Slashdot Mirror
BBC To Revive Doctor Who Next Year
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.'"
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.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
I wonder how the dog will look now that we have Battle Bots.... can u say 16" Diamond Chip saw blade ;)....
Gravity!... It's not just a good idea... It's the Law!
What about that other great BBC series, Blakes 7? I'd love to see that revived. Would be very cool with modern special effects.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
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.
"What's so random about flipping a coin? Ever heard of the I Ching?"
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.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
.... 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.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Doctor? We thought you'd been killed by the Daleks! Again! Would you like a cup of tea, Doctor?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
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...
He was in the Comic Relief The curse of fatal death 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?
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.
---
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
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!
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
I was just about to complain about this being "too UK-centric" but PBS saves the day. I know nothing about Dr. Who but I will be sure to check it out when it shows up on PBS.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
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).
"Well, put a stake in my heart and drag me into sunlight."
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.
Table-ized A.I.
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?
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.
I've heard he was originally an engineer. Is that true?
He was trained as an electrical engineer.
Triv
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
Sig is taking a break!
"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
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.
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
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Someone mod this AC up. Not that all Buffy fans are wannabes, mind you, but Who is definitely a more nerd-centric series. This should be good, as long as they stay to true to the Dr. Who spirit that made the original series' so popular.
Cedric Balthazar Rotherwood
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform +
System Admin. for Solaris
Sadly, the Beeb deny this here.
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.
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"
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.
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!
BBC should also concentrate on returning Paul Darrow to the screen 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)
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 (Jon Pertwee era, produced by Barry Letts) with Vengeance on Varos (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 has almost no redeeming value whatsoever, being one long almost-continuous gunfight. There's the bizarre and disturbing The Greatest Show in the Galaxy , whose only saving grace is McCoy doing a series of vaudeville-style acts. And the final serial episode, Survival , 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 , 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 , 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.
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 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
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
... it just won't seem the same.
Captian of some spacecraft: Doctor, the Cybermen have launced my ship towards that star, and I can't stop it! ...
Doctor: Don't worry I'll just
Door explodes, and 5 Cybermen enter scene.
Cyber Leader:You'll never stop us, Doctor!
Cyber Leader shoots Doctor, he falls down dead.
Doctor's Companion: Doctor! Oh no!
Captian's nephew, up until now mostly a coward, presses a button that covers the Cybermen in gold, killing them.
Nephew: We need to get him back alive to save this ship. We can transfer him into my body.
Companion: But that will kill you!
Nephew: I know, but it's our only option.
And so there is yet another Doctor.
Best Slashdot comment ever
In my local paper a few years back they suggested Dawn French as a possible Dr Who during an interview. Apparently she liked the idea. Obviously nothing came of it. (yet)
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
It's on hold until Joss has time to work with it. He's got a lot on his plate right now.
I remember seeing the Doctor Who outtakes (a video made by the BBC VT dept and not for public consumption).
Doctor Who (Tom Baker) is in the Tardis and asked K9 a question.
"insufficient data, master" replies the tin pooch
To which Tom Baker quips: "you never do know the fucking answer do you K9?"
They should have left it in the episode!
Stephen Fry would be the perfect Dr Who. Think about it; he's tall, erudite and if you ever heard his Professer Trefusis on Radio 4 you'd know what I mean.
And I'd suggest Anna Friel as his assistant
You're talking about Michael Grade, who WAS the head of the BBC when Dr. Who was cancelled. He's not the head any more, and hasn't been for several years (he moved on to Channel Four when according to right-wing drivel tabloid the Daily Mail he was 'Britain's Pornographer In Chief', but left there a few years back).
I think the BBC attitude (and the attitude of most UK TV channels, really) is that SF is for kids, so when they DO get an SF programme, they shove it on at tea-time, cut to ribbons.
"Information wants to be paid"
and, as revealed in Trial of a Time Lord, has last regeneration is already spoken for and he becomes the evil Valyard (spelling unknown).
Best look after those lives, Doctor. Perhaps he gets an extra life if he scores above 100,000...?
Cheers,
Ian
Joking, right? Last of the Summer Wine must hold that record, by about 15 years longer than Red Dwarf :-)
Tim
>Anyone remember seeing Romana #1 earlier in the series as another character?
Ah, no, but apparently she (Mary Tamm) did play an adversary of the doctor
in an earlier season?... Unfortunately I can not find information on what the
role or episode was that she first appeared in.
Your question threw me for a second, because I do remember Romana #2 (Lalla
Ward) earlier in the series as another character. So I guess both actresses
share that distinction as well in their Whovian careers.
Oh give me a freaking break! Dr. Who did not have big budgets.
Have you any idea what $100,000 could buy you in 1977?! I seriously doubt the BBC spent $2m a year on Dr Who in the 70s.
But maybe it's just me.
Tim
You're right. Voyager set your standards too low.
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
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, 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!
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
O.T., but for all you Dr. Who fans, there's a website, www.drwho.org out there dedicated to Dr. Who fans with discussion forums, announcements, etc.
:-) I'd love to see the look on his face if/when it happens.
Y'all out to try and see if you can slashdot poor Mike Wilson's machine to hell and back
The insurance cost of having the actors climb around rocks for 10 minutes each episode is astounding.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
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.
I think you're on drugs. The whole point of the doctor is that he needs to be a likeable avuncular or grandfatherly figure, but one where you always just about wonder why there's always a young girl in toe all the time... ;-)
Roan Atkinson is primarily comedic; and whilst he might stretch the part, you're talking serious risk that the audience wouldn't buy it.That's probably why some of the doctors have been more successful than others btw. Sure as a one-off joke, but as a non comedic situation? Nah.
The actor that plays Giles would be absolutely perfect for the part. IMO.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"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.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
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.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Oh yeah, right, I can just see Rowan Atkinson as Dr. Who.
"No, Baldrick, it can't possibly be a Viking helmet, it's obviously part of a spacesuit made for a cow. Here, take it home, I think it will fit your mother quite nicely."
(Yes, I know, the first part actually is more or less a quote from "The Time Meddler," but imagine Atkinson saying it in his best Blackadder the Third voice.)
Someone you trust is one of us.
You didn't see him doing it, have you.
I think that he can do more than be funny.
(given, what he did was funny...)