” trailers have become one of the new Doctor Who‘s most important elements. In a season of mostly self-contained stories they serve the role a cliffhanger played in the past, making sure the audience tune in next week. Initially they drew a certain amount of fan ire for spoiling plot elements, but as the new series has settled down the trailers have too, getting the balance between teasing and revealing mostly right.
Inevitably, fannish creativity has turned its attention to the trailers. There is a thriving mini-genre on YouTube of new-style trailer edits done for old-series stories. I encountered these at the weekend and spent a happy hour or so watching a load of them. I’m not normally keen on fan videos as most of them tend to dwell on the aspects of the series I don’t think need extra emphasis – the Doctor/companion relationship, or the emotional elements. These appealed because they promised new-school discipline applied to old-school storytelling, and because they necessarily focus on what makes a story thrilling.
Well, they ought to, at least. Watching the fan trailers gives you an appreciation of the work the ‘real’ trailer makers do, and the mistakes they avoid. The best trailers have a quick establishing moment, some cuts of action scenes, dialogue that suggests threat or crisis and a couple of other juicy lines or moments, saving the most dramatic or mysterious moment for last while giving away none of the resolution. The most effective fan trailers tend to stick to this formula too – others make telltale mistakes. They might include a particular favourite line of dialogue which is just too long for the trailer, or which presents the monsters or threats as ineffective. They might show too much of the resolution or closing scenes. They might simply not make the edit fast or exciting enough (and who can blame them really, the more edits you make, the more time-consuming the whole thing is).
Here’s a selection:
Dalek Invasion of Earth (typical of the form)
Kinda (note major strategic error at end)
Curse Of Fenric (quite effective in making me keen to watch a story I have no affection for)
The Web Planet (a big ask to make this gentle, enigmatic story exciting!)
oh this is a wonderful idea! altho it’s still a bit disappointing when the editing is not as slick or sound as what you see with the new series. the Fenric one is pretty good tho.
Hooray for BBC creative commons!
(Not that I imagine it has been done under these auspices). I for one hope to re-dub the new Robin Hood with high pitched French voices, to give them one back for the Flashing Blade).
I myself would love to re-generate old Chart Show ‘Amiga’ graphics and superimpose them over the top of various music videos halfway thru.
Are “Next time on….” trailers uncommon in England? Almost every American show does them, and I assumed it was just done for all television.
many prestige dramas have them, it’s true, but they’re often a bit perfunctory — a flash of scenes during the closing credits
what’s diff abt the dr who ones is that they’re upfront, punchy, quite long, stand-alone and — above all — NEW TO DR WHO (which stopped broadcast before in an era when “next time” trailers were unheard of)
many dramas NOW have them integrated with the end credits. but a few years back they might occasionally show the regular trailer for next week’s ep straight after the credits, and a few years before that it would be unusual. i’m willing to be corrected on that.
watching us drama on torrents (eg Lost) often comes without them (and the credits)
i liked Quantum Leap’s relatively innovative method of setting up the next episode by showing you where Sam leaps next, effectively making every episode end on a cliffhanger (altho the drop turned out to be hardly seismic usually).
I’m sure there are precedents for that. Time Tunnel for one. Possibly other Irwin Allen stuff.
innovative in my lifetime then ;)