Only 1 in 5 of scripts commissioned by the BBC end up going into development. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not, but that’s the statistic. You could argue that the solution to making better programmes is in commissioning less but spending more time on development. Only, talk to people who’ve been through the development process and it’s by no means a given that the end product is better as a result.

Pulse, a new pilot for a series that plays on BBC3 tomorrow night, is a good example. It’s scripted by Paul Cornell, but he’s the third writer to turn his hand to the job, and I dare say none of them did just one draft before moving on. Still, as a jobbing writer he should be used to working with the concepts of others: he’s written some strong stories for Dr Who, and has scripted comics for Marvel too.

The most relevant part of Cornell’s CV on this occasion is his stint on Casualty, Pulse being a medical drama. But, dipping into his Who and Marvel work, it’s one with a horror/science fiction element too. Which you’d hope means Cornell is in his element. Sadly, I’m not convinced.

Medical horror could go in all sorts of exciting directions. Especially with the brave new world of modern science to play with. Cybernetic enhancements, gene splicing, drugs to enhance cognitive functioning…if you can’t have some fun with ingredients like that, you’re not trying. And it may be that Pulse is going to reveal high jinks in those directions. But on the basis of the first episode I’m not going to bother to stick around to find out.

The problem is that Pulse has narrow horizons. It’s content to be another tv programme, when there’s already hundreds of them out there. The belief that by mixing genres it’ll produce something special is heading in the right direction, but the show stays within televisual boundaries. And really, that’s not enough.

So, I’m criticising a tv programme for looking and sounding like a tv programme? Sounds ridiculous, but that’s what it amounts to. The makers might point to budgetary limitations as being the reason for sticking to the tried and tested. I refer them to Paranormal Activity, a terrifying movie made for next to nothing that did very well commercially, and is going to spawn sequels. Kind of like how a tv pilot then leads to subsequent episodes.

Thing being, that Pulse looks pretty much like every medical drama you’ve ever seen. And moves at a slow and steady pace as it establishes the characters before bringing on the scary. By which time I was bored bored bored. If you’re going to do an experiment in genre-splicing, how about using those aspects of each that make them exciting? It would have been good to see the characterisation of a tv hospital drama with the thrills of a horror film. But if that’s what the makers thought they were delivering, I have news for them: they failed.

Pulse was…ok, but ok’s just not good enough. In a world where I can look at all kinds of stuff on YouTube, pop a DVD of a film on, or crack open a box set of a genuinely adrenaline-charged series like The Shield, exactly what incentive do I have to watch a medical drama that brings to mind that damning phrase on film certificates: ‘contains mild peril’?

I don’t like my peril mild. When I want peril, I want it uncut and to appear at unexpected moments and to freak the bejesus out of me. Not in the last few minutes of a tv drama when there’s been nothing upsetting for the rest of the episode, meaning that the shock has got to come…any…minute…now…given it ends in 300 seconds.

All of which should have been known to Cornell, a talented writer who’s worked on Dr Who — a show that has produced genuine shockers in the form of stone angels, Daleks, and alien monsters that live in rooms you’ll never find in your very own house. That’s the bar for horror — set by a show for kids. The fact that Pulse didn’t raise mine tells you all you need to know.