The Doctor Who marketing team sure know how to keep their brand in the public eye. Season 3 finished weeks ago, but the show refuses to go away! Every day we're confronted with casting rumours and leaks from the set of 2007's Christmas Special.
I dearly love Doctor Who, but even I think it's overkill.
In just over a month we've had the James Nesbitt-to-replace-David-Tennant rumour, the Woody Allen as baddie rumour, the Kylie Minogue appearance (confirmed) and persistance that Ben Kingsley will play Dalek creator Davros in season 4, all mixed with very early promotion for spin-off Torchwood. The long-awaited Sarah Jane Adventures website has even materialized!
So why not add 2007's Children In Need telethon to the mix? A few years ago, Russell T. Davies wrote a short scene that bridged a gap between season 1 and the 2005 Christmas specal, featuring the newly-regenerated Doctor and Rose. Amazingly, it wasn't a disposable piece of guff, but a genuinely fun "missing scene" that fans lapped up as an appetizer for the Christmas special that year.
This year, Steven Moffat will be writing a short Doctor Who story for November's Children In Need, that will find David Tennant's Tenth Doctor catching up with his Fifth incarnation, played by Peter Davison. That's right, for the first time since 1983's The Five Doctors, The Doctor will share the screen with himself!
I can already hear fan's heartbeats thumping a little quicker. A multi-Doctor story is a Doctor Who-ism still untapped by the revived series, so it should be a lot of fun. But... I can't help think it's an idea wasted as Children In Need filler material, even if it's shown in bitesize chunks that equal a 20-minute episode (a la Moffat's The Curse Of Fatal Death for Comic Relief 1999).
Surely it would work better as a two-part episode in season 4, or even a Christmas special for 2008? And why stop with Peter Davison? Sylvester McCoy is spritely enough to return to the show and hardcore fans are desperate to see Paul McGann return as the Eighth Doctor, following his one appearance in 1996's TV Movie.
Fans have assumed McGann's Doctor was the one responsible for the Time War that has informed the new series since its 2005 debut, so it would be a great opportunity to expand on that, too. New fans would also get a kick from seeing Christopher Ecclestone's Ninth Doctor partner with his replacement Tennant...
If they wanted to get truly geeky, a vocal appearance from Tom Baker would send Whovians into spasms. It's just a shame Baker couldn't appear on-screen, as he's so physically changed from his 70s heyday -- likewise Colin Baker from his 80s tenure.
I'm sure the Davison-Tennant meeting will be great fun, particularly with Moffat penning the script. I was born in 1979, so Peter Davison was my first Doctor and, consequently, he's fixed in my mind as the defining interpretation... although I'll admit Tom Baker's take is the most iconic.
My first memory of crying at something on TV was when Davison's Doctor died and regenerated (I was five, okay?), so the idea of seeing Davison and Tennant together in the TARDIS gives me great delight... even if it's just plugging gaps in a BBC telethon.
I think they're missing a huge opportunity with the multi-Doctor concept, don't you?
I dearly love Doctor Who, but even I think it's overkill.
In just over a month we've had the James Nesbitt-to-replace-David-Tennant rumour, the Woody Allen as baddie rumour, the Kylie Minogue appearance (confirmed) and persistance that Ben Kingsley will play Dalek creator Davros in season 4, all mixed with very early promotion for spin-off Torchwood. The long-awaited Sarah Jane Adventures website has even materialized!
So why not add 2007's Children In Need telethon to the mix? A few years ago, Russell T. Davies wrote a short scene that bridged a gap between season 1 and the 2005 Christmas specal, featuring the newly-regenerated Doctor and Rose. Amazingly, it wasn't a disposable piece of guff, but a genuinely fun "missing scene" that fans lapped up as an appetizer for the Christmas special that year.
This year, Steven Moffat will be writing a short Doctor Who story for November's Children In Need, that will find David Tennant's Tenth Doctor catching up with his Fifth incarnation, played by Peter Davison. That's right, for the first time since 1983's The Five Doctors, The Doctor will share the screen with himself!
I can already hear fan's heartbeats thumping a little quicker. A multi-Doctor story is a Doctor Who-ism still untapped by the revived series, so it should be a lot of fun. But... I can't help think it's an idea wasted as Children In Need filler material, even if it's shown in bitesize chunks that equal a 20-minute episode (a la Moffat's The Curse Of Fatal Death for Comic Relief 1999).
Surely it would work better as a two-part episode in season 4, or even a Christmas special for 2008? And why stop with Peter Davison? Sylvester McCoy is spritely enough to return to the show and hardcore fans are desperate to see Paul McGann return as the Eighth Doctor, following his one appearance in 1996's TV Movie.
Fans have assumed McGann's Doctor was the one responsible for the Time War that has informed the new series since its 2005 debut, so it would be a great opportunity to expand on that, too. New fans would also get a kick from seeing Christopher Ecclestone's Ninth Doctor partner with his replacement Tennant...
If they wanted to get truly geeky, a vocal appearance from Tom Baker would send Whovians into spasms. It's just a shame Baker couldn't appear on-screen, as he's so physically changed from his 70s heyday -- likewise Colin Baker from his 80s tenure.
I'm sure the Davison-Tennant meeting will be great fun, particularly with Moffat penning the script. I was born in 1979, so Peter Davison was my first Doctor and, consequently, he's fixed in my mind as the defining interpretation... although I'll admit Tom Baker's take is the most iconic.
My first memory of crying at something on TV was when Davison's Doctor died and regenerated (I was five, okay?), so the idea of seeing Davison and Tennant together in the TARDIS gives me great delight... even if it's just plugging gaps in a BBC telethon.
I think they're missing a huge opportunity with the multi-Doctor concept, don't you?
