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Joe Utichi is Deadline’s London contributor:
Doctor Who showrunner Stephen Moffat thinks the popular BBC series could run forever. “I truly believe it could be a show that outlives everyone in this room,” he told an audience this morning at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. “It doesn’t just make money now; it could make money forever.” He was scotching rumors of budgetary headaches, saying the show was “very well looked after” by the BBC. “I’m never going to say I’ve got enough money – that’s like asking, ‘Would you like to be more happy?’ But [the BBC] are very well aware of its crown jewel status.”
And the BBC could channel some of those funds toward a long-anticipated movie version. Moffat treated a big-screen transition for the show as almost inevitable. “There’s often been talk about a movie. I’m sure we should do one [but] what I keep saying is it can’t ever be allowed to interfere with the television show. That’s the thing that will go on forever.”
The show returns to British and U.S. screens September 1 with Asylum Of The Daleks, and Moffat promised “a blockbuster every single week. Let’s not have a cheap episode; let’s make them all huge.” But Moffat was unconvinced when he asked for a show of hands in support of a female Doctor. “It is a part of Time Lord lore; it can happen. Who knows? The more often it’s talked about, the more likely it’s going to happen.”
Here’s a teaser for the season premiere episode Asylum Of The Daleks:
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The Doctor is the most genius character of all time. Actors can be replaced any time, the character never has to die, and the show can visit any time in history or space. Moffat’s tenure has given us one of the best Doctors in Matt Smith, but I’ve been underwhelmed by his season finales, and sometimes it feels like he treats his stories as bigger than the show.
Moffat really needs to just pipe down and write. “The best episodes ever!” “The best cast ever!” “The best stories ever!” “A blockbuster every week!” The show doesn’t need a blockbuster every week. What it needs is a story arc that’s engaging, fun, and isn’t so uninterestingly complicated that you don’t even care enough to go back and figure it out. We already had 35 seasons of Lost.
He writes a great sit-com. Coupling was a funny show. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. His screenplay for Tin Tin was fantastic; but his Who stuff is tedious. His constant yapping about how great his shows are is just irritating. I guarantee you, it was the reason Doctor Who Confidential was cancelled. If it’s great we’ll all know it without you telling us.
Moffat was the best writer on the show- when he was JUST a writer on the show.
But without someone to tell him “NO” once in a while, the show has suffered greatly.
I love the show and can’t wait til next Saturday for the episode 1 of the new series.
PS: Moffat, do not make the Doctor a female. It would ruin the show.
Joanna Lumley needs to be the next Doctor!!
That would be amazing!
This idea is so great I want to marry it.
Old idea. It wouldn’t surprise me if they talked to her at one time.
My favorite casting rumor was Chiwetel Ejiofor was rumored to replace David Tennant. He would still be great. He could be Doctor 12 or 13.
Pretty soon they’ll need to write away that 12 regenerations limit.
I agree. I wouldn’t watch a female Doctor. Somehow comedy and warmth are increased when a bumbling genius is played by a male. Let’s not let gender politics ruin a good character.
Please. What piffle. There’s about a hundred variations on how to play The Doctor well and about ten times as many when you add the idea of a gender swap. Not all Doctors have been warm.
I nominate Peter Dinklage for the next doctor. Why not a dwarf.
Dinklage would be great as the Doctor, but his #1 drawback is not his size but the fact he is American. The Doctor has to be played by a UK actor (at least as long as the BBC produces it).
As for a female doctor, why not? After one regeneration, the doctor DID remark “not female” while inventorying his new body.
And STILL not ginger!
I really like the old Doctor Who, even the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years. But the new Who is just a mess.
Yeah, the new series is a stinker.
Doctor Who is one of the most overrated shows ever. A Doctor Who movie would bomb because British sci fi specialises in cerebral stories and weird, unrelatable lead characters that don’t play well in international markets. American ‘blue collar’ sci fi is centred around the Everyman lead character, placed in an action adventure story. Plenty for everyone to relate to and be entertained by.
I agree. I cant see Doctor Who getting big BO is China, Russia, India, Brazil, etc. The days are past when a movie could appeal only to the English speaking nations, unless you’re talking about some little indie film and what studio is going to back that?
Moffett would have to translate Doctor Who to movie demands the way JJ Abrams translated Star Trek (successfully). But Star Trek is less dependent on American cultural quirks, so it could be universalized without destroying its essence. Universalize Doctor Who, and you’re left with nothing.
At best, a Doctor Who movie would turn out a lot like the Firefly movie – beloved by the fanbase but a financial flop.
I disagree.
American sci-fi is more adventure oriented, and obeys adventure conventions. Adventure films do not need to focus on an everyman. Superman is not an everyman. Indiana Jones is not an everyman. They are iconic and larger than life. As is The Doctor.
The Firefly movie was a fantastic film that remembered the single most important rule of Star Wars: It’s only fun when it’s about Han Solo.
There is a female Time Lord. Moffat and company have just misplaced her. Or have they forgotten the “clone” daughter that was created from Tennant? She is out there somewhere. And the actress who played her then married David in real life. How about that for incest, or something? Also Donna Noble was a Time Lord for a period of time, or so the episode made it appear.
Of course there are and have been female Time Lords in the series, but I think that is very different from the Doctor regenerating into a woman. It’s the kind of thing where everyone wants to say they’re in favour of it but my guess is if they did it it would kill the ratings because there are still too many people out there that could not accept it or would simply find too much is lost in the character to enjoy.
“But [the BBC] are very well aware of its crown jewel status.”
Right up until another Michael Grade-type gets in charge.
Unlikely to happen today as unlike in 1985 the BBC NEEDS the revenue generated by overseas sales and home video.
Controllers just like Grade were micro-focused on Broadcasting only – and the ripple effects to overseas sales were not his concern.
Between a lack of new episodes and giant fee increases and demands (Must purchase the old episode to get the newer ones) by BBC Enterprises when they took over U.S. distribution killed the show in America in the mid-late 1980′s as well.
Actually, Romona, Tom Baker’s (Doctor #4) companion of the old series was a timelord and even had a regeneration from one season to the next after Mary Tamm decided not to return. The new series is fun, but often suffers from political preachiness, not that it was entirely absent from the less impressive episodes of the old series either, esp. towards the end.
I agree with the above comments that the Moffat hype(rbole) is annoying and has not been lived up to yet. Catch up with the quality during most of Tennant’s run, then we might tolerate some bragging.
Moffat’s version of “Who” is worlds better than the first four seasons, although nothing could quite live up to his hyperbole.
What I am not understanding is how they think they can keep the series going on for all time? Time lords only regenerate 12 times then go insane and die. Or at least die.
This is the 11th doctor which I’m not a big fan of. I prefer doctors to look like they are out of diapers myself.
But there is only one regen left to them.
And frankly the older doctors are better then the last few new doctors cause they go places other worlds other times. They have adventures to have adventures. The new stuff mostly always centers on earth which frankly is quite boring and now how the original shows were.
I hope they can figure out they are going to fix that quandary in a Time lords regeneration.
Dr. Who’s arch-villian (the Master) is also a timelord and has had way more than 12 regenerations. Also since they rebooted Dr Who in 2005, the Doctor’s home planet of Gallifrey was destroyed, so there is no one to enforce the 12 regeneration rule. On top of that, at least one of the Doctor’s regenerations was forced upon him by the Timelords, so that one may not count.
As long as the show continues to generate revenue, the BBC (and the show’s writers) will find a way to keep the Doctor alive and regenerating. Moffat may be right, the show might be around 50 years from now…
One could argue that the Time Lord council was the one that enforced only 12 regenerations (Note: Ten regenerated in “Stolen Earth/Journey’s End” too). The council could force regenerations (“Tenth Planet”), give new cycles (“Five Doctors”), or take regens away (“Ultimate Foe”). Since the council is no longer around, a Time Lord can regenerate an unlimited number of times.
Or River’s giving life back to the Doctor last season could also have given him her remaining regenerations.
Moffat will find a way around it. After all, his “Pandorica Opens/Big Bang” gave him the ability to ignore about all previous continuity. Grrrr. I too enjoy the old series because little was on Earth or about Earth. More adventure.
Nice try, Blockbuster.
I’m a US viewer, absolutely love the reboot…caught up on all the episodes after catching a new one post-hiatus in 2010. Possibly because I’ve viewed them “River Song style” (reverse order of Doctors, for the most part), I think I may have a more objective view on the incarnations than most. I can’t really decide between Tennant and Smith; I like them both for different reasons, but each has shown his own incarnations of The Doctor as a warrior, as someone sensitive to loss, and as a caretaker who desperately needs someone in his life both for him to care for and to care about him. I would love to see a female doctor…who doesn’t live River Song after all? It would be interesting to gender swap the focus like that…but yes, I’m not sure how the audience would handle it, and of course then we’d lose the gender-gap-defying dynamic of a woman in a sort of subordinate position sometimes showing up her “boss” with something brilliant, in spite of not being a Time Lord herself with all the knowledge that goes with it. On the other hand they could always come up with a way to have him inhabit a female body temporarily just to have some fun with it. And I would love to see Chi or Idris Elba play the doc…especially would be a big departure for Idris from his Luther role, but I think that would make it fascinating to see how he might make the character quirky while physically being this big imposing man…a little like Eccleston but without the goofy lovable ears!
I was just thinking actually that when I have kids I’d love to make watching the annual Christmas Special a part if my family’s holiday tradition, so I DO hope it never ends! (BTW a movie would HAVE to incorporate Jack Harkness!!! He’d be a good additional box office draw, plus we here in the states could certainly use more gender-bender-friendly programming like Torchwood incorporates in the “try-sexual” Captain Jack…those stuffy evangelists don’t watch the Doc anyway!)
Oh wait…they DID make him a woman temporarily, with the Lady Cassandra in one episode, but that doesn’t really count.
would have to be something the Doc accepts for at least a whole episode.