Hypothetical Reboot?

[Deleted]

Let's say after this stint with RTD and Gatwa, the show was cancelled and put to rest for a few years. What would your ideal reboot look like? 

[iank]

A proper sequel to classic, made as series of serials in 25-30 minute episodes, with a proper Victorian/Edwardian gentleman and ASEXUAL Doctor. He should be the 8th Doctor. No offence to McGann but the TV Movie was garbage that started the rot that New Who picked up and ran with. He can be shoved off into the same parallel reality as New Who. An emphasis on science fiction and horror and big ideas and not on who lurves who and eating chips, let alone identity politics garbage.

It'll never happen. But it's pretty much the only thing that would get me back now.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't even touch the old lore or mention the number of the Doctor. I probably wouldn't use any returning monsters either, in all honesty I'm sick of the Daleks and Cybermen, they don't bring anything new to the table. The thing that sucks the most about RTD2 is that I love the concept. I'd probably have the Doctor facing more abstract cosmic horrors from beyond N-Space.

2 or 3 -part stories comprised of hour-long episodes, occasionally hour-and-a-half or two-hour in special cases.

[zarius]

I've always wanted to do a classic serial-style story spread over five nights a week, like Children of Earth did.

[ClockworkOcean]

Doctor Who never needed a radical reinvention. All I would do is aim for a faithful continuation of the classic series with the benefits of CGI and a higher budget.

The Doctor would be characterised as an asexual, eccentric, professorial grandfather figure with a Victorian/Edwardian aesthetic. There would be no trace of romantic or sexual tension between the Doctor and his companions. Regeneration would be a matter of carefully emphasising and de-emphasising aspects of a single recognisable character with fixed, non-negotiable traits. It would never be a platform for exploring the politics of gender or sexuality, and I would make the limits of regeneration much more explicit in-universe to prevent it from being abused in this way by future writers. I would also have a strong presumption in favour of older actors to ensure as little deviation as possible from the basic archetype.

The show's focus would be on high-concept science fiction and family-friendly gothic horror, with pure historicals reserved for an occasional change of pace. No soap opera mawkishness, no time wasted on the companions' domestic lives unless strictly necessary to advance the plot. Any character drama would stem naturally from the events of the stories in a manner similar to that of Season 26.

Writers would be free to explore political and philosophical issues from a variety of perspectives, provided this exploration remained within the realm of subtext and allegory. Telling an entertaining and cohesive story would always be the primary objective. While a plurality of views would be welcome, hateful bigots seeking to demonise entire birth demographics in the way that NuWho has done since 2015 would not be indulged, and the show would never be allowed to become so militantly wedded to one highly contentious, polarising worldview as to alienate vast swathes of the general public.

As for the format, it would definitely consist of multi-part stories punctuated by cliffhangers, though whether that would mean a return to 25-30-minute episodes or something more akin to Season 22 isn't especially important to me. What matters is that the format enables a quality-over-quantity approach with fewer and better stories. Even NuWho's best effort - Series 5 - is weighed down by four rubbish episodes, adding up to an entire month of broadcasts and 30% of the overall runtime, whereas several seasons of the classic show (7, 13, 14, 26) are simply excellent from beginning to end.

[henshin]

My version of Doctor Who: keep it limited.

That is, only around three episodes per two years, perhaps around the length of each episode of Sherlock.

Essentially, i'd turn it into TV's very own James Bond.

One shot, individual movie-length stories where an actor holds the role for a few years.

Then, with the money saved on doing a regular TV series, put that into expanded content to keep fans busy between films/episodes: a slew of novels, audio dramas, video games, and comics.

[iank]

May 16, 2024 5:44:56 GMT ClockworkOcean said:

Doctor Who never needed a radical reinvention. All I would do is aim for a faithful continuation of the classic series with the benefits of CGI and a higher budget.

Naive little cherub that I was 20 years ago, but I assumed that was the whole f*cking point of "bringing it back". 

[Ludders II]

May 16, 2024 5:44:56 GMT ClockworkOcean said:

Doctor Who never needed a radical reinvention. All I would do is aim for a faithful continuation of the classic series with the benefits of CGI and a higher budget.

The Doctor would be characterised as an asexual, eccentric, professorial grandfather figure with a Victorian/Edwardian aesthetic. There would be no trace of romantic or sexual tension between the Doctor and his companions. Regeneration would be a matter of carefully emphasising and de-emphasising aspects of a single recognisable character with fixed, non-negotiable traits. It would never be a platform for exploring the politics of gender or sexuality, and I would make the limits of regeneration much more explicit in-universe to prevent it from being abused in this way by future writers. I would also have a strong presumption in favour of older actors to ensure as little deviation as possible from the basic archetype.

The show's focus would be on high-concept science fiction and family-friendly gothic horror, with pure historicals reserved for an occasional change of pace. No soap opera mawkishness, no time wasted on the companions' domestic lives unless strictly necessary to advance the plot. Any character drama would stem naturally from the events of the stories in a manner similar to that of Season 26.

Writers would be free to explore political and philosophical issues from a variety of perspectives, provided this exploration remained within the realm of subtext and allegory. Telling an entertaining and cohesive story would always be the primary objective. While a plurality of views would be welcome, hateful bigots seeking to demonise entire birth demographics in the way that NuWho has done since 2015 would not be indulged, and the show would never be allowed to become so militantly wedded to one highly contentious, polarising worldview as to alienate vast swathes of the general public.

As for the format, it would definitely consist of multi-part stories punctuated by cliffhangers, though whether that would mean a return to 25-30-minute episodes or something more akin to Season 22 isn't especially important to me. What matters is that the format enables a quality-over-quantity approach with fewer and better stories. Even NuWho's best effort - Series 5 - is weighed down by four rubbish episodes, adding up to an entire month of broadcasts and 30% of the overall runtime, whereas several seasons of the classic show (7, 13, 14, 26) are simply excellent from beginning to end.

This should be shared all over the net as the official position of those us who labelled as 'haters'. 

[burrunjor]

Been over this before, but what the hell. 

Sell it to a streaming service that can put money into it, and release it online. That way we can return to serialised story telling, as those kinds of shows are popular online, and give the stories time to breath. 

Direct sequel to the classic era. Obviously I wouldn't have the show start with McGann regenerating. I'd have the Doctor just show up, go on adventures and then casually mention in say the second series that he was on his 9th life, like have him say "I've died 8 times you know" or maybe we see the Doctors wallet and there are just 8 faces there. That's that, new who is culled and we get a back to basics approach. 

The following rules must apply to the Doctor. I'd have them put in a f*cking contract so no prick can f*ck things up after me. (That is possible btw as Spider-Man had a contract like this for the first film.) 

The Doctor must be played by an unusual character actor. 

He must be a HE. To those of you who think a female Doctor can still work with the right actress NO. If you are actually wanting to do a proper sequel to the original you cannot change his sex. It becomes too hard to imagine it's still the Doctor under there. Nothing wrong or transphobic with saying that. Remember from someone who has dated a trans person LOL. Gender is a huge part of someone's persona, hence why some people suffer gender dysphoria in the first place. If something as big as the Doctors gender which has been established across 7 portrayals can change it's only a matter of time before we are back at the Timeless Child, as you set the precedent for the character to unravel with a change like that. (Same applies for making him romantic too.) Someone can fairly argue "well if he can go from William Hartnell to Paloma Faith, why can't he turn into this guy who also isn't like the Doctor at all?" You can't do that if it's say Hartnell and McCoy, or even Hartnell and Davison, who are both the stuffy old professor type.

Also no giving him a new origin story. The one we had from the War Games is fine. You can at the absolute most maybe hint about his past containing something bigger, but absolutely NO new origin stories. Move forward for f*cks sake.

The Doctors core character must always be. He is mysterious, he loves travelling the universe and learning about new planets, his moral code is that he is willing to kill if need be, but will try and find peaceful solutions if possible, he is largely asexual and takes on a fatherly or mentor role to the companion, he is on the one hand mature and can cope with things like death and loss, but on the other is childish in getting his own way. Finally even physically he tends to be a bit more striking looking and dresses in unusual, old fashioned, Victorian/Edwardian era clothing. The new actor and producer must broadly work within this template and try and do something new within it and develop it in a natural way. Regeneration is NOT death. It's simply a way for the Doctor to cheat death and gives him a shake up, but treat them all as the same person and let the actor bring something new to it, but keep him in check if his ideas break the template. 

Don't destroy the Time Lords or disrespect them as new who has done again and again. Use them sparingly yes. Maybe one Time Lord story per Doctor if that, and make them a big, shadowy, scary force when they show up, but don't kill them for two reasons. 1/ The Doctor must want to travel, rather than be forced to by the death of his people. 2/ If you kill them then they ironically become a bigger presence in the mythology and the Doctors character than if they were just in the background. 

In terms of the companions, well I don't mind fleshing their stories out more than in Classic who, where in all honesty, a few aside such as Ace, could be fairly bland in terms of character. However do NOT use the companion as an excuse to dabble in soap opera tedium. Make sure the companions background is a sci fi one. This is why companions like Jamie, Leela, Ace, Sarah etc are a cut above. They all do have a more fleshed out background than say Jo Grant (who I still love for Katy, but doesn't have a backstory.) However unlike the new who companions their backgrounds are not just "I'M EATING CHIPS, OH TOMMY DOESN'T FANCY ME, OH ME MAM AND DAD DON'T LIKE EACH OTHER, OH I'M A GAY MILLENNIAL WOMAN TRYING TO MAKE IT IN A BOOMER STRAIGHT MAN'S WORD." 

Ace's is that she was whisked away to an alien world by a mysterious force and other aspects of her troubled youth like hating her mother and her getting into trouble with the law, and her hoodlum friends are all revealed via sci fi aspects, IE she meets her mother as a baby, her getting into trouble with the law was burning down a haunted house, we only see her friends when they are abducted by cheetah people and the real tare away is taken over by a dark force etc. It doesn't just descend into Ace's mom showing us her knickers or her granny coming round for Christmas. Similarly Sarah is a Lois Lane journalist who gets herself mixed up in the story without the Doctor. That type of thing is fine. 

I also wouldn't rule out a romance between the companions. NOT the Doctor and the companion I cannot stress that enough, but the companions themselves. Again as long as you work it into the story, that's fine. DW can actually be used for quite unusual pairings as he can bring people from different times together like Jamie and Victoria for instance. 

Keep the focus on the adventure. In terms of stories well my preference would be hard sci fi adventurers. More stories on alien planets, with invasion earth stories kept to a minimum. I'd want to recapture the early Hartnell era feeling of this was a journey into the unknown, where you really don't know where you could end up next. I'd also push the envelope in terms of violence. I'm not saying I'd do an Alan Moore and throw in peverted sexual violence. Obviously not, or even do an Evil Dead and make it really gorey. I'd go for a Hinchcliff approach however of making it really, really scary. I'd make it the kind of show that if kids said they watched it on the play ground people would be impressed because they'd think "wow that show is f*cking scary!" Have people die and not get revived by Disney magic, don't even be afraid to kill off main companions from time to time and have the Doctor lose, though obviously not too often as you don't want the Doctor to seem like a useless git. If you are going to dabble in supernatural horror, fine, but do NOT ever explain it as being supernatural. Have it be a truly mysterious creature whose origins the Doctor isn't sure of, and make it a fairly rare occurance so it genuinely seems like it could be the real deal. 

I'd have the TARDIS be incredibly cosy too. I'd bring back the round things and a proper retro, Jules Verne design. Personally I'd go for a combo of the classic round things, the wooden interior and a steam punk aspect to the console and other elements. Really draw from DW's victorian roots. I'd also make the console room bigger and bring back a nice living area with a grandfather clock, some couches and show the companions rooms as being perfect, a nice garden and maybe even a zoo. Make it the nice place the heroes want to get back when things get scary. 

For the big villains, well I disagree that they have nothing to offer. Recurring villains are a great idea, and key to the shows popularity, especially with children. You just have to use them right. 

For the Daleks, again keep them away from earth. They are supposed to be the biggest danger in the universe, so show them invade and conquer other worlds. No more "earth is our ultimate destiny." Take them back to their roots, though obviously not in a heavy handed way. Show the Dalek camps with hundreds of people enslaved, show the monsters experiment horribly on some people in Mengelesque experiments, show the effect they have on worlds that they conquered. Have them win from time to time as well. My story Fire of the Daleks, is a long and brutal story about a race of aliens trying to defend themselves against the Daleks, only to lose badly in the end. The Daleks blitz the entire surface of the planet and the Doctor is forced to flee. Something like that should happen in the actual show to demonstrate why these monsters are the worst. I'd also absolutely have a companion die to the Daleks too. I'd make out the Daleks were almost a force of nature, that the Doctor could never defeat them completely and he'd know they endure to the end of the universe. Even if he saved this planet, there'd be dozens more under their rule, or even if the empire was beaten back at this stage, it would recover. 

I'd also bring in Dalek X from spin off material. He is a hideous Dalek that enjoys torturing its victims and is the most feared being in the cosmos, with people killing themselves rather than end up in its chambers. I'd also do a Genesis and really emphasis how agonizing being shot by a Dalek is. Again in Fire of the Daleks I explain that a Dalek gun stimulates every single pain receptor in the victims body to the absolute maximum they can be. making it the worst pain imaginable. I'd also refrain from showing the creature inside apart from a few glimpses like a claw, or hideous green slime dripping from a destroyed Dalek. That creates greater horror. 

Finally I'd also bring back creatures that they had enslaved, like Ogrons and the Robomen (a horrifying concept) and Varga's. Again that to me showed how powerful they were, that they had these lesser creatures as minions. 

For the Cybermen meanwhile, bring back the body horror aspect. Show Cyber conversion as a slow, agonizing process, with the victim suffering hideous pain, copy the 60s versions in that we see them with some fleshy parts, but make it more streamline. When they are destroyed always have them bleed putrid, yellow, green, infected looking blood that's almost become slush. No armies of Cybermen either. Do creepy, lowkey stories set in claustrophobic environments where they come out of dark corners, silently. At the same time however also perhaps make the Cybermen more complex. After all they are trying to survive, they're not just monsters like the Daleks. I've always thought it might be interesting to do a story where the Cybermen have become allies of humanity, as now the Cybermen have found a way to produce clones that they can convert when their numbers are low, meaning they'd no longer have to conquer the galaxy and humanity could benefit from their technology, but perhaps the Doctor would befriend one of their clones that had escaped? You could also have them be allies of humanity against a new major threat. Obviously they'd still be villains for most of the show, but that's the point you'd vary it. 

The Master, well the following things HAVE to be excised from his character. 

No more Master/Doctor shipping bullshit. That is the most infantile take on their relationship imaginable, and anyone who says "no we need it for LGBT representation" f*ck off. Go watch another show that is actually about that, like Xena or Buffy, or better yet create new LGBT characters, which is what I did. You can't change every character to provide that. If I can create my own LGBT characters like Carlene and get Sophie Aldred to play them, shouldn't be much of a problem for f*cking Paul Cornell an award winning writer. Try being creative for once Paul. I'm not going to rewrite decades of development and just what the Master is meant to be, a Moriarty figure to pander. 

Anyone who has a take on the relationship like these quotes from TV Tropes. 

"The Sea Devils has the Master admit that the only reason he keeps trying to destroy Earth is because it's the Doctor's favourite planet. This is part of yet another larger trend in which the Master deliberately targets Earth to infuriate the Doctor, much like a young boy pulling the hair of a girl they like because they don't know how else to express what they're feeling."

The Master, in a new android body, lives with the Doctor on the TARDIS in Scream of the Shalka. Paul Cornell later attended a Doctor/Master slash panel (as an audience member) and was asked about the relationship, replied "I wouldn't be here if I didn't see it", and said that in Shalka, the Doctor and the Master were "doing it". He later elaborated that he hadn't intended to write the story that way, but he adores the interpretation.

In "Dark Water", the Master (well, Mistress) finally pushes the Doctor up against a wall and snogs him completely senseless. And, being very fond of little games, she offers a snog to Clara as well. She says her heart belongs to the Doctor, teases that her heart is maintained by the Doctor, and clues him in on her double heartbeat by putting his hand on her chest. In the next episode, "Death in Heaven", she tries to give him the army she's just spent centuries making, offering it to him in a desperate attempt to repair their friendship. When the Doctor realises just how utterly broken she is — and how much he needs her too, just as a reminder of what he's not — he gets down on his knees to gently kiss her on the lips in return. Even though the Master happens to be female at this point, the arc retroactively canonises several decades of Ho Yay.


Will see their script rejected faster than the general public did to Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor. 

Also no turning him into a giggling Joker expy, or whatever type of villain you'd rather write, or admittedly bringing him into a lame story just to beef it up and then turn him into a generic bad guy which Classic Who did in stories like Timeflight. Only write the Master if you want to do a Master story, not if you want to slap the name onto your own villain to help it sell. 

Meanwhile as to what I actually want LOL. Make the Master a suave, manipulative villain. If you want to make him crazy, make it a bitter, hateful kind of madness, rather than a Joker "I'm craaaaaaazzzzy". Really play on his motivation to gain power over the cosmos in an interesting way. Show the impact he has had on certain species, IE those he tried to conquer but who he made worse, those he turned into monsters, show some who worship him who he can return to over time, some who maybe want revenge etc. Show us how he can pit people against each other, make him extremely predatory in a non sexual way, in terms of preying on people's weaknesses, resentments. Make him the spider that spits poison into people's ears, and have him accompanied by people he has tricked. Hell maybe even have him turn the companion against the Doctor at times. Make him the ultimate smooth operate. 

Have him be utterly consumed with hatred for the Doctor. There is NO affection between them. The time for that has passed as the Master has become a monster. Have them both regularly lose against each other. IE if the Doctor stops the Master from taking over a planet, there is still a huge body count. Have the Master always escape and even taunt the Doctor. Really make it feel like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Also bring back the fact that he has to steal bodies and make him like a demon that thrives on hatred and just will not die. By all means have some resurrection's of the Master go wrong and have him stuck in a decaying, monstrous, freakish state. Make him terrifying.

Finally I'd also really utilise his hypnotic abilities. I'd add scary twists to them. Like for instance maybe the Master can use his hypnosis to make a person experience pain from their past (kind of like Alti, who is the Masters true female counterpart and his soul mate LOL. Ship them, not Hartnell and Delgado.) Or maybe the Master could do something like use his hypnosis to trap someone mentally in a nightmarish state, or perhaps when he controls them they are still awake but can't move and have to see the horrors he makes them carry out, or perhaps he brings out a dark side hidden in their subconscious. Experiment with it and again really make it scary. Do a scene where the companion is at his mercy and he tortures them, by saying " What has the Doctor told you about my powers? That I can control you? Make you do bad things? My power goes a lot deeper than that. I can control your mind in any way I want. I can use it to make you a prisoner in your own body so you'll never move again. I can force you to watch as you slaughter innocent men, women and children. I can reshape it, make you lose yourself, I can trap you in a tiny little box in the corner of your mind living out your worst fears and regrets for the rest of your life." And then have him cause the companion horrible mental pain with just a stare. 

Really play to the characters existing strengths and abilities like body snatching and hypnosis, rather than just throwing it all in the bin like Missy and John Simm.  

Finally as to who I would cast. 

Julian Richings I think would make a great Doctor. 



He would be a very mysterious, sinister, alien, Hartnellesque Doctor who you might not always feel safe with and would really embody the alien authority of the character. 

For his companion meanwhile I'd like Dana DeLorenzo. She played Kelly from Ash Vs Evil Dead and would really be the perfect companion. I've already drawn comparisons between her and Ace. I think her character from AVED, Ace and Faith from Buffy are all pretty much the same type of character. Feisty, brunette in a leather coat, who is more of a tomboy, is bolshy, but vulnerable, husky voice, is extremely scrappy etc. 



I'd also have 0 objection to her having a romance with a male companion either. 

For the Master meanwhile well I often felt Robbie Kay would have been good opposite Julian as the Doctor. Now Robbie Kay began as a child actor lol, so whenever people google him after I suggest him and they see a little boy they understandably think "are you f*cking nuts". (Though believe it or not spin off material did actually have the Master regenerate naturally into a child ffs.) However Robbie is in his late 20s/early 30s now and has continued to act which is why I want him. He has proven he can play a suave, manipulative, slimy villain as well as play an old man in a young man's body as seen with his performance as an evil Peter Pan in Once Upon A Time. He was so good there you believed he was actually Robert Carlyle's abusive dad. 

With this in mind I can see him similarly play a version of the Master opposite Julian Richings Doctor and it being quite a nice contrast. 

For suggesting this on Gallifrey Base after Jodie's first season had aired I was called a disgusting fascist, homophobic dickhead and told my version would never sell because it is too niche. It's funny though because if that were true (it might be I don't know) how is that different to what the show is now? It couldn't be more niche. It's fandom is basically an LGBT only club where people regularly state "why do straight people watch DW." "DW isn't made for straight white men." "The show was created by and for queers." The character is remade to appeal to a tiny section of the audience, with niche subjects like drag acts and musical numbers etc. 

Wouldn't it be better for DW to be a niche show that actually resembled DW, than an aging, out of date, narcissistic, heat magazine loving hack's sexual fantasies (a hack who also has open contempt for the original?)

Are these people DW fans or RTD fans? Self loathing fanboyism is truly cancer. 

[henshin]

Dana DeLorenzo is a great choice for companion.

Fan of hers, are you?

Do you like Amy Winehouse?

[burrunjor]

May 16, 2024 10:06:50 GMT henshin said:

Dana DeLorenzo is a great choice for companion.

Fan of hers, are you?

Do you like Amy Winehouse?

Haha what gave it away? 

To be fair you could say I am living out my fantasy that way, BUT unlike RTD I wouldn't do the following things. 

Do a pervy photo shoot where I'm resting my head on her shoulder and she has to stroke my face sensually. 

Make her wander around in just her underpants for her entire first episode.

Have her grow out of another woman I fancy's private parts like Lucy Lawless. 

Cast her in a role she is completely unsuited for and then use her gender as a shield for my shitty writing. I'm not casting her as the Brigadier LOL. I think she would be a good choice for the companion again as she does have that Sophie Aldred, Eliza Dushku type persona. 
 

[henshin]

Since you mentioned the Brigadier...Jim Broadbent as the Brig.