7. Peter Jackson Respects His Writers
One of the more interesting things about Doctor Who is that for a science fiction based program it relies only tangentially on special effects. The Doctor is all about story and the writers often honor emotional impact over surface glitz. Peter Jacksons films across the board show a sincere belief in the power of telling tales, over and above their often fantastic effects. In District 9, which Jackson produced, special effects are used throughout to portray aliens and alien technology but more important is the parable of the aliens as a culture we do not understand and how, mired in our fear of the unknown, we exploit and mistreat them. Doctor Who, with its limited budget and 45 minute format is forced to rely on the power of story to get its point across and the director must understand the writers craft in order to produce a good episode. Theres a reason why writers such as Neil Gaiman want to work for Doctor Who. They know their words are going to be treated with the respect they deserve.