In an interview regarding the remake of Dalek creator Terry Nation’s the Survivors, star Philip Rhys may have let the cat out of the bad kinda early.
For those of you keeping track of the story: Former series producer Russell T Davies has stated that the plan was always for David Tennant to leave after his run with the RFC in Hamlet. Despite this, the press has reported that Tennant demanded more money (even though he is reportedly the highest paid actor on the BBC books) including a feature film, causing incoming producer Steven Moffat to scramble for a replacement when these demands were not met. Davies says that this is all untrue and that the next Doctor has been decided for some time.
Who to believe?
Do you recall the bizarre circumstances surrounding Chris Eccleston’s departure in 2005? From ‘Eccleston always planned to do only one year’ to ‘the workload was too much for him,’ RTD had a few conflicting stories on that one and cast former associate from Cassanova and narrator from the Behind the Scenes specials David Tennant as Doctor #10 which has always struck me as dubious.
My point is that I do not trust the guy and think that we will not know what is truly going on in the casting of the main role in Doctor Who for some time.
On the character of the Doctor, much has been done over the 40+ years that the series has been around. From a clown to a dandy to an egocentric galactic detective, the Doctor has been many things depending on the intentions of the production team and star. Personally I think that the current Doctor too closely resembles Harry Potter.
Complete with magic wand and a gifted (even when shot point blank, he manages to survive) yet tragic life (he can never love… boo hoo), the Doctor has never been more boring. Once a character who would institute change in those around him, the Doctor now condemns villains to more painful deaths than seen in a Warner Brothers cartoon. Villains are simply bad and must be stopped, killed, squashed, etc. The Doctor is perfect, sexy and brilliant despite the fact that he is obsessed with pop culture and stating the obvious (lines like ‘we’re in the past, fantastic!, we’re in a spaceship, fantastic!’ always make me feel like I am watching a a radio drama).
I just hope that the next era of the program is a more intelligent and stimulating one for viewers rather than the entertainment produced for the ‘hard to think’ that we have seen for the past 4 years. Each episode of the last three years has been nearly identical with the Doctor condemning someone to death while the entire planet withers in fear and praises him. I’d really like to see a little variety.
For variety, just look at the first season of Doctor Who in 1963. From historical sagas(Marco Polo) to sci-fi quests (Keys of Marinus), the first season can easily serve as a blueprint of what you can do with this series if you just try hard enough. The character of the Doctor was also more sophisticated and rich, seeing an alien deviate from self-preservation to indignant altruism, it was always interesting.
I am ofcourse in a minority here and I accept that. Fans are already declaring that without the star Tennant the series will fail and be canceled. I simply point to the fact that the series has changed many times in many ways over its long run and each time there were such doomsayers. That’s not to say that these voices are wrong, I just hope that they are pleasantly surprised. There is nothing better than a new direction being introduced to a TV program or what have you to breath new life into it.
I still say that Paterson Joseph would bring an entirely new air to the program. In any case, I hope that whoever takes up the mantle next is accepted by the viewers rather than condemned as ‘not David Tennant.’ If that kind of thinking has been held onto back in the day, the transference from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker in 1972 would have been absolutely tragic… and it wasn’t.
