6 Reasons Why An American Doctor Who Would Be Terrible

6. The Casting

When any American drama is made, an absolute bumload of cash is pumped into it. So when it comes to casting their leading man or woman, the networks usually tend to play it safe by casting a big name into at least one of the lead roles such as Alan Dale (Neighbours) and Ashley Jensen (Extras) in Ugly Betty, Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs) in the 2008 Life On Mars remake. Meanwhile, the BBC is perfectly happy to take a punt on putting relatively unknown actors in lead roles as Doctor Who itself shows. David Tennant, Matt Smith, Freema Agyeman, and Karen Gillan were all largely unknown when cast in Doctor Who but were incredibly well-received and all saw their popularity skyrocket thanks to their time on Doctor Who. But because Doctor Who isn€™t predicated on how much ad revenue it€™s going to bring in, the casting can be used to bring in new blood, and those who are best suited for the job. In America, that€™s rarely the case since all of the major networks are commercial and a show to needs to wring as much ad revenue out of companies as it can to survive. The initial plans for an American Doctor Who were ample proof of this with Fox€™s top three choices to play the Doctor in the 1996 film being Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, and Harrison Ford, and the supremely miscast Eric Roberts playing the Master. I have no doubt that if an American network did get their hands on Doctor Who, the Doctor would be played by a suitably in vogue actor such as Chris Evans (The Avengers) or Steve Carell (The Office remake). Meanwhile, the Doctor€™s companion would most likely be a generic attractive blonde played by somebody like Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) or Mircea Monroe (Episodes).