Doctor Who: The Movie

[FunKay the Inevitable]

"Harry Potter" director David Yates is teaming up with the BBC to turn its iconic sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" into a bigscreen franchise.

Yates, who directed the last four Potter films, told Daily Variety that he is about to start work on developing a "Doctor Who" movie with Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Prods.

"We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right," he said. "It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena."

"Doctor Who" follows the adventures across space and time of a super-intelligent alien in human form, who battles a variety of cosmic bad guys aided by plucky human companions.

"The notion of the time-travelling Time Lord is such a strong one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time," Yates said.

The series ran from 1963 to 1989, and then was successfully rebooted in 2005 by writer Russell T. Davies and subsequently by Steven Moffat ("The Adventures of Tintin"). Tranter oversaw the revival when she was the BBC's drama topper in London.

"Doctor Who," starring Matt Smith as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, is now one of the pubcaster's most lucrative global TV franchises.

The series airs Stateside on BBC America.

Yates made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the material.

"Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch," he said.

Yates and Tranter are looking for writers on both sides of the Atlantic.

"We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too," he explained.

There are two previous films, based on the TV series: "Doctor Who and the Daleks" (1965) and "Doctor Who: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." (1966), both starring Peter Cushing.

The BBC has since made a few unsuccessful attempts to develop a "Doctor Who" feature, and shot a one-off telepic in 1996 at a time when the TV series was dormant.

But the combination of Yates and Tranter means this is the most high-powered effort to date to launch "Doctor Who" onto the bigscreen.

Before directing "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and both parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Yates worked with Tranter on several BBC TV series, including "The Way We Live Now" and "State of Play.".

I like David Yates as a director. I like Doctor Who. I like the concept of a Doctor Who movie. I don't like this. Why not? Well, based on what Yates has said, it would seem that this will not only NOT be a continuation of the series on the big screen, but a complete reboot. Doctor Who is still going strong on television and with a feature film adaption, and potential franchise, coming out at the same time, this could cause problems of confusion with a new audience or even some casual viewers.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the concept of a major movie based on Doctor Who. In fact, it sounds wonderful, but to start from scratch with a new series of features only serves to muddy the waters and could cause collateral damage. If this is in the same vein as Peter Cushing's Dalek films, which were closely linked with two William Hartnell serials, then I might not mind, but if this is a start from scratch "Let's reboot this because it's been successful" ham handed Hollywood approach, then I'll be severely disappointed, and quite worried.

But I'm a fanboy, and I'm bound to overreact. What does anybody/everybody else think of this?

 

[Davi323]

I too am a fanboy, but my reaction is the opposite. I like the idea, and I think that in order to pull it off, it would have to be an alternative continuity by necessity. They are already on Doctor #11 out of 13. If they introduce a new actor as the "movie" Doctor, but maintain BBC continuity, it would have to be Doctor #12 or #13. That would seriously hamper the BBC, who would see their lifespan of the TV show cut in half. Matt Smith isn't going to be around forever either, and if the movie follows same continuity, that means that they can only have one more Doctor. It also means that if the film is wildly successful, they can't replace the actor either. After Matt Smith, there can only be two more actors who can play the role between the films and TV show. That's a big limitation for a franchise that has a built in convenient explanation for replacing actors.

Now, the BBC could theoretically get around the limitation... Even if the BBC version kills off Doctor #13, they could have him regenerate and leave his return to life completely unexplained. In fact, for whatever season it is, they could make it the focus of the season...the Doctor trying to figure out why he didn't die permanently, knowing that he was on life #14 out of 13. (simple answer would be that after the David Tennant version was cloned using his severed hand, that his regeneration cycle was somehow reset back to 1, so Matt Smith, who thinks he is the 11th Doctor, is really the 2nd.) In that type of scenario, the movie Doctor could be a future version, #14, #15, or later. It would also make the TV Doctor more aware of his actions, knowing that he is already on borrowed time, not knowing if he would regenerate again if he dies.

 

[Phoenix]

I made a post about this on tumblr, but I'll repeat here in full to state my views. But since posting that and reading other views, the fact that the Doctor Who Movie concept has been in development hell for so many years just adds to the idea that this film will not happen. Regardless of the intention, it just won't happen.

Truth be told, I do not feel comfortable with this idea, especially when the series is still ongoing and in no danger of cancellation with the 50th anniversary due in two years time. But there are so many things wrong than right with this decision.

It shouldn’t be done while the show is still airing.

This is the biggest point, aside from the obvious, for me. I shouldn’t be having a choice to see a film of a successful television show while it is still airing. Granted, we have seen successes from Pokémon and Rugrats, but outside of the children’s show factor, what was one of the last franchises that had a bad film air that really killed it off the franchise until a 2009 reboot? Star Trek. Now I know the films have been ongoing when TNG, DS9 and Voyager were airing, but when Enterprise was already causing a dissatisfaction amongst fans and new viewers that Nemesis was a last hope. And we know what happened next, Star Trek was dead in the water for almost a decade until it was rebooted again. Doctor Who has already had one canon film and two non-canon films released, and they’re not as well remembered aside from one being the only adventure for the Eighth Doctor. Learn from these mistakes.

It’s not sticking to the original source material.

As said only two sentences ago, The Daleks films were not that outstanding and well remembered amongst fans that it is excluded from canon, just that effectively it had a Doctor and Daleks, it was considered a Doctor Who film. It’s already proven to not be successful, so why do they need to try a failed formula once again? Especially when it’s effectively rebooting the franchise onto the big screen. David Tennant’s final outing was effectively a tele-film as it was a two parter that lasted two hours, that provides more than what this is promising to do. When Yates has already admitted that the source material won’t be touched, you’ve already lost a lot of fan interest. Doctor Who fans are not sold by the name alone, they take every aspect seriously and playing your cards up front will see empty seats in the cinema. The flipside is that there’s so many untold stories in the DW Universe like (stealing this from Liam Dryden) the Time War, if they made that into a film with Paul McGann getting another chance to go as The Doctor during the events of the Time War, you’ve sold this. Nothing else is going to work unless it’s got Matt Smith (or the Twelfth Doctor) behind the controls of the TARDIS.

Yates’ adaptations of Harry Potter

Yates directed Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Parts One & Two. Now these films have met praise for visuals and action, but the heavy criticism lies in not sticking to the books and adding more of a presentation to the film to cover up the lack of keeping to the story. This is a criticism that has been set out after Christopher Columbus did so well with the adaptations of the first two books that shows the flaws and inconsistencies of the HP films. While it got some consistency later on, not taking the other films into account and making them when the books had not been finished shows errors in Yates’ ways. Doing this with Doctor Who will put Yates into the firing line, similar to Joel Schumacher when he directed Batman and Robin. If Yates fails (which he more than likely will), he has no recovery from this.

Why does there need to be a reboot when the current show is reboot?

It took sixteen years for Doctor Who to be rebooted since the original run was cancelled in 1989. Now think about this hard, the BBC has tried to make film adaptations of Doctor Who during that failed and the attempt at reintroducing the franchise in 1996 was the only breath of light that happened, and lead to nothing at the time. Sure, it sparked the wave of building up momentum that spread over nine years to get The Doctor back on the screen. But if the BBC has tried and failed to get The Doctor in the cinema and their only outing didn’t go over as well, what makes them think this will work this time around? Also, who at the BBC felt it was a good idea to make this happen again? Who gave Jane Tranter the right to push this forward and even overlook the writers of the current show to give this a go? I’m sorry but to anyone at the BBC, look at what has happened in your past attempts. I know the old saying of ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again’ is being run here and I have no qualms with it. But with popular franchises, you don’t have an argument to counter the point that you have tried and failed before with waves of talent during the forty-eight years of Doctor Who. Isn’t that more than enough to prove the point? Unless you got writers who know the stuff inside out, then it’s doomed to fail.

There’s many numerous reasons why doing this is wrong and I really hope the BBC pulls the plug on this within the next 24 hours. Doctor Who is indeed their most popular franchise at the present moment, is having a big screen adaptation that important that going the extra mile to displease fans and potentially drive a huge nail into the current series is what you’re willing to do? I know it’s the money talking but let the logic take hold for one moment. Use your previous history and think about what is being put into motion, you have already placed a film that is doomed to fail by the announced intentions. Leave The Doctor alone unless you stick it to canon; use the actual writers and tell us a compelling story with the current Doctor or use the Time War; treat this as seriously as the fans do, and you got a big hit. So far, you’ve played your hand and the flop has only just been placed, you still have the turn and the river in wait, and the odds are not in your favour.