8. Reboot Seasons One Through Four Never Happened
So, lets be honest. We're all really glad that we don't need to have watched every episode of the past 50 years to enjoy Doctor Who. I know I am! I respect it as an institution, and as a writer, I'm in awe of the scope. However, we're also historically really excited when something from the older Doctor Who canon shows up! Sarah Jane was loads of fun with David Tennant's Tenth. The first appearance of the modern Dalek, in the episode of the same name, was a chilling and poignant ode to the master villains of the past, which re-established the angry trash-cans in the Whoverse as top dog, but also finally instated them as a cultural standard of sci-fi villainy in the real world too. So how come, from Season 5 onward, the only nod we've ever gotten to the first four reboot seasons is one holographic homage of Rose and friends? Why is this a problem? We call all agree that the series would start to feel very stale if every season ran like Season Three of the reboot; a cashing in on the established plots and IPs of the past. Sure, it worked to mix up the same old pieces in a new ways in that story arc, but if every season did it, we would never have gotten Professor River Song, archaeologist, would we? New is good in Doctor Who. But only to a point. When new things start stepping on old things, it begins to create a schism in the fan base. There will always be people who doggedly tout Tennant, or Baker, or Hartnell as the definitive Doctor. That isn't the problem. But when the universe begins to feel so far removed from the canon of the Doctors we have known and loved before, all us angry fans will have a common enemy: the current Doctor; in this case, Matt Smith's smarmy sullen Eleven, who treats Amy like Rose 2.0, and who leaves us all wondering if he has some sort of prolonged regeneration amnesia. How can we fix this? Mr. Moffat and his team are trying to take steps in the right direction. The return of the classic villain, The Great Intelligence, and the little fan-service nod to the Doctor having sent them into the future, which is his own past, where he knew he would defeat them, was very classy. We also have the Ice Warriors coming up, and everyone is excited to see them reborn. We even incorporated elements from season 5 onwards well. Madame Vastra is a great evolution of the Silurian's from series 5. But then we have the wasteland of Russel T. Davies...that awkward first four reboot seasons from which nothing now survives. If you want to fix this, all you have to do is give us some cameos. Sure, Rose might not be viable, and you cut off Donna, but there are plenty of old faces that can pop up for new adventures, and there are plenty of old plot lines just waiting to evolve and resolve in this brave new Whoverse of big budget cinematic masterpieces. And of course...there's the 50th anniversary...which is the ultimate opportunity to fix this, particularly if you permit the 50th anniversary to impact the flow and structure of the Whoverse itself, rather than letting it feel like an orphaned Holiday special that occurs "out of time". Indeed, the 50th Anniversary special is an opportunity to reunify and invigorate then entire Whoverse in one swift masterstroke, assuming you are up to the challenge. Which brings us to problem #7.