Emergency Update
I typically only post new comics on Mondays and Thursdays, but this recent news demanded my attention. David Yates, director of half of the “Harry Potter” movies, has announced that he’s working on a big screen version of “Doctor Who”. Now, I’m a big fan of the show. I’ve been a convert since the 2005 revival and the Doctor is probably my favourite protagonist of all time. If you’re not familiar, it’s a show about a human-looking alien, the Doctor, who travels through time and space, riding around in a magic blue box. He usually hangs out with a human or two, and he solves problems in the past, present and future, espousing the virtues of knowledge and non-violence. The show started in 1963, aired more or less consistently until 1989, went off the air, had a terrible TV movie in 1999, and was brought back in full force in 2005. One of the best things about the show is that it draws on this history to develop a consistent continuity. The Doctor is the same person throughout the show, and there are occasionally references to events from episodes aired decades ago. When he dies, he “regenerates” into a new body (and new actor), but he has all of the memories of his predecessors.
What I don’t like about Yates is that he seems to be saying that he wants to distance himself from the TV show, and that just seems like a misstep to me. I don’t know. I suppose it won’t be as bad as the TV movie, no matter what happens.
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Could be like other movies based on tv shows where they try and make it a 90 minute episode. In that case it would be an episode he hasn’t done before, could be interesting!
He could benefit from a bigger budget, it’s true.
I am ambivalent on the entire subject, but I will say that this new “Google Led You Here” feature is a delightful use of what normally seems an entirely useless usage-tracking feature. Kudos.
Thanks kindly. There are many, many weird ones left.
Yeah hey said it will have no continuity and none of the current crew, writers, or cast will make the transition.
I am essentially one pissed off Who-vian
Okay he’s goin to JJ Abrams this to death
Its going to be the doctor, and he will make the mistake of naming his Dr. Who or actually giving him a name, and he will be in school with his best friend – the master (who will fuck him over towards the end setting him up as a villian in the sequel that wont happen due to whovians murdering all involved with this film) and he will steal the TARDIS end up in modern day, meet some fairly hot girl, somehow Daleks will be involved. Some explosions and lens flair and then we have Doctor Who ruined forever
I’m reminded of a writer who was told by a fan; “Isn’t it terrible how the films ruined your books?” He looked up at his books on the shelf and said; “No. They look fine to me.” Dr. Who will never be ruined. What might happen is if he does a bad enough job he will kill the chance of a decent Dr. Who movie for many years. (Sadly what also might happen is that he’ll do a terrible job that the great unwashed won’t recognize is horrible and actually end up making sequels!) On the other hand (setting up flame shields) I liked the “Star Trek” movie and realize that the original canon still exists in its time frame with this movie (and its sequels) taking place in another reality.
Yeah, that was Raymond Chandler, I think. (Although I read about it in an interview with Alan Moore). Very good points here.
Apparently he’s got a name, but we haven’t heard it. River Song seems to know it, though.
The Doctor? His name is supposed to be some mathematical equation.
Let me bring up one more thing. Peter Cushing did two Dr. Who movies that had nothing to do with the canon. They were fairly popular. The Dr. Who television movie had canon up the ying-yang. It was not very well received. Jes’ putting that out there.
I haven’t seen the Cushing “Who” flicks, but I’m aware of them. I guess canon isn’t the end-all-be-all of “Doctor Who” enjoyment, but when they’ve already got a semi-reboot mechanism in place to allow for a new actor in the form of Regenerations, why not keep it within the continuity and keep the fans happy?
P.S. Yeah, the TV movie sucked. Paul McGann was kind of interesting as the Eighth Doctor, but man was that movie terrible.
Well, look at all the ‘terrible’ first-timer movies: batman, star trek, hulk (to name a few) and I think their remakes were much better. So this one might not be the be all and end all, wait another 5/10 years and you’ll see someone else come up with a better version. I’m betting transformers is in line too (i know lots who were disappointed with it, though I personally enjoyed them.)
I love the cartoon! I’m posting that on my wall. As for Ed’s comments about the new movie not ruining the original, I agree, it won’t. Except if the film is poor it’ll turn people off the original, just as the misfire of a remake of The Prisoner has, I know for a fact, turned people away from viewing Patrick McGoohan’s original series. And it goes the other way too – lots of people who enjoyed the 2009 reboot of Star Trek can’t stand watching the original version of the 1966 TV series, except for the altered version with the fancy CG added to it. I think the point those of us naysayers are getting at is, of course do a movie, but there’s no reason nor excuse – not in 2011 – for them to even think about doing a movie that isn’t a continuation of the TV series. Steven Moffat has posted a fantastic tweet on the subject, announcing he’s planning to redo the moon launch without any input from NASA.
Keeping it in the continuity would be so easy, and would mean soooo much more to the fans.
I have nothing to say, I just want to jump on this tremendous response bandwagon.
Smooth ridin’ on the bandwagon, friend.
haha! nice one! ive only just heard about this film but as a massive fan of the series, i would hate for them to just throw away everything that has been established, recast the lead and make stupid changes to a successful series…
I’m loving Matt Smith as 11, of course, but I don’t think a new Doctor for the movie would be the worst idea in the world. Ignoring the TV show and severing all ties would be profoundly unwise, however.
Don’t worry about itjust think of it as an unofficial sequal to The Daleks Invasion of Earth 2150AD
It’ll be about a human named “Doctor Who”, then? Mindy expressly forbids that in the comic. No dice!
All this has happened before, and no doubt it will again.
It’s the Cushing/Dalek films, which mostly ignored everything else, including their own continuity, to bring us candy-coloured daleks and pretty wild visuals of stories that had already been done well.
Doesn’t matter to The Doctor, or the canon. It will be what it will be.
The movie will influence the show, whether it’s in the canon or not. I just hope it’s something positive.
A part of me would love to see Stephen Fry as The Doctor, although some things might be so completely perfect that not even the TARDIS would be big enough to hold in the awesome.
and people these days want a 1000 year old Time Lord who can still jump about, like a lad, people say bigger budgets would help, but Doctor Who proved the power of Duct tape and bubble wrap can be strong. (though these days, digital duct tape and bubble wrap are needed.)
I would like to see more of the TARDIS though, I still remember when it broke my heart to jettison Romona’s room.
They recently announced who was playing “Q” in the new Bond flick. I was holding out hope that it was going to be Stephen Fry.