Doctor Who - On the brink of extinction?

Posted by ScuzzBuster

December 24, 2008

On the eve of the 2008 Christmas Special and on the trail of the official announcement of lead actor David Tennant and Producer Russell T. Davies leaving the series is there a danger on the horizon for the BBC’s flagship show or is it just getting started? There’s always a risk for a program when it loses it’s brains and charisma at the same time. This puts a whole new spin on things as we get our first fresh Who in a while this week.

A Christmas Day staple for the past few years, Doctor Who returns this week with the premier of the first new episode since David Tennant’s announcement that he’s leaving the show after the completion of the current series of specials.

Arguably now the most popular actor to have taken the role over the past 45 years the announcement has shocked few fans, but does bring a bit of a numbing reality to the fact that the show is mortal. Draining the creative force behind the success of the new series and the acting charisma behind the wide appeal of the program at the same time may not be entirely new in the history of Doctor Who, but it should be somewhat worrisome to fans. We’ve lost the producer, the lead actor, and the supporting actress basically in one fell swoop.

Five years ago, Doctor Who seemed lost in time, destined to never again grace our small screens on a regular basis until longtime Who fan Russell T. Davies bartered a deal with the BBC to bring the show back in exchange for bringing his creative talent to the network.

The timing was right, the deal was struck, and the long-suffering fans of the longest running Sci-Fi show in television history were dumbstruck with silly grins from the out-of-the-blue announcement that the show was returning.

The show hit a bump right from the start when the actor cast to play the part, Christopher Eccleston (28 Days, Heroes) announced right at the start of the series that he would step down from the role after one season.
The ace in Davies’ sleeve though was David Tennant, rumored at one point to be Russell’s first choice for the role from the start until other commitments conflicted and Eccleston had his agent pursue an audition for the role.

It’s very likely the reasons for Eccleston’s departure from the show will never be fully known or understood, though somewhere between the grueling schedule of a weekly series compounded with professional differences with the creative team holds some water.
As outstanding as Chris Eccleston was in the role, the popularity of the program skyrocketed after Tennant took over the part. Doctor Who in the UK is as firmly ingrained in the pop culture for the past few decades as Star Trek was in the late 1970s in the United States. Even Brits who don’t watch the show know the lexicon.

But where does this leave the program? The creative engine of the new series along with the popular face of the show all dropping at once? At this point, I believe that the loss of Tennant is a much bigger risk factor than the loss of Davies.
There are several reasons for this, but I think that most fans would agree that the choice of successors for Davies, Stephen Moffat, was brilliant, if not the only logical move.

Davies and Moffat were both childhood fans of the program and Moffat has been responsible for the highest quality and most consistent writing for the show since it’s return. So enamored with the thought of finally getting his long term dream job of producing Doctor Who, Moffat actually had to bow out of a contract with Steven Spielberg working on the upcoming Tin Tin movies to take the job.
Now he has a thankless task in replacing Tennant.

The last time the show was in for this much short term change was almost 30 years ago when Tom Baker, the face of Doctor Who in the 1970s and 80s to US fans, stepped down at the same time John Nathan-Turner took over as producer. The difference between then and now was that we did have one season of overlap from Nathan-Turner taking over as producer and Baker bowing out.

Now we have a year to stew on this. The Christmas Special airing December 25th at 6PM will be the first of four specials that will bring the David Tennant era to a close. No one is sure how or when the big moment will come, though almost definitely in the final special that will air (possibly, but not definitely) on Christmas Day 2009 or in early January 2010.
I personally am incredibly indebted to Russell T. Davies for resurrecting the show, and I agree wholeheartedly with the direction he has taken it in up until the last year, but I do believe that Series 4, which by no means was bad, really started to signal that RTD’s time was up. The entertaining but over-the-top two part finale of Stolen Earth and Journey’s End (see my reviews: Stolen Earth, Journey’s End) was as wacked out as you can get and started to take the show into some directions that probably are best left alone for a while.

What we get in his place is the writer who is responsible for several hours of the best drama, not just Sci-fi drama, on television over the past four years. For my investment in the new series, I’m not sure I can say that it has been the top program on television during that time, UK, US or otherwise, but I certainly would stand behind the assertion that The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances two parter from series one, and The Girl in the Fireplace from series two, all written by Moffat, are absolutely some of the finest pieces of drama I’ve seen on television in the past 4 years and some of the best the show has had to offer in it’s 45 year history.
I’m not into the speculation game as to who is going to take over the lead role in 2010, but I think I can make two predictions with almost 100% certainty:

1. It WILL NOT be a woman. Oh, God. Ever since Tom Baker left the role it has been the best in-joke around to start the “woman” Doctor rumor mill. It’s not going to happen and it never will happen. The audience can stretch the transformation of the lead characters genetic structure into a different appearance, but having a gender controversy leads the show into directions that no one wants it to go, especially a brand new producer taking over the stewardship of one of the most beloved and watched science fiction programs in history.

2. It will not be David Morrisey. For those that haven’t seen the pre-credit teaser for the Christmas Day Special, The Next Doctor, Morrisey appears to be playing some alternative version of the Doctor for some inexplicable reason. First, with a year left to play out for Tennant, it would be excessively anti-climactic to introduce the new actor now. Second, for those that have never entered the world of Big Finish, the audio drama series that has had a long run of Doctor Who dramas over the past decade, you should probably be aware that this teaser (embedded below) is strikingly similar to one of those dramas and would certainly not be the the first adaption or story credit to harken back to the Big Finish Audio Series.

The audio episode, The One Doctor, is actually one of the most outstanding and worthwhile episodes from the Big Finish series. And almost exactly like the The Next Doctor teaser, it involved the Doctor landing on a planet only to find that he is apparently already there…only in the form of an imposter Doctor who travels around with a flimsy screaming companion, fakes some sort of alien threat, then bilks these planets for valuables and cash in exchange for saving them from an alien invasion. The audio The One Doctor is an episode played almost straight for laughs, and is utterly brilliant. It’s a worthwhile listen for you even if I turn out to be dead wrong and the Christmas Special doesn’t turn out to be an adaptation after all.

So all this beating around the bush, do I think that the show is in trouble?
No, it probably isn’t since it’s in Moffatt’s hands, but I don’t think he’s going to take any big casting risks either. I think Tennant has brought a large core of loyal female fans into the fold and I think we’re going to definitely see an under 40 up and coming actor who’s not too hard on the eyes take this thing over. It’ll be interesting if they can keep the cat in the bag for the entire year up until the time the episode where he’s introduced airs, but that seems likely damned impossible these days.

In any case, be sure to catch the Christmas Special on the 25th. No word on a date for the Sci-Fi Channel’s air date for this. With series 5 so far out, I would think that they would pick up the specials over the course of the year, but they may hold out and air them all as part of the series 5 package in early to mid 2010. I don’t think that’s going to be the case, though. The show, at least according to the Sci-Fi Channel, is a valued and proud part of their line-up. I think they would want to get as much new material out there as quickly as the can.

Taking Galactica and Stargate out of the mix, Doctor Who has quickly become one the Sci-Fi channels most successful dramas, so it shouldn’t stay away too long, especially with Galactica gone by spring.
Enjoy the show…and this upcoming year of nasty and unfounded rumors that go with it.