Okay, I'll get it out of my system: cynical horrible cash-in move.
Why are the BBC even considering this? Past efforts to make Doctor Who into a movie haven't worked. The Peter Cushing movies showed that the episodic format of Who doesn't work when converted to movie form. The Paul McGann movie showed that trying to condense all of the necessary exposition into a movie format doesn't work. Since when is the BBC's commercial arm allowed to undermine the work of the BBC proper?
But never mind that, eh? Here's a chance to grab a big international audience.
Here's a thought, maybe... just maybe... Doctor Who doesn't stand a chance of ever appealing to a big blockbuster movie audience. I don't say that out of snobbery and it isn't meant as an insult. But frankly there is a limited audience for sci-fi as it is. And that audience becomes even more limited if you add "quirky" into the mix. The fact that Doctor Who has such a large audience in Britain is related to the show's history and its place in the nation's heart. In every other country it has been shown in, it remains a cult show. What the McGann movie demonstrated is that you can't give it "popular appeal" without watering it down beyond recognition.
Two things that particularly bug me:
"It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena." What a disrespectful thing to say to everyone involved in the current incarnation of the TV show.
"We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too." And at this point, I can't continue without being disrespectful to Harry Potter fans. So I will stop.
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Date: 2011-11-18 02:18 am (UTC)From:Why are the BBC even considering this? Past efforts to make Doctor Who into a movie haven't worked. The Peter Cushing movies showed that the episodic format of Who doesn't work when converted to movie form. The Paul McGann movie showed that trying to condense all of the necessary exposition into a movie format doesn't work. Since when is the BBC's commercial arm allowed to undermine the work of the BBC proper?
But never mind that, eh? Here's a chance to grab a big international audience.
Here's a thought, maybe... just maybe... Doctor Who doesn't stand a chance of ever appealing to a big blockbuster movie audience. I don't say that out of snobbery and it isn't meant as an insult. But frankly there is a limited audience for sci-fi as it is. And that audience becomes even more limited if you add "quirky" into the mix. The fact that Doctor Who has such a large audience in Britain is related to the show's history and its place in the nation's heart. In every other country it has been shown in, it remains a cult show. What the McGann movie demonstrated is that you can't give it "popular appeal" without watering it down beyond recognition.
Two things that particularly bug me:
"It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena." What a disrespectful thing to say to everyone involved in the current incarnation of the TV show.
"We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too." And at this point, I can't continue without being disrespectful to Harry Potter fans. So I will stop.