Doctor Who- The Movie!!!

[timelord280290]

David Tennant is currently in talks about a possible Doctor Who Movie deal. The media reports that the bbc is considering the idea.

Could this be the next logical step forward in both David Tennants career and Doctor Who's popularity?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1668397.ece

[Alex]

I don't think there's any need for a movie to be honest, other than that it might increase the US audience more. The season finale's have been pretty intensive action / special effects wise, and other than it looking a little more impressive due to the budget, I can't imagine it benefitting from being on the big screen.

Still, as long as we had the usual series, I wouldn't be against a cinema vs., obviously, but it it were to impact on the amount of episodes in series 5 (or 6, etc), than I wouldn't be so happy about it.

[Larry]

I . The season finale's have been pretty intensive action / special effects wise, and other than it looking a little more impressive due to the budget, I can't imagine it benefitting from being on the big screen.
.

I think that would be the major stumbling block any movie made is going to cost probably 10 times what the BBC spend on each series and the BBC cetainly won't be able to embark on such a project on their own.

[WhiteCrow]

I think that would be the major stumbling block any movie made is going to cost probably 10 times what the BBC spend on each series and the BBC cetainly won't be able to embark on such a project on their own.

It would be hard to justify taking the license fee from the UK TV viewers to produce a movie which I'm guessing is ultimately aimed at cinemas. That would be like Government taxing travel by car under the title of "improving the countries travel infrastructure", then spending the money on schools instead.

[Si Hunt]

Well the BBC wouldn't pay for it all! Can you imagine? "We can cover the honey wagon and some tent pegs". There would be some kind of co-financing deal.

Movie's are usually the death toll of any ongoing TV series because (i) they're never as good because more money doesn't logically equal more entertaining and (ii) production and financing of a movie often disrupts the TV series until the franchise dies through neglect anyway (e.g Red Dwarf). So I'm against this, on the grounds that Doctor Who is good enough as a TV show and no 2 hour movie is going to be worth losing a whole TV series for a year or, at worst, forever.

Si.

[timelord280290]

I totally agree with everyones thoughts, maybe a movie at this point in time would harm the doctor who series, but do you think a film version would be a better idea than next years special as a rest for the series. Its just an idea not my opinion!

[Dirk Gently]

Personally, no, I don't think a movie would be better than the proposed specials. Because there is more hours worth of Doctor Who in the specials than a movie would contain.

[Andrew Curnow]

I agree - and also, to be honest, I just don't think Doctor Who IS feature film material really. It fits perfectly on the small screen, I don't think that slightly-quirky, unpredictable, improvisational style would suit a big-budget movie.

[Si Hunt]

Why is a movie always seen as "better" than a TV series? In truth it's all just about raking in the money. You'd like to believe that the Beeb will never be tempted to sell Doctor Who out to Movieworld, but it wouldn't be the first time the series has faded away because the Good Old Beeb got a sniff of megabucks...

Si.

[timelord280290]

But maybe a movie version of the show is perfect to explore the events of the Time War, RTD himself said it would be too HUGE to fit into a series. Im not saying i am supporting the movie idea but it would defend their intentions!

[Captain Tancredi]

The other thing with a big-budget movie is that it's very all-or-nothing; either it succeeds or it fails, so there's a lot riding on that one story and by extension on the script, direction, casting and so on. It's in nobody's interests at the moment to have a Who movie with the potential to flop and take the brand with it.

[timelord280290]

[QUOTE=Captain Tancredi;131629]The other thing with a big-budget movie is that it's very all-or-nothing.QUOTE]

If its a success then it would do absolute wonders for Doctor Who, just imagine it popularity if that was the case. If it was a failure, would it do damage to the small screen Who???

[Dirk Gently]

Yes it would damage small screen Who. Just look what happened to the X-files. Why take a chance of a failure on the silver screen when its a big success on TV. It makes no sense in any way.

[timelord280290]

Yes it would damage small screen Who. Just look what happened to the X-files. Why take a chance of a failure on the silver screen when its a big success on TV. It makes no sense in any way.

I agree, its just not worth it

[Captain Tancredi]

If you look at the Star Trek films, they survived for about 15 years by making a good film followed by an average one which still had enough of the regular characters to keep the love going until the next (good) film. Crucially Trek has a built-in fanbase in the US which Who hasn't, however- Paramount could make Trek films in the knowledge that their bottom line was covered by hardcore fans who'd fill cinemas to watch anything with the Trek name on it (and hence the mercy killing of Enterprise when it threatened to damage the brand). Who doesn't have that, and would have to work for the same audience.

[Dirk Gently]

Exactly. Who's fanbase in no bigger (IMO) than the lowest viewing figure for the new series.

[Pip Madeley]

Who's hardcore fanbase probably doesn't amount to more than 20,000 people in the UK, IMO.

[timelord280290]

Who's hardcore fanbase probably doesn't amount to more than 20,000 people in the UK, IMO.

I think that figure was probably correct during the McCoy years but I think now you can probably add another zero to that number. I mean, how much more evidence do we need that Who is now a majorly massive success which is generating new fans daily? We have new series Who achieving huge ratings success, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, the dvds are constantly in the top ten charts, Hugo awards, the various magazines, the book ranges, the merchandise and toy lines whose only main opposition seems to be Star Wars merchandise, unlimited rice pudding etc... etc...

Now that is hardcore!!!

[Logo Polish]

I don't think the sales figures for the DVDs are quite as high as 200,000.

[timelord280290]

I don't think the sales figures for the DVDs are quite as high as 200,000.

I wasn't talking about the DVD sales figures, i was talking about the UK hardcore fanbase.

[Pip Madeley]

But hardcore fans are the sort of people who buy the Classic Series DVDs and post on message boards. Look at The Doctor Who Forum (formerly OG), they have 29,311 active members and I'll bet nearly a third of those are non-British.

[timelord280290]

Yea but the Doctor Who forum is just one forum of many, I know quite a few fans whom i would consider life long Doctor Who fans that buy all of the DVDs and as much merchandise as they can afford but dont have the time to post on message boards.

[Logo Polish]

I wasn't talking about the DVD sales figures, i was talking about the UK hardcore fanbase.

If the people you know who are "life long Doctor Who fans that buy all of the DVDs and as much merchandise as they can afford", and there are less than 200,000 buying this merchandise, that suggests the hardcore fanbase is less than that figure.

[Dino]

I don't think this film is ever going to get off the ground. We've been here before. Lunches,meetings,lunches,treatments,lunches,Speilb erg,lunches,meetings,expenses expenses expenses expenses Liam Neeson.
It's a Godsend for showbiz gossip columnists but for the rest of us...

[Carol Baynes]

I don't think the sales figures for the DVDs are quite as high as 200,000.

Those would be those DVDs I don't buy very often then.

Be careful what data you use to quantify fandom- we're all very different, as PS shows.