Was this the big fundamental problem w/ the Timothy Dalton era?

I don't see a fundamental problem with Dalton's Bond. The problems for audiences at the time may have been.

A. With the era of celebratory blockbusters in the 80's and not having seen a portrayal in the vein of Dalton's since FRWL 20 something years earlier while coming off the most light hearted Bond of all time in Roger Moore, people simply weren't in the mood or ready for that kind of Bond performance

B. License to Kill is a good movie, but not very Bond-like, which may have out audiences off specifically that movie when it came out.

Dear oh dear.

Snark and camp foolishness? Theres a couple of great Bond films your doing a disservice to there.

Not to mention a great Bond.

I'm not generally putting down Roger Moore's movies, I'm just saying that his movies were decidedly more silly and comedic than the more serious Dalton ones.

No.

The Living Daylights was a very popular movie and also a successful one. No, it wasn't Goldfinger popular, but neither were the prior few Moore flicks.

Licence to Kill was a relative disappointment financially because of bad marketing decisions and very stiff competition. However, it was still a reasonable critical success.

Dalton was all set for a third film and probably one or two additional films, but it was derailed by the studio's financial struggles.

Modern perspective of the Dalton films not being accepted is the result of rewriting history due the commonly spread idea that Dalton was booted after LTK "bombing", which is obviously untrue but since it's such a firm and longstanding belief with general audiences, it's difficult to tell people otherwise.

It's the same as trying to tell people that Batman Forever was actually a well liked and hugely successful film back in 95 and not the disaster people see it as today because of years of people associating it with Batman and Robin.

LTK was much better at showing a more serious Bond than TLD was. TLD had too much camp and Roger Moore tone that clashed with Dalton's portrayal, which is why LTK is the much better Dalton movie for me.

Yeah, where failure myths failed over time for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and more recently QUANTUM OF SOLACE, LICENCE TO KILL is an easy target.

One true problem with the Dalton era: he never got the big third mission like GOLDFINGER or THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.

What no man Can give ya. And none Can take away.

He wouldn't have likely topped LTK anyway, but it's possible.

Indeed. Had Timmy had that third film, it no doubt would have been his definitive "big" Bond flick and the general audiences would be broadly approving of him