Doctor Who: 10 Ways An American Reboot Could Work

doctor who america American Doctor Who. It€™s wrong, isn€™t it? Like a French James Bond movie, or a feel-good episode of EastEnders. And the 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie€”with its wrong-headed, continuity-mired narrative priorities and determination to be generic action fodder€”is hardly an encouraging precedent. Is it really though? What about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Frasier, Community€”all American-accented, but British-influenced? The Office has proved the British flavour needn€™t be lost in an American setting. And most recently, Elementary has surprised everyone by being quite distinct from Sherlock, and quite good. And for all the terrible scripting decisions, Who TV movie writer Matthew Jacobs, executive producer Philip Segal and the fifty suits from Fox and BBC Worldwide gave us a brilliant Doctor in McGann€”who owned the role with just 50 minutes of screen time, and that many of us would like to see back in action. So, herewith, ten reasons it just might work €

10. The Time Is Right

matt-smith-doctor-who-bow-tie Audiences are now more comfortable than ever with new takes on familiar ideas. The Andrew Garfield-starring Spider-Man was successful despite being largely the same story Sam Raimi told 10 years earlier. Provided you get the right people, your take will get the benefit of the doubt. With no Star Trek series in production, there€™s a gap in US science fiction that the British Doctor Who is only partially filling. Plus, Doctor Who is a known quantity in America these days. We€™re a long way from Eric Roberts thinking the Master was a black blob. There are many American writers and actors who get the series and are on its wavelength€”when Steven Spielberg says €œThe world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who€ (as he told Steven Moffat when the latter had to leave The Adventures of Tintin (2011) to launch Matt Smith€™s Doctor), you€™re surely on to a winner.
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Hamish Crawford writes fiction more easily than fact. His first volume of short fiction, “A Madhouse, Only With More Elegant Jackets”, was published in 2011 from First Edition Publishing. He has an English degree from the University of Calgary and a Screenwriting M.A. from the University of Westminster, which leaves little space on the wall for his several PhD. rejection letters. His stories and articles have appeared in such publications as NoD and the Cult Britannia website (www.cultbritannia.co.uk). In September he will be speaking at a Doctor Who 50th anniversary conference in Hertfordsire. The owner of far more hats than heads, Hamish currently lives in Canada, and is disappointed that the preceding biography contains so few factual errors. Visit his website: http://hamish-crawford.weebly.com