With the departure of Matt Smith as the Doctor regenerates, the series opens itself up for a regeneration itself, reshaping and reinventing itself to match the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, much as the original series changed to match the characterization of each new Doctor in past. Fans of the original series will recall many such experiments as each transition of Time Lord to the role, whether it was stranding the series on Earth under Pertwee's first years, series-long arcs like the Key to Time saga under Tom Baker, or even the testing of forty-five minute episodes under Colin Baker. Rather than taking a "The Old Ways Were Best" look, we can instead move into newer and better directions with the greater investment in the show. This show about a mad scientist traveling time and space in a box has always been, quite appropriately, an experiment. Right from the pilot, the show was a risk as science fiction, and then it took risks by deviating from plan with "the Daleks," and then into a claustrophobic, cerebral story with "Edge of Destruction." Even still, experimentation breeds novelty, and novelty breeds excitement. Here are some suggestions that will produce a novel, high-quality show.
Michael Marcus is a game designer, author, and mad scientist living in Hamtramck, Michigan; his current project list include a series of comic short-stories collectively called "One-Punch," a book on hypnosis and language called "The Prometheus Codex," a collaborative game project called "Art War," and a fun spy story called "The Adventures of Jack Uzi" at http://tinyurl.com/JackUziChannel (for those interested).
