The New Doctor Who

[TRP]

These people are speaking normally, not in trained, posh accents. If you can't understand them, you just need to get used to it. If you were to go to places where their accents are ordinary, you'd have the same problem.

That's a matter of exposure. It's easier to pickup dialects when you're immersed in them every day than it is when you hear them for just an hour, at most, per week. Also some people have better ears for dialects than others. You may be the former, I'm definitely the later.

You make a good point about the speed at which an actor delivers his lines. The faster, the more difficult for me.

I also think that sound/audio engineers are falling down on the job as well. As northrundicandus pointed out, and to which I agree, Battlestar Galatica has issues, and dialect is not a problem for me with that show.

None of this keeps me from watching the Doctor, and it's not like it's incomprehensible, it's just that I'm likely auditorially lazy.

[dcs]

I found Billie Piper difficult to understand for all of two minutes. I've listened to a couple of Doctor Who stories narrated by David Tennant in his natural accent, and found him difficult to understand for all of two minutes.

That's nice. Others might have a different experience.

These people are speaking normally, not in trained, posh accents. If you can't understand them, you just need to get used to it. If you were to go to places where their accents are ordinary, you'd have the same problem.

If the producers would like to increase the audience for their shows, then they would do well to make certain that the actors are understandable to a wide spectrum of watchers.

I find an American Bayou accent more difficult to understand than English Cockney or Scottish.

There aren't many television programs in which the actors have affected a bayou accent.

[TRP]

There aren't many television programs in which the actors have affected a bayou accent.

I'm still waiting for an actor that can actually pull it off. What's funny is when actors and directors portray characters in southeast Louisiana with a typical southern accent. The only people around here that speak like that are transplants.

[northrundicandus]

I'm still waiting for an actor that can actually pull it off. What's funny is when actors and directors portray characters in southeast Louisiana with a typical southern accent. The only people around here that speak like that are transplants.

Or they sound like someone from Monroe or Lake Providence. 'Nawlins Natives have a very unique accent, which is further complicated by East Bank and West Bank differences. I think this uniqueness is due to the incredible mixture of cultures that settled down in this port city.

[TRP]

I'm still waiting for an actor that can actually pull it off. What's funny is when actors and directors portray characters in southeast Louisiana with a typical southern accent. The only people around here that speak like that are transplants.

Or they sound like someone from Monroe or Lake Providence. 'Nawlins Natives have a very unique accent, which is further complicated by East Bank and West Bank differences. I think this uniqueness is due to the incredible mixture of cultures that settled down in this port city.

Da niint ward accent shares soitin' characteristics wit da Bronx, cause boat cities had heavy Irish immigration.

[JCBoney]

Eye jus' perfer a good ol' Arkansaw aksent and I wush all the shows on tv wuld copeh it. It jus' might increase muh tv watchin' tihme.

Or maybe not.

Back on track: yeah, to me it's not that Tennant's accent is hard, it's that he tends to mumble or speed through a lot of it. Piper did the same. WTH, are these people from Mississippi and don't touch their lips together when they talk?

[dcs]

What's funny is when actors and directors portray characters in southeast Louisiana with a typical southern accent.

We get the same thing here in Philly -- characters are portrayed as having a typical bland Hollywood accent or, if they're working-class, a typical New York accent (like Toni Collette's in The Sixth Sense -- especially odd because Collette is Australian; why affect a New York accent if it's neither your native accent nor the accent of the character your portraying?).

[TRP]

I know that I may have to duck a barrage of rotten tomatos on this one, but I liked Peter Davidson as The Doctor. Couldn't say he was anywhere near my favorite, but it was a refreshing change of pace to see the Doctor portrayed as a "nice guy".

Another plus for Davidson's Doctor was he presided over the demise of Adric.

Although Baker is da man, I cannot forgive him for Adric.

[Maraudar]

I have'nt seen Christopher Eccleston's Doctor. I enjoy Tenant's Doctor immensely though. No problem understanding him at all. I started with Tom Baker, midway through his term. Peter Davidson was good as well and yes I admit it I liked Colin Baker as the Doctor. Arrogant, condensending and rough as hell.


Maraudar

[Stormcrow]

I found Billie Piper difficult to understand for all of two minutes. I've listened to a couple of Doctor Who stories narrated by David Tennant in his natural accent, and found him difficult to understand for all of two minutes.

That's nice. Others might have a different experience.

Lay off, hmm?

If the producers would like to increase the audience for their shows, then they would do well to make certain that the actors are understandable to a wide spectrum of watchers.

This is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about not understanding the accents in Doctor Who. After 28 years of (non-consecutive) programming, I'd say it's been pretty well understood!

I find an American Bayou accent more difficult to understand than English Cockney or Scottish.

There aren't many television programs in which the actors have affected a bayou accent.[/quote]

Who said anything about television Bayou? I can't understand the real thing.

[JCBoney]

Just a little trivia: the actor who played Jamie McCrimmon during the second Doctor's tenure started with an authentic highlander dialect, but had to tone it down to a "TV Scot" dialect due to complaints from viewers.

[thedungeondelver]

This "Doctor Who" seems like some kind of god-damned hippie. If he gets near me with his communist british phone booth, so help me god I'll shoot him down!

[TRP]

This is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about not understanding the accents in Doctor Who. After 28 years of (non-consecutive) programming, I'd say it's been pretty well understood!

I had no problem with the first 26.

Of course, my eardrums are now 15+ years older than last I regularly watched The Doctor.

[TRP]

This "Doctor Who" seems like some kind of god-damned hippie. If he gets near me with his communist british phone booth, so help me god I'll shoot him down!

Bow your head when you jest 'bout Hest, fella.

To my eternal shame, I share a Chuck Heston hero-worship with Clang. Not the poor Alzheimer fellow, but the awesome actor of Ben Hur, The Buccanneer, The Warlord, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and Omega Man.

[PapersAndPaychecks]

With the latest incarnation of Dr Who, the posh accent of the older series is noticeably lacking. I find nearly a quarter of the dialogue of the principals incomprehensible.

This is fundamental to British culture.

Some of us live in counties called things like "Hertfordshire" (pronounced "HART-ford-shire") or "Leicestershire" (pronounced "LES-ter-shire") and towns called things like "Worcester" (pronounced "WOOS-ter"), "Cholmondeley" (pronounced "CHUM-ley") or (my local fave) "Braughing" (and I'll give you ten points if you can tell me how to pronounce it.)

The rest of us like to live in villages called "Middle Wallop" or "Great Snoring", of course.

We use words like "Lieutenant" (pronounced "Lef-TEN-ant") in day-to-day conversation. We put the letter "u" into words ending in "or". We spell words like "programme" weirdly. And all this for absolutely no reason at all.

In any other country, a bar would be named after the owner, or the locality, or else given a warm, welcoming name. Only in Britain are they called the "Dog and Duck" or the "Cross Keys."

And our bewildering variety of regional accents would baffle a trained linguist.

All this should lead any impartial viewer to realise the basic quality of any British institution, which is that it has to be incomprehensible to foreigners.