DR Who To Be More Science Fiction Orientated
Source SciFiPulse
11 January 2004
In September of 2003 plans were announced to revive the UK's Premier Science Fiction series Dr Who. However nothing was said as to what kind of direction the newly revised version would be taking. In issue 113 of Dreamwatch magazine producer Russell T. Davies gave some insight about his plans to bring Dr Who into the 21st Century.
"The greatest change is to make it a Science Fiction series written now," revealed Davies. "It will smack of 2005 - that's the important thing."
Davies who attended his first official production meetings back in December has already met the key production team, and plans have been laid out on the table. One thing that has been agreed on is that the new series will comprise of 13 episodes a year, each lasting 45 minutes in length. Most episodes will be stand alone stories. "13 episodes, yes - though anything can change," notes the producer. "We're still debating the number of two parters. I think it'll be three two parters. That's the ideal pattern, but budgets and schedules might change this."
Much speculation has been made by fans as to which actor will portray the 9th incarnation of the Dr. Two fan favourites are Anthony Stewart Head who is best known for his role as watcher Giles in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Another firm favourite is actor Richard E. Grant who should be well known to genre fans for his role in the movie 'Warlock' in which he portrayed the witch hunter who was sent to track down the Warlock. Davies has confirmed that the actor who will be portraying the 9th Dr has not yet been chosen, however he does admit that he finds a lot of the fan speculation somewhat amusing.
"The casting stuff is very funny," enthuses Davies. "Though slowly, it's driving us mad - all of us on the team are being driven mad by taxi drivers asking for inside info! I've started pretending I'm an accountant. But really, we just ignore all that - which doesn't take much effort, it's all slender stuff, and therefore easily jettisoned.
"The amount of coverage isn't a surprise, but the goodwill is," he notes. "The show seems to have gathered a bit of a glow. That's nice to see."
One thing that Davies is mulling over is style. He is looking to make the new Dr Who series with a different spin. "As with anything I've ever done, each individual story will demand its own style," he explains. "If it's scary, it'll be scary. If the story's funny, it'll be a funny show. Of course, at times, that'll correspond with certain eras of the show's past - anything scary is going to be called 'Hinchcliffe'," he quips, referring to the Gothic horror era of producer Phillip Hinchcliffe. "And what a fine ancestry that is. But really, we'll just be calling it 'scary'."
At present Davies is not concerned with making the new show accessible to the existing Dr Who fan base, he only has one concern. "The only challenge is to make it good," he says. "That's the only standard I can measure and uphold. And I genuinely believe that good material attracts good audiences.
"If I were to spend my entire time wondering is X, Y and Z will like the script, then I'd be a slave to X, Y and Z. And believe me, I'm not remotely enslaved."
Pre production on the new series of DR who is presently underway and Davies
is hoping that the new series will premier at some point in early 2005, however
this could change given the Networks schedules and budgetary issues. What
has been revealed is that the Dr's new assistant will be called rose, and
is described as more than a match for the Dr in both brains and her contributions
to the plot.