How I would bring Doctor Who back!

 

Obligatory What I Would Do as Showrunner Post (Well, everyone else is doing it)

 So, the tenders are in and probably about five or six months from now we will discover who has been handed the keys to the TARDIS and sixty four years of tangled lore, continuity, contradictions, success and failure. Put it that way and you wonder why anyone would bid to take it on! Of course, fans always have plenty of ideas about what they would do with the show even though most of us have no inside knowledge of how to make a tv show other than quotes from promotional interviews. So as a lot of other people have given their outlines of how they would bring Doctor Who back, here’s mine…

 

What fans do have is something many potential bidders won’t- much of the history of the show in our noggins. The kind of knowledge that for many decades made me recognise names like Bernard Holley or Pat Gorman when they appeared in a cast list. Too much knowledge though can be too much of a good thing. I’ve read or watched plenty of online suggestions as to what kind of a show would make great Doctor Who when it comes back. So why not throw my own thoughts in as well? Its not as if the future production team will really pay fandom much mind when its probably less than one percent of a potential audience.

In tandem with the tender invitations I’m keeping my ideas more over arching than getting into too much detail though I will mention vague story ideas as well as naming my choice for the next Doctor because we all have an idea about that. I’m sure, like me, you’ve seen an actor in something and thought; “they would make a great Doctor”. Sundry choices I have made in the past were of course widely off the mark so we never did get to see Lee Ingleby at the  Tardis console and while Sacha Dhawan did end up in the show it was as The Master rather than the Doctor. When fans say “They’d make a good Doctor” though, what do we mean? Wider media choices, especially in the newspaper era always picked comedians many of whom were not even actors. Hardcore fans tend to elect austere choices; `proper` actors who will helm a serious show.

That was the issue with the recent AI episode that’s caused a furore recently. A lot of fans seemed to like it with some comments suggesting it was better than anything in the show’s modern era. Admittedly the `acting` was a little better than Tilly Norwood, but I found it deadly dull, riffing off several old Doctor Who stories yet bringing little of their menace and absolutely none of their charm. The Doctor (let’s remember its not a real person like David Tennant or William Hartnell) was so boringly rendered that he seemed to have no individuality at all. The companion, apart from managing to hold a heavy box of fish with one hand, looked a bit like Sarah Jane Smith but without any actual acting. There was nothing in it I saw – and admittedly I had to turn it off around half way- for the wider public. For the viewer who knows nothing of Doctor Who. It had no real context, it wasn’t really about anything, it didn’t reel you in.

It is telling though how many fans liked it which I say only because every era of Doctor Who has been criticised by fans. Go back to the 70s and you can find old fanzines calling for Tom Baker to go, reviews slamming what are now acknowledged classics. I’ve even heard of fans who thought the show declined after William Harntell left. Yet somehow, they still watch it. Curious that. Do fans prefer to hate the series rather than love it; granted it is easier to write a critical review than one where every other word is “brilliant” or “fantastic”.

Anyway, I’ve diversified so let’s get back to what I would do. I suppose the fundamental thing to know is what audience you are pitching at, as the tender outline mentions. It still refers to a `family audience` though I don’t really know if families all watch stuff together now? I would say a more tangible aim is that the show is about things that a wide audience can find relevant. It’s a difficult line to walk because you don’t want to start producing episodes saying quite obviously something like “pollution is wrong” or “climate change is here” yet rather as they did in the best episodes of both the older and newer series include elements of that kind of material in the scripts. And you want to keep it relevant for people who don’t follow lots of sci-fi shows.

I definitely agree with the post 2005 idea that you need to keep a connection with Earth even on other planets which is why so many adventures involved colonists from a future Earth. It would be tricky to have, say, a Peladon story now unless there were more human characters involved. You have to applaud the 1972 production team for broadcasting scenes where scaly Ice Warriors were talking to a bubbly head in a tank but you couldn;t get away with that nowadays. People would see it as silly and turn it off.

The Tardis, of course, must be there. It’s been the one constant though my preference would be for the interior to steer clear of shiny, futuristic looking  console rooms such as the recent ones. Bear in mind this is an old machine, it’s not been in for a service in forever and it should look untidy, with bits from different eras. I prefer a smaller set, not as poky as the 80s version perhaps but something that feels lived in. I know how much fans hate the wooden console room but I think something along those lines would give a sense of the wonder of the TARDIS. A rickety looking room with faded panelling yet you still get the awesome power of the engines when its in flight.

Choosing the Doctor then. Right now in 2026, easy choice for me is Samuel Blenkin. If you’ve seen Alien Earth you’ll know him as the unhinged, powerful and childish Boy Kavalier. I always think that a good Doctor is an actor who can also play a villain well. The Doctor needs that hint of a dark side.  I’ve seen this actor in a couple of other things and he also has great comedic timing and a warmth that are both essential for the Doctor. Crucially he can play large or small and I really feel that after six high energy Doctors capering about the sets it is high time for a contrast, the same way the fifth Doctor contrasted with the fourth. I would have loved to have seen the likes of Jodie Whitaker or Matt Smith slow down and show other sides of the character but they were rarely allowed to. 

After all that was said in 2005 about how the Doctor should wear clothes and not a costume it didn’t take  too long for the costumes to appear. The Doctor should wear an assortment of random clothes that enable them to blend in, something like an ordinary black jacket, maybe a regular scarf, battered shoes? When you get the sixth Doctor’s multi coloured coat or the fifteenth Doctor’s ensemble of loud showy outfits, it flies against the idea the Doctor should be a more subtle presence. He is rarely a lead from the front figure, more of a behind the scenes operator.

I don’t have a name for an actor who I’d like the companion because I believe this should always be an opportunity to launch a relatively unknown performer. While there’s still some unexplored areas for the Doctor, creating a new companion Iis more difficult because of how many there have been now. A tried and trusted route is to have a contemporary character whose first meeting with the Doctor also acts as a fresh intro for the viewers. The idea of the companion falling in love with the Doctor has been done enough though I wouldn’t be against two companions falling in love only in a more straightforward way than Amy and Rory. 

I wouldn’t show or reference a regeneration at all. Instead have something like the companion wander into the café where everyone is on their phones except for one person reading an old newspaper then the owner’s head explodes and it all kicks off. He’s a duplicate by the way, don’t worry about him. In terms of the companion’s’ inevitable questions I prefer the Doctor to either give vague answers or change the subject. The most acknowledgment I would have would be the companion asking at one point when she’s realised something of what’s going on – “are you an alien?” and the Doctor just smiling or something and saying, “You can trust me though”. No mention of Time Lords, Gallifrey or anything else.

I do like the general format of opening a season with a contemporary story, then historical, then far future. If you look around now, audience are consuming material that would once have been considered `adults only` much earlier so I don’t think it would harm the idea of a `family show` to up the scares. Have that melting face before the title sequence. Make a spooksome episode involving a strange fog enveloping a steam train as scary as you can. As long as the Doctor is there, younger viewers will be reassured. I would like to do one bold outer space episode that I’ve called `Race Around the Sun` just to push the budget because you could do a lower key episode set in London with possessed people or some lurking monsters you hardly see. They might be called the Nightlings. There’d be one set on an old spacestation involving the theft of a very unusual jewel.  Honestly, I am riffing this as I write, nothing more.

Given that I think eight episodes is standard for television scripted drama now, especially something as expensive as Doctor Who so I would make episode seven and eight a single two parter and, yes, this would be the time to bring in the Daleks. But proper Daleks, gliding about, being clever and sneaky with a hidden agenda that only reveals itself in episode eight.

I would always want to use new rather than old enemies unless there’s something  new to do with them. The Zygons or Autons for example can only really be used to tell one story. I wouldn’t being back The Master because I can’t see any new plots you could do with him. I would like to have a recurring human antagonist though, someone who isn’t secretly a Time Lord or a shapeshifter but a nasty piece of human work. With the Ice Warriors I would love them to do an epic story showing them in their full battle glory. Yet I feel each season (yes, I’m naturally assuming my version is renewed for several seasons!) its important to create new monsters and enemies.

I’d like the incidental music to better reflect the content, rather than orchestrating every moment as if it’s the climax of an Avengers movie. For sure there is a place for the triumphant themes or the climactic battle music but the show also needs eerie music, quieter music sometimes.

The title sequence has to reflect all that as well as be something that doesn’t go on too long once you’ve had the cold open (the latter are essential). I do agree that movement of some kind does make them work but perhaps we could be journeying into something foreboding rather than the most colourful galaxies ever! I really like the last few notes of Dominic Glynn’s 1986 version of the theme which include some downbeat chords that sound unsettling. The theme is an odd piece of music and it should sound…odd!

What to do though with all that lore? The Time Lords in particular seem to have been destroyed and come back several times. Are they Cybermen now? I can’t even remember but I think it is best just not to mention them in the present tense. In recent series when the Doctor has said “but they’re all gone now, I’m the only one left” it has proved to be untrue but think of the burden on the character if it were true. I always like Sylvester McCoy’s description of the Doctor as being like the Flying Dutchman and he spoke about the loneliness the character carries. Maybe this is why he needs a companion or two. As for the cliffhanger the next showrunner has been left with, I would imagine it will be quietly forgotten as it only leads backwards rather than forwards. Forwards is the direction Doctor Who needs to go in!