Doctor Who Trailers: What Americans Like

BBC America released an entirely different trailer for the new Doctor Who series, and I'm a little late showing it:

Now, what can we learn about this? What does BBC America think Americans actually like? (Because why else do a different trailer?)
1. Being told that they might want to watch the show because it is a "phenomenon" and apparently popular with certain people who have "credibility".
2. Compliments about their powerful country and its powerful capital.
3. Mark Sheppard. He's a "name" British actor working in U.S. genre television Fans of Firefly, Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13 and Supernatural will be especially appreciative.
4. More pirates. Those yanks love that Pirates of the Caribbean twaddle.
5. Catch phrases.

Now I wanna see a Canadian trailer with maple syrup.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The American trailer certainly reads like, "in case you've never watched 'Doctor Who', here's some cool stuff you'll like". The British trailer assumes you're already a fan, as were your parents and grandparents.
Siskoid said…
You make me feel old sir. I don't have kids, but if I did, they could be 20 by now, and I've turned a lot of my friends in their early 20s on to Doctor Who.

And while my father and I were never close (I'd go as far as to say "estranged") I do remember watching Hand of Fear with him when I was, like, 12.
Anonymous said…
I watched with my dad too; my dad knows them as "ruffle", "scarf", "celery", and so on. But watching in Cleveland, "Doctor Who" was an option only on grainy low-powered public television on Friday or Saturday late nights. In the US, "Doctor Who" still rates as a niche, probably more visible than "Farscape" but less so than "Firefly".

But if you were watching in 1963, no doubt from behind the couch in your squalid London flat, you probably now have children and grandchildren with whom you can have heartfelt arguments about why the Mechanoids aren't better remembered today. And if your mother and father are still alive, no doubt in some squalid London nursing home, they too might qualify as fans. That's four generations' worth, cor blimey.
Siskoid said…
I got my Doctor Who from two sources. The PBS station we got out of Maine showed the omnibus stories with cliffhangers cut out (every Sunday). And YTV ("Youth Television" out of Ontario) had a half hour a day around supper time later in my teens.
I thought that an American trailer would appeal more to America's anglophiles.
Siskoid said…
They probably have the anglophiles in their pocket already.

I mean, I'm a French-Canadian anglophile, so a natural Whovian, no pandering required.