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If you could resurrect the show in the spirit of a Tru Who era...

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Doctor7
Steven
burrunjor
iank
bryanbraddock
TiberiusDidNothingWrong
DogStar2000
Pepsi Maxil
Mott1
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Mott1

Mott1

Which would it be?

(Answers can be in the form of a Doctor's whole era, a showrunner's reign or a season).

Pepsi Maxil

Pepsi Maxil
The Grand Master

I'd love to resurrect the show in the spirit of the Cartmel years. There's still some unfinished business...


DogStar2000

avatar

Philip Hinchcliffe & Robert Holmes.

https://theleisurehive.proboards.com/

TiberiusDidNothingWrong

TiberiusDidNothingWrong
Dick Tater

You would have to pay regard to the kind of Doctor Who that would work for today's television.

I'm tempted to believe that an entirely new approach - yet one that is respectful of the Classic series - would serve better than an imitation or stylistic continuation.

If I had control I'd have to go for a more adult-aimed 'intellectual' style than the family approach usually associated. By that I don't mean swearing, sex and violence - children can still watch it, only the will be a lower priority audience. I guess the best comparison would be a lá Christopher Nolan: where you might forget that what you're watching is actually rated 12A.

There does seem to be a growing demand for this kind of Sci-Fi, with Black Mirror and Game of Thrones etc.

The 'intellectual' aspect really just refers to inspire thoughtful writing, and also to involve good science and history.

The closest eras to compare would probably be Robert Holmes and Christopher Bidmead: Especially Seasons 13, 14 and 18.

Another thing to change is the format of the series. 45 Minute 'Stories' just don't work for Doctor Who - no room for world building or character development. The two parters aren't much better either - usually a very shallow first part, a forced cliffhanger, and a rush to the end. The easiest way to resolve this would be to use the two-part stories as a norm, but without the focus on the middle cliffhanger, they should be written more like the classic four-part stories.

Otherwise, they could go for longer episodes. Even a full hour isn't really enough for the kind of expansive stories that used to be the staple of the series. An hour-and-a-half might work better.

And the most vital thing of all: keep the BBC away from it. Talentless diversity hires and nepotism builds a strong foundation that is further bolstered by the forced political drives that the 'impartial' BBC can't seem to avoid. I can't see the BBC allowing an improved Doctor Who.

bryanbraddock

bryanbraddock

Hinchcliffe and Holmes.
Of course that would mean the end of Doctor Who being tea time fluff for the plebs.
Which is fine by me.
When the show was off the air, I always thought if it did come back it shouldn't be a prime time BBC 1 Saturday night mainstream production. I always envisioned it being a smaller BBC2 niche cult prog.
Go back to basics, charismatic leading man a few companions,increase the horror element and decrease the soap.

iank

iank

I completely agree with the niche thing.
The sad reality is, you can't make Who as a mainstream show in the 21st century and still have it be Doctor Who. It was becoming impossible by the 80s, as JNT found out. Davies achieved his success by throwing most of the original show (and especially the Doctor's character) out the window altogether and making something only superficially similar with the same name.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKNC69I8Mq_pJfvBireybsg

burrunjor

burrunjor

Well you all probably know my prescription for saving Doctor Who, but since this is the thread for it, what the hell I'll run through it again LOL.

In terms of styles I'd see merging different styles together.

I'd keep the gritty, violent, dark, gothic elements of the Hinchcliff/Holmes era. Doctor Who needs to be a show that scares people. That helps it get over the stigma of wobbly sets and cheesy monsters better than anything else.

Make the horror more atmospheric like Shirley Jackson, make the monsters ugly and legitimately repulsive, have plenty of death, have stories where the Doctor isn't able to save everyone, and wherever possible toss in the odd bit of extreme visceral horror like the maid being dismembered in Ghostlight, or Condo's guts being blown out to really shock people.

Make Who the show that people are genuinely scared to watch, and keeps them up at night.

At the same time however also utilise some of the Hartnell era style of trying to have as much variety of locations for the series as much as possible. Steer clear of modern day earth for a few seasons, and set it on far away planets and other times for every story. Make writing DW like writing a sci fi novel where you have to come up with entire worlds and races for EVERY story.

I'd also include the action and larger than life supervillains, comic book elements of the Pertwee era. Doctor Who is basically a comic book, through the fact that it runs for so long, has such a large colourful rogues gallery etc. So utilise that to an extent like they did in Pertwee's time.

Sell the show to Netflix (okay the BBC are not going to give it up completely, but they can reach a deal with Netflix like Sony did with Marvel RE:Spider-Man, where one makes it, but they both profit.

Netflix can then return it to the serialised format, and have the show focus on sci fi, adventure and above all else. HORROR!

Also snip New Who away, by revealing that New Who takes place in an alternate universe to Classic Who and this one. That way you can still keep things that DO work about New Who, but junk those that don't. Hell you can even have some New Who characters cross over into our reality for the odd story.

Finally cast, Julian Richings as the Doctor, and Dana Delorenzo and Colin O'Donaghue as the companions.

Okay I'm VERY biased for these actors, but all three of them would be the best IMO for doing a horror, action, sci fi version of DW today.

Julian Richings is a creepy bastard LOL. He always plays villains, and his best known part is as Death himself! There is absolutely no way that you could even attempt to do any romance with him. Not even with an older woman like Missy or River Pong, as he's just too serious, cold and logical.

Imagine River Song trying to do her "HELLO SWEETIE" with this guy.



It would be even more awkward and cringey LOL.

You'd have to make the Doctor a more distant, alien, Professorial character with him. The fact that he looks like William Hartnell is all the better (and he really does look like William Hartnell. Anybody else think Julian looks more like Hartnell than David Bradley? Julian could go back to smashing people's heads in with his stick like Hartnell.)

Dana and Colin meanwhile would be great action companions. You couldn't really do any soap opera crap with them.  You'd have to go back to action.

Having action companions opposite an older Doctor is quite a good way of balancing them out. Dana and Colin can smash a monsters face in, whilst Julian figures out what's going on and outwits the badguy. Unlike Miss Smug Pants you don't undermine the Doctor, but the companion gets to be heroic in their own right.

Obviously I'm sure that there are other actors that could fulfil these requirements, but those are my choices.

For the first of the new Doctor you need an actor that you could do NO romance with. Even Robert Carlyle, as good as a choice as he normally would be, could suffer from being made romantic like in Once Upon A Time. As we're still in the shadow of New Who, there would be temptation to make him romantic, so you'd need a guy at first that would really show you, you can't do that, like Julian. Once Julian had set the template for the new Doctors, then you could cast a young guy again.

The first Doctor is the most important. He sets the standard for those who follow. In the original Hartnell did, hence why all the others were asexual, professorial, eccentric, whilst in Eccelston's case his Doctor was emo, brooding, romantic, and undermined by his companions, so all of the others had to be too.

Steven

Steven

burrunjor wrote:Julian Richings is a creepy bastard LOL. He always plays villains, and his best known part is as Death himself! There is absolutely no way that you could even attempt to do any romance with him. Not even with an older woman like Missy or River Pong, as he's just too serious, cold and logical.
Hold my beer, ming mong. Cool

If you could resurrect the show in the spirit of a Tru Who era... Ddbgm810

Doctor7

avatar

Wow he could be Hartnell's son uncanny!

stengos

stengos

Preferably Holmes / Hinchcliffe

But tbh I would accept any classic series era, including Cartmel, in preference to what we have now.

Tanmann

Tanmann
Dick Tater

Steven wrote:
burrunjor wrote:Julian Richings is a creepy bastard LOL. He always plays villains, and his best known part is as Death himself! There is absolutely no way that you could even attempt to do any romance with him. Not even with an older woman like Missy or River Pong, as he's just too serious, cold and logical.
Hold my beer, ming mong. Cool

If you could resurrect the show in the spirit of a Tru Who era... Ddbgm810

Muppet!

Boofer

Boofer

None of them.

They're of their own times.

You're really looking to capture the 'spirit' of the old show as opposed to it's trappings, structure, style, etc.

A whole new take on Who would be fantastic. One that doesn't grip my shit every 5 minutes or so would be even better.

Bernard Marx

Bernard Marx

Boofer wrote:None of them.

They're of their own times.

You're really looking to capture the 'spirit' of the old show as opposed to it's trappings, structure, style, etc.

A whole new take on Who would be fantastic. One that doesn't grip my shit every 5 minutes or so would be even better.
Agreed completely.

The overall styles of previous eras shouldn’t need to be replicated in order to create a quality modern iteration of Who, as such styles were merely one superficial facet to the eras at hand and wouldn’t truly encapsulate what made them work beyond the constructs of their respective time periods.

Frankly, what a modernised version of Who always needed were fresh and competent writers, directors and producers, regardless of what stylistic elements remained. New Who has always been written and produced by dry and vacous writers with no new concepts or ideas to propose, and writers who were involved in writing fan fiction beforehand and thus encased in the trappings of fandom. The series just needs unbridled talent behind it, regardless of its stylistic attributes, and talent which isn’t completely self-loathing.



Last edited by Bernard Marx on 27th August 2019, 8:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

Tanmann

Tanmann
Dick Tater

That's all true enough.

If I had any vision in mind for a 21st century revival at the time, it would've probably been akin to William Gibson's Neuromancer only with Daleks.

Certainly that would've been better than Eastenders and Big Brother with Daleks, which is what we got.

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