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Television Media

BBC To Revive Doctor Who Next Year 321

Posted by timothy from the tammy-wynette-on-high-alert dept.
Jordan writes: "Orange Today is reporting that the BBC has hired a scriptwriter from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to work on a new Doctor Who series, in celebration of the show's 40th anniversary. And Buffy's Anthony Head, who plays Giles, may be up for the role of the doctor." Update: 07/03 12:27 GMT by T : LoadStar writes: "The Beeb has an official denial that a new Who series is in the works with members of the Buffy production team, as reported yesterday on Slashdot. They report 'Whilst the Cult team quite like the idea of Tony Head as the Doctor in a show guided by members of America's finest fantasy production team, the BBC aren't currently making any such plans.'"
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BBC To Revive Doctor Who Next Year More

BBC To Revive Doctor Who Next Year

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  • Somehow, this has me worried. Dr. Who is cool, but writing all-new episodes just doesn't sit right with me (especially if they're using a script-writer from Buffy). They'll probably make it all state-of-the-art computer graphics and stuff, and end up ruining it. Ah, well, I hope I'm wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.

    • Re:New series? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by billstr78 ( 535271 )
      I think alot of the popularity in it's hay day was the geeky plots, sets and characters which are outdated by today's standards, but still very cool to even someone who did not watch the show in it's original run.

      Maybe the producers are hoping that if they modernize all of the technology, it will appeal to a whole new generation of geeks which not get quite so much enjoyment out of PDP-11 and VAX vintage stuff.

      • I think you're right.

        I'm really scared they'll try to 'fix' the original series. Did you catch that ep of Greg the Bunny when Seth Green (i forget his character name) 'fixes' the kid's show by trying to ultra-modernize it and make it 'hip' for the young generation? I'm worried they'll do that to Dr. Who.
    • They already ruined it with computer graphics when FOX made the Dr. Who tv movie [imdb.com]. What I really didn't like about it was it had a plot that I think was much more complex than a typical Dr. Who episode.

      It was nice to have Dr. Who back after 12 years or so, but the tv movie really wasn't that great... I hope that the new series won't be as bad as that was...

      • I didn't think it was that bad. (To be fair, my standards were extremely low...) Some of it was semi-faithful to the TV Series. Some of the dialog in particular was pretty decent. Wish I coudl quote some of it.

        I was amazed at the design of the Tardis. Although I don't agree with the style of the ship, I thought the direction they went was rather inspired.

        Sadly, though, you're right about them ruining it. It was just so wrong to see the Doc get a girl. I don't know what was so startling to me about that. Maybe it was because I have "Trial of the Time Lord' on tape. The Doctor really seemed to want to be with Peri, but he wouldn't. THat never really was explained. (nor do I want it to be...)

        In any case, I did get some good from it, but like Star Trek 5 and Episode I, I'd like to forget it.

    • Re:New series? (Score:2, Informative)

      by LoadStar ( 532607 )

      Don't worry. Not going to happen, at least according to the BBC. Right on the Doctor Who official page on the BBC, they have an official denial [bbc.co.uk] that they are working with any of the Buffy production team.

  • Search. Locate. Exterminate. Bip. Bip. Search Locate. Exterminate.
    • God I loved those daleks. They were so frikkin fun to watch, and those sound effects for shooting. I hope they keep the same style. I hope they keep them full stop (period).

      Does anyone know how they 'saw'? They used that big toilet plunger thing on the top, but was it a true eye, or a motion detector, or heat sensor....

      If I were the doc when I encountered those, I would have jumped on the back of one - they have jiant bumbers around the bottom. Very convenient for the feet. Those big bumps all over the body (dalek zits?) are useful to hold on to. Oh wait, they can sense that someone is on them? Tough, what can they do? spin around in a circle like a dog catching it's tail to spin you off?

  • The dog! (Score:2, Funny)

    by davcorp ( 465418 )
    I wonder how the dog will look now that we have Battle Bots [comedycentral.com].... can u say 16" Diamond Chip saw blade ;)....

  • update it (Score:3, Funny)

    by ericdano ( 113424 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @12:53AM (#3812561) Homepage
    They should update it. Put Bill Gate Robots in. "Search. Locate. Format C:. Install XP...."

    What about that other great BBC series, Blakes 7? I'd love to see that revived. Would be very cool with modern special effects.

  • Wicked! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Astral Jung ( 450195 )
    OK, ok, I'm in the minority of fans, to be sure, but, I actually dug the Fox TV movie version...well, except for that whole Eric Roberts as the Master thing. Ew. I for one would like to see Who with an actual budget, as opposed to 'the endless gravel quarries.'

    But I could definitely see Anthony Stewart Head as a Doctor, and if they managed to key into the intelligent Buffy writing rather than the stuff they've been pumping out lately.

    Million Sterling-Pound Question: Will there be continuity between old series (and/or TV movie) and new series, or is this a tabula raza/reimagining thing? I would imagine the second would be easier, considering all the frigging episodes and books in existence that are considered BBC-official.

  • It won't work (Score:3, Insightful)

    by some guy I know ( 229718 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @12:58AM (#3812574) Homepage
    One of the great things about the original series was the cheesy but imaginative special effects.
    There is just no way that those could be duplicated today.
    Even the Dr.Who movie (which was made, what, over 10 years ago?) didn't look right, because the special effects were too good.
    And if they try to make the special effects look cheesy, they will just look bad.

    Also, no Dr. Who will be able to match Tom Baker.

    • Re:It won't work (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      True. No Doctor character should try to be another Tom Baker. Can't be done. Baker's doctor wasn't totally unique, though. A sucessful portrayal of the doctor requires that you allow the character to change somewhat over time, not just be some sort of icon/cartoon character who says the same things and wears the exact same uniform from one episode to the next. The most successful companions (like Sarah Jane Smith, arguably Turlough, Romana, Ian Chesterton, Nyssa, Jamie) also showed that characteristic as well.
  • .... Very afraid.

    Now I'd like to get it out of the way up front: I am a HUGE dr who fan, I love it, even sylvester mccoy's annoying sidekick "ace". Sarah Jane was a babe. Daleks are the <comicguy%gt;coolest. baddies. ever.</comicguy%gt;

    But the movie sucked. Like it totally sucked balls. What the hell did they do to the tardis?? It looked like a friggin health spa, not a space ship.

    I've wanted nothing more than a new Dr Who, and what's-his-face would make a very good doctor... But I'm afraid they'll buffy-ify it, and try to make it for buffy fans... and buffy fans are not dr who fans... some dr who fans may be buffy fans, but most buffy fans would never sit through anything starring tom baker.

    I'm afraid. And you should be too.

    • Re:I'm afraid... (Score:5, Informative)

      by JabberWokky ( 19442 ) <slashdot.com@timewarp.org> on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:37AM (#3812687) Homepage Journal
      most buffy fans would never sit through anything starring tom baker.

      Most Buffy fans I know are in their 40s, and have a strong opinion on Dr. Who. You'd be surprised at who exactly comprises the Buffy fandom.

      Incidently, the BBC was supposed to be doing a new Buffy series starring Giles (Anothony Head's character) reprising his role back in England (much in the same way Angel spun off in LA). The series, often referred to as Ripper [imdb.com], hit budget snags, but Mutant Enemy and the BBC forged a relationship there. I'm curious if this series is connected in any way to ME... who are also doing a new SF series, Firefly, soon.

      As for ASH (I've been a fan of his stagework for many years), he's currently doing the BBC series Manchild, kind of a "Sex in the City" with men instead of women. It's also shown on BBC America. David Fury is the "good" Buffy writer, or at least has a much better fannish reputation than Marti Noxon, who is widely "credited" with the Season Six (just finished) change in tone. Since many people despise S6, they aren't too keen on MN, either. Joss, of course, is the creator and head writer, and has no following whatsoever in Fandom - he does have a large group of fervent worshippers, however. ;)

      As an aside, David Fury is in the musical - he's the one singing about how they got the mustard out. Marti Noxon is the one who got the parking ticket and tells the officer she's not wearing underwear. ASH is, of course, the quite excellent vocalist he's always been since the days he was Frank'n'Furter in the Rocky Horror Show (not to be confused with the movie version which starred Tim Curry in that role).

      --
      Evan

    • but most buffy fans would never sit through anything starring tom baker.

      Bah. Buffy season 5 was just a remake of a Dr Who episode (Dawn == Princess Astra), so they might enjoy the original source material as well. ;-)

  • That American Doctor Who pilot movie some years back was so-so, and had mediocre ratings. I kinda liked it. But as others have noted, the record of American versions of British TV shows is terrible.
    Still, we can hope they do a good job. I need a reason to actually USE my TV every once in a while, and for more than my old Babylon 5 tapes.
  • Doctor? We thought you'd been killed by the Daleks! Again! Would you like a cup of tea, Doctor?
    • Anthony Head was in all of those wierd Taster's Choice commercials a few years back. You remember the ones where he's courting a woman and they have this whole soap opera storyline.

      Yeah, Doctor's a short timer if this happens.
  • Just been watching some of the old Tom Baker Dr. Who tapes from Hollywood video. Good Stuff. Hopefully Tom Baker will make a cameo in the new ones . Perhaps "The Thirteen Doctors" ( as oposed to the five doctors) or whatever it's upto now. Dag
  • OK, I like Buffy. I think Giles would make a great Who, I just hope the script is OK. Did anyone see the American version of Red Dwarf? My god that was bad.

  • Caveat (Score:3, Funny)

    by The Stranger ( 24022 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:05AM (#3812596)
    This is terrific news - just as long as they don't do a musical episode... :)

    K-9 singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was bad enough...

  • Roan Atkinson (Mr Bean) would be a better doctor. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Yohahn ( 8680 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:05AM (#3812597)
    He was in the Comic Relief The curse of fatal death [50megs.com] and did a wonderful job.

    I really think they should give him a shake at it.

    I've heard he was originally an engineer. Is that true?
  • Somewhere in a Studio Boardroom...

    Exec1: Hey, here's an idea... Let's get George Lucas and ILM to remake Plan 9 From Outer Space. We can get M. Night Shyamalan to rework the script and a get a few big name stars in there.

    Exec2: No no no, we need to make another movie based on a comic book.

    Exec3: Why don't we come up with something original. Y'know, like a new story, new characters...

    [blank stares all round]

    Exec3: ...or not. Let's get back to that Dr Who concept.

  • The inevitable question... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Cutriss ( 262920 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:08AM (#3812609) Homepage
    Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of Daleks?

    In a dark room, from a pile of pizza boxes and makeshift rackmounts, hundreds of nodes start croaking through their motherboard speakers: Exterminate!
  • I'm hoping they do a Star Trek TNG thing with it - keep the original premise but update the plotline, characters and effects. Except, you know, no Wesley (though Wil rules).
    • Actually, I think a "reboot" version might also be worthwhile, restarting with the William Hartnell Doctor, and setting it in the early 1960's. This time around, though, they should go for a closed meta-storyline, and work out the relationships between the characters and villians beforehand.

      There were plenty of wonderful stories, but there were also some clunkers. If the BBC produces this itself, it has a better chance of surviving.
    • There was no "Wesley" in Doctor Who. there was Adric though.

  • Almost all the Dr. Who villians are greedy capitalists.

    Why not some Stalin-like characters or Unibomber or envirnmental extremists or Osama's?

    Mix it up. You would think that Stalin was the cheif script editor.
    • Almost all the Dr. Who villians are greedy capitalists.

      huh?

      the master - just plain evil, wouldn't mind being rich, but only because he wants power

      the daleks - do whatever they please, not interested in money at all, basically stupid war mongers

      the cybermen - definitely not interested in gold ;-) as once humans, they simply do whatever they feel is necessary to reproduce, and consider themselves the most evolved life in the universe.

      Hardly capitilists...
      • "Almost all the Dr. Who villians are greedy capitalists."

        "huh?"

        "the master - just plain evil, wouldn't mind being rich, but only because he wants power"

        So a capitalist then.

        "the daleks - do whatever they please, not interested in money at all, basically stupid war mongers"

        War is always good for business.

        "the cybermen - definitely not interested in gold ;-) as once humans, they simply do whatever they feel is necessary to reproduce, and consider themselves the most evolved life in the universe."

        Authoritarian, evil, the most powerful should rule. In otherwords capitalists.

        Take Dr Who and the Sunmakers. Trotsky in space. Yeah go Doctor.

        And the fact that the greedy capitalist was actually a small green alien is really just a detail.

        Phil
    • Yeah! Maybe they could call the Doctor's main enemies something cool, like, I dunno...the "Axis of Evil"? And they could all speak with a heavy Middle-Eastern accent! Yeah!!!

      And maybe they could give the Doctor a new nickname, something with a bit more punch - how about Doctor W?
  • I am sure I had read somewhere that Anthony Head was going to be staring in a new Buffy spin-off dealing with his pre-watcher days. Was I totally off or was that cancelled, so that he is available for this?
  • the female version. I believe played by the lady who plays Patsy on AbFab. Absoutely great episode, with Hough Grant, Rowan Atkinson, and many other famous people playing the role of The Doctor.
  • Cyber-men in the new series will ignore gold dust, you'll need platinum dust to take them out now. And Daleks? Install Windows Me on them. That should completely immobilze them.
  • I'm not sure this will be a highly anticipated series with me. Though I'd love to see Dr Who with modern effects, I'm concerned that too much'll be focused on that. I really think that Dr Who's lack of an effects budget forced the writers to keep the eps interesting. Without that limitation today, what incentive will they have?

    Okay, Im done being cynical. On the plus side, there are some new story arcs they could look into. For example, what if the Doctor were to get the chameleon circuit working in the Tardis? They could explore that in an interesting way now that they have the effects to do it.

    It'd also be interesting to see more areas of the Tardis. I realize that a lot of people didn't like the Dr Who movie that came out on Fox a few years ago, but I think nearly everybody'll agree the art direction taken on the Tardis was pretty damn cool. Even if you didn't agree with the style, it was obvious they really put effort into it.

    Okay, I'm a little hyped about it now. Heh. :)

    ooooooooo What if Patrick Stewart played the Doc? Unlikely, I know. He'd still be cool for the job.

  • ..glork (Score:1)

    by Juln ( 41313 )
    Well, I love Dr. Who.. with Colin Whats his name, the curly haired guiy as the Dr.
    I like Mr. Head whoplays Giles... my girlfriend watches that Buffy all the time.
    But a new Dr., Who, well who knows. It could go wither way I guess...
  • Just a question, I thought they explained the way that Dr Who, changed actors by something to do with when he "dies", he comes back to life in a new body, but he can only "die" a certan amount of times before he actually dies. So any one have any ideas on how many more of these lives he actually has? on a nother note I'm scared a Buffy writer, what are thy thinking. Totaly diferent styles of shows.

  • One thing that was good (Score:3, Interesting)

    by johnburton ( 21870 ) <johnb@jbmail.com> on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:25AM (#3812643) Homepage
    One thing that was good about Dr Who was that most of the stories were two or three hours long giving the chance for characters to develop better than the typical 50 minutes long most episodes are now. Of course that didn't happen in all the episodes but the format did allow the program to feel different that most serries
    • One thing that was good about Dr Who was that most of the stories were two or three hours long giving the chance for characters to develop better than the typical 50 minutes long most episodes are now.

      If a programme was originally produced for the US market then it is typically under 45 minutes. Indeed the BBC typically shows "hour long" imports in a 45 minute slot.
      Originally Dr Who was shown in a 25 minute slot with each story taking up between 2 and 6, most commonly 4, episodes. The two episode stories would have about the same length of programme content as single episode of many current series.

  • this is a false rumor (Score:5, Informative)

    by fortunate hazel ( 115869 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:26AM (#3812648)
    Quoting the news page of Outpost Gallifrey [gallifreyone.com], a Doctor Who fan site:

    "The rumors are flying... but as usual, media reports have gotten ahead of the truth. Following the interview in the recent Dreamwatch Magazine with David Fury ("Buffy, The Vampire Slayer"), as we reported a few days ago, several online news sources (such as the usually wildly inaccurate Ananova, plus Peoplenews and other sources) are now reporting that Anthony Stewart Head (Giles in "Buffy" and recently a guest star in the Big Finish Doctor Who "Excelis" trilogy) will be a new Doctor in a new series produced next year. Even the Daily Express paper has picked it up (as an 'exclusive')... But it's not true. Producer Dan Freedman ("Death Comes to Time") did visit the Buffy producers, and there was a bit of talk about procedure... but nothing came of it and Freedman has moved to other projects. A quote by Tony Head in the Dreamwatch interview was taken out of context by these news 'sources'. Meanwhile, we continue to get tons of email this morning about it (it's not true, folks) and the official BBC website BBCi even issued a statement about it this morning: "Whilst the Cult team quite like the idea of Tony Head as the Doctor in a show guided by members of America's finest fantasy production team, the BBC aren't currently making any such plans."

    As noted, the BBC web site confirms this is a rumor. Anthony Stewart Head has done some fine work in the Excelis series of Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas though.

    -fh

    • ...the official BBC website BBCi even issued a statement about it this morning: "Whilst the Cult team quite like the idea of Tony Head as the Doctor in a show guided by members of America's finest fantasy production team, the BBC aren't currently making any such plans."

      Does anyone find it interesting that their denial is written in such a whimsical and laudatory way, with the Buffy people described as "America's finest fantasy production team"? The response certainly comes from the creatives, not the suits, and whoever wrote and approved it is either a big Buffy fan and/or there's more to the story.

      Also, while they descriptively detail the rumor of "Tony Head and members of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer production team in a new 22 part series to celebrate the Time Lord's 40th anniversary" the clarification they offer is really about "Head not heading for Who" as PART of a David Fury guided series and doesn't explicitly deny the rest of the rumor that a David Fury & Co. guided series is forthcoming.

      It just depends on how narrowly or broadly you read "any such plans".

  • Get over it! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Howzer ( 580315 ) <grabshot&hotmail,com> on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:27AM (#3812649) Homepage Journal
    Every time a "New Doctor Who" is suggested, the obigatory 1,000 comments about "but it was the shaky sets that made it cool" are made.

    Geez! Some folks need a new meme! Wherever you sit on the TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY continuum, they're all great shows, different strokes for different folks.

    IMO there is plenty of space in "Doctor Who" for some fantastic new stuff. And it doesn't have to be cheezy to be great! I watched Dr Who when I was 8 - 12 and it certainly wasn't cheezy to me, in fact a lot of it was damn scary and thought provoking. I can see a wonderful "New Doctor Who" being all that and more, for an adult audience and more.

    Another pet peeve? People who think that talented writers have only one style. Just because they hire a writer from Buffy, DOES NOT MEAN that a "New Doctor Who" would resemble Buffy in the slightest. Writing talent is writing talent. Do you enjoy Bradbury for his science fiction or his gothic horror stories, or the gothic horror science fiction he also writes, to choose one bad example off the top of my head.

    • Re:Get over it! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It WASN'T the shaky sets that made the series cool. It was all that the scriptwriters, costume designers, and actors did to compensate for all that.

  • The Doctor's Shadow (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hellojed ( 463610 )
    The way I see it, the show can only work as long as they don't try to pick it up where it left off. Here are my suggestions for possible plot lines:

    1) Skip ahead to the doctor's future. Start on the 9th or 10th doctor. The down side is that he would be one generation closer to becoming the Valiard (12th regeneration). If they do the storyline right, it could make for some good character evolution.

    2) Start from the beginning again. Take the old plots and rework them. Start from the beginning and go until it ends. This would personally cheese me off, but it would be nice to see better actors and better dialogue for the same old great plots.

    3) The last option I'll offer is to do what Card did with Ender's Game - A parallel series. This way they could leverage the old series and all its great plots, but take them from a different perspective. They could weive a parallel plot to explain this new timelords travels. The best part would be that they could avoid disgruntelling all the loyal Dr. Who fans out there by not doing it right. Just borrowing the Dr. Who universe so to speak.

    Anyhow, that's my two cents.

    Btw, what ever happened to Fox purchasing the rights to Dr. Who?
  • I disagree that Dr. Who is only fun for laughing at cheesy special effects. You could make Dr. Who with decent effects and it could still be good.

    What it needs is a charismatic guy playing the title character. What pulled me in to Dr. Who was watching Tom Baker; he was so much fun.

    I haven't seen this new guy so I don't know how he'll do as the Doctor. But I can hope.

    The scripts and directing will matter, too. If the plots are too complicated and annoying, or if everything is too serious, that will suck the fun out of the show. What we need are lots of vaguely menacing creatures that never actually do anything really bad, at least onscreen, and light-hearted dialog.

    One of my favorite moments from Doctor Who went something like this:

    Romana: I've got an idea! How about if we [x, y, z]?
    Doctor: Brilliant! Oh, I'm sorry, did you just say something? I didn't hear you because I was thinking... we could [x, y, z].
    Romana: [annoyed] Yeah, that would work.

    steveha

  • BBC Say No (Score:5, Informative)

    by davecl ( 233127 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:43AM (#3812702)
    Sadly, the Beeb deny this here [bbc.co.uk].

    When are they going to realise that Dr Who could be a major money spinner and stop being so phobic towards anything science fictional? Sigh.

    • Re:BBC Say No (Score:2, Informative)

      by arb ( 452787 )
      They don't actually deny that a new series is being considered, merely that the rumour about Anthony Head as the new Doctor is false.

      Personally, I'm not too sure about the idea of reviving Doctor Who... While I really liked the series, I doubt that anything that could be made today would work. Fans would always be harking back to the original series ("The sets don't shake - it's not a real Doctor Who without shaky sets!", "The special effects are too good for Doctor Who!", etc). Just look at some of the negative reactions from Star Wars fans to the prequels...

      Would it be possible to a something similar to ST:TNG? I don't think so - let's just leave the Doctor as he is and be content with what remains of the original episodes.

    • "Sadly, the Beeb deny this here [bbc.co.uk]."

      Well to be honest the last attempt to do this was, well, totally crap. Paul McGann tried his hardest, but the script was weak, and setting it in the US gratuitous. And as for the car chase. Dearie, dearie me...

      Phil

      • Re:BBC Say No (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Robotech_Master ( 14247 )
        And it's not as though the original Doctor Who ever had bad scripts, anything gratuitous (the Beatles, anyone?), car chases, or any of that rubbish, is it?
        • True - but it seemed to be more part of the charm of the show. The Dr chasing some sontaron down with Bessie was quite different than what they put in the Dr Who movie.

          In the old episodes, it just felt more like part of the plot. In the movie, it seemed more like "okay...how do we include a car chase"

  • Oh no, say it isn't true! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NewtonsLaw ( 409638 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @01:58AM (#3812738)
    No, no, the last thing we need is a slick US-scripted version of Dr Who. We need to carry on the tradition of props that are made from old cardboard packing cartons and hammy actors who fumble their lines -- that's what made the series so great!

    I've got a whole heap of Dr Who episodes, right episode #1 of series #1 with Hartnel as the Dr. Right now I'm burning them to VCD because I'm worried that my VHS tapes will start to degrade.

    I was going to use Divx but there are still too many uncertainties as to the future and backwards compatibility that don't justify the limited improvement in picture quality that Divx offers over MPEG1 (remember this is old grainy black and white video shot in the 1960's).

    Once they're in digital form I can at least copy them to whatever new media comes along without any loss of quality.

    I'd like them to keep the Dr "pure" B-grade and hokey in presentation. Half the fun was trying to catch a glimpse of feet beneath the Daleks as they traversed rocky ground -- or watching the walls of a set shake and rock when someone brushed against them.

    Please, please don't change the production standards so as to make it "just another slick sci-fi series filled with special effects"
  • Will we be seeing any musical Dr Who episodes?

    "Once more (infinitely recurring inside a timeloop) with feeling"

    (sung to the tune of "going through the motions")

    ~/ Every moment is the same arrangement, I go back and forth in time. Still I always feel I'm missing something : nothing here is real (we bought it on a dime). I've been trading blows with salt-shaker foes, just hoping no one knows, that there's no money in the budget - spent it all on booze. A phone box versus Enterprise will lose! /~

  • While they are working on Dr Who... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EvilBastard ( 77954 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @02:24AM (#3812776) Homepage
    BBC should also concentrate on returning Paul Darrow to the screen [blakes7.com] at the same time so they can screen a "Shakey Set Saturday" double feature.

    (As an aside, they plan on releasing all four seasons of B7 in one large DVD set at the end of the year - hopefully they'll do the same for what episodes of Dr Who they have left, rather then their current policy of theme-DVD's which seem messy)

  • Big Doctor Fan (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @02:32AM (#3812789) Homepage Journal

    I've been watching Doctor Who since Tom Baker still had the role. To see new episodes after a fifteen-year hiatus honestly makes me apprehensive. Sure I'd like to see new stories, but it would be so easy for them to lose the charm of the show under the weight of stuffy production values.

    See, I've always seen Doctor Who as a "fragile" show, one that doesn't survive much tampering. Everyone likes to poke fun at the incredibly cheap sets and effects, but that cheapness, IMHO, is what made Dr. Who a good show. Because the writers/directors/producers couldn't fall back on lavish production values, they had to focus on quality of stories and development of characters to hold the audience's attention. You looked forward to the next show, not because you wanted to see new effects and 3D-rendered alien worlds, but because you wanted to see how the Doctor and Zoe and Jamie and Liz Shaw and Jo Grant and Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan and Romana and Nyssa and Peri and (God help us) Mel coped with it, and how it affected them. (As for Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, we always knew how he would react. He started shooting, blindly faithful that, perhaps this time, the bullets would actually have an effect.)

    John Nathan-Turner, Dr. Who's final series producer, is a controversial figure among fans. Many believe -- me included -- that he sacrificed story quality in favor of production values. Compare, for example, Frontier in Space [gallifreyone.org] (Jon Pertwee era, produced by Barry Letts) with Vengeance on Varos [gallifreyone.org] (Colin Baker era, produced by John Nathan-Turner). While both stories utilized elements of violence, Vengeance on Varos seemed to revel in it. In Frontier in Space, the violence is almost completely confined to simple exchange of blood-free gunfire. The plot was advanced by intrigue and the Doctor's endless battle with slow-witted bureaucracy. In Vengeance on Varos, however, we are offered much more graphic violence: A man falling into pool of acid (and then struggling vainly to get out); slow exposure to lethal radiation; death by poison sting; and near encounters with hanging by the neck and falling in lava. Further, the villain, Sil, is physically repulsive. In previous years, the writers would have been content to make the audience despise the villain via his behavior and personality, and did so very successfully. Given that, it's unclear why they went to the extra trouble to give Sil a stomach-turning appearance, other than, "Because we could."

    Advance a few more years to the Sylvester McCoy seasons, and things start to turn downright depressing. Delta and the Bannermen [gallifreyone.org] has almost no redeeming value whatsoever, being one long almost-continuous gunfight. There's the bizarre and disturbing The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [gallifreyone.org] , whose only saving grace is McCoy doing a series of vaudeville-style acts. And the final serial episode, Survival [gallifreyone.org] , has you shaking your head going, "What was the point?"

    To his credit, Nathan-Turner did turn out some winners. Of note are The Caves of Androzani [gallifreyone.org] , Peter Davison's last, and arguably best, episode; and also featuring Morgus, one of the most deliciously despicable villains ever to appear on the show. Also good was Battlefield [gallifreyone.org] , where Arthurian legend and two generations of UNIT Brigadiers intersect with a small country village. Watching the new Brigadier kick the crap out of Ancelyn is by itself worth the trouble of watching.

    ...All of which is an overly long-winded way of saying: The standard Hollywood rules of lavish production values do not apply to Doctor Who. John Nathan-Turner tried it, and the results were, at absolute best, mixed. Doctor Who survives by story and character advancement. I have concerns about whether the new production company will understand this and, for that reason, am uneasy about this announcement.

    If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, the good Doctor can still be seen every Sunday night (barring pledge drives) on PBS station KTEH [kteh.org] in San Jose, CA. They've broadcast every Doctor Who episode available over the years at least twice, and are currently running through the Jon Pertwee era.

    Schwab

    • O.T., but for all you Dr. Who fans, there's a website, www.drwho.org [drwho.org] out there dedicated to Dr. Who fans with discussion forums, announcements, etc.

      Y'all out to try and see if you can slashdot poor Mike Wilson's machine to hell and back :-) I'd love to see the look on his face if/when it happens.
  • ... it just won't seem the same.

  • Nevvvvver gonna happen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Wednesday July 03, 2002 @09:01AM (#3813909) Homepage

    And for a very simple reason. The BBC used to be able to make programming on merit. Now it's full of spineless plonkers in expensive suits dribbling on about mindshare and demographics and return on investment.

    In an era where there were only three (or four or five) channels available in the UK, Dr Who was tolerated because chances are, there wouldn't be anything better on elsewhere. But now it would have to fight for audiences among many quality mainstream and SF channels, worldwide.

    And that means going toe to toe with the likes of Stargate, the Trek franchise, with Farscape, and with the all powerful Buffyverse.

    To do that, you need the Buffy formula of good writing (which it always had) but also good acting (leads and support), costume, lighting, sound, editing, and FX, which, let's be honest, Dr Who was never overburdened with.

    And all that costs, and that means risk, and that means it won't happen. It doesn't have the luxury of Red Dwarf, of coming from nowhere, starting out with zero budget and building up. It'd have to come back with a vengeance and go toe to toe with the big guns. And frankly, I don't think the BBC could do it. Not any more. It simple wouldn't have the courage to commit the necessary resource, and if it did try it, it would cut corners, produce something that was too safe to be cult and too sucky to be mainstream, which would just further reenforce the BBC notion that SF is expensive and risky.

    There is actually a third option. Between expensive and good, and cheap and crap you can do cheap and good, if you have the vision and the courage. Look at the stunning Ultraviolet [imdb.com], done by the UK's Channel 4. Dark and gritty, completely believable, driven by story, drama and characters, dealing credibly with seriously adult issues like cancer, abortion and child abuse in six perfect, breathtaking, deeply moving episodes. It just happened to have vampires in it.

    But that was Channel 4, not the BBC. C4 is now breaking the ground in the UK, with the BBC following on, assimilating the safer ideas. The BBC couldn't do a credible big budget Dr Who, and it hasn't got the talent or the courage to create a new vision for it. Channel 4 could, but they don't have the license. And think what Joss Whedon or Chris Carter could do with it, given half a chance.

    So consider my name on the huge petition to get the BBC to stop clinging to past glories. Either use the license, or pass it on. But don't sit on it for fifteen years, exploiting the memory and teasing us with the possibility of a return, while the audience ages and we simply stop caring. Use it or lose it!

  • The insurance cost of having the actors climb around rocks for 10 minutes each episode is astounding.
  • It occurs to me that David ("They Got the Mustard Out!") Fury would make a better Who than Tony Head. Every Doctor, or at least every Doctor since Tom Baker, has had a certain absurdity to him. Without a Doctor who's just slightly crazed, Doctor Who is just another pretentious BBC fantasy show.

    Head has a lot of gravitas -- sometimes I think too much. That was his main contribution to Buffy -- calm, patient, tweedy Giles counterweighting all those impulsive teenagers. (Come to think of it, that relationship was completely missing from Season 6 of Buffy, even the episodes that Head was in. Helps explain a lot that went wrong.) He's a decent actor, but I just can't see him doing a wonky Time Lord, even if they knit him a scarf a light-year long.

    • "Every Doctor, or at least every Doctor since Tom Baker, has had a certain absurdity to him."

      I can't speak for Hartnell (#1) or Colin Baker (#7), since I haven't seen any of their episodes (gasp), but all the other Doctors have been quite silly. The second Doctor (Troughton) was particularly loony. Something about those plaind pants always made me laugh.
      • Many Hartnell episodes are lost, but in the ones I've seen he was damned bloody serious. Quite boring really. As for Troughton, I'm not sure he meant to be funny. Jon Pertwee was deadly serious.

        I think it was Tom Baker who set the tone and gave the show an international following. He always played the part with a comic undertone, and all the later Doctors copied him to some extent.

  • Maybe instead of the Buffy team, we could have Chris Carter direct, and David Duchovny could star as the Doctor, and Gillian Andersen could be the sidekick, maybe named Leela or Romanadvoratrelundar or something like that. Mitch Pileggi could be the Brigadier-General. William Davis could be the Master. They could wander the universe in the TARDIS and encounter strange, alien life forms and situations and save the earth from invasion and stuff.

    Actually, maybe William Davis could be the Doctor. Or whoever played Jose Chung.

  • I've seen the script. Here's an excerpt:

    Abbot: I'm here to see my doctor.
    Costello: Who is your doctor?
    Abbot: Yes.
    Costello: What?
    Abbot: No, not what, Who!
    Costello: I asked you first!
    Abbot: IAskedYouFirst is my chiropractor. I'm here to see Dr. Who.
    Costello: Didn't he used to play for the...
    Abbot: No, that was his brother.

    etc.

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