Dimensions in Time..

[The]

This comes from never quite rising above its origins as a children's show and never (during its original run anyway) getting a repectable budget to realize any decent sci-fi concepts. It's a show that, for pretty much its entire run, rises & falls on the charisma of its lead actor. And the fact is that Tom Baker has more charisma in his little finger than Peter Davison, Colin Baker, & Sylvester McCoy put together.

Honestly, if I were the BBC at the time, I would have made Tom Baker a producer and seen what happened.

Honestly, I wouldn't. I would have given Tom his own Variety Show to star Tom Baker as Tom Baker. That's essentially what he wanted, anyway. If I had been in charge of the BBC, I would have given Tom two extra years as The Doctor, to give everyone time to create a proper season-long finale for the 4th Doctor. Then, on the 20th Anniversary movie called "The Five Doctors", I would have Tom bow out to regen into Peter Davison (who by that point should be the age he said he was most comfortable playing the character), give Peter whatever outfit he really wanted, and upped the budget to the most spent on a BBC production of the era. I'd get overseas co-funding to help if necessary, and the new era of Doctor Who would begin.

Peter would have four years (ending in '87), Colin would get five years (ending in '92), and then I would diverge and, as much as I love Sylvester, I'd throw gobs of money at Rowan Atkinson to be The 7th Doctor. He would have the role until 1996, when Paul McGann would be cast as the 8th Doctor. He would go for eight years, and then...2004, I'd call up a man named Stephen Moffat and see if he wanted to take over the show....with the contractual obligation to hire Christopher Eccleston for a three-year contract...

 

[Bones2]

You'd seriously want Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor? Mr Bean? I'm not sure I've ever seen him in a serious acting role.

On the subject of Rowan Atkinson, I think I may either be related to him in a distant way, or he's friends with some distant relatives. He was at some family christening about a million years before I was born. There's a similar story about Bonnie Langford as well.

 

[Bacl]

give Peter whatever outfit he really wanted,

Wait, Davison was unhappy with his outfit? Never heard that one before.

 

[ClayinCA]

He said he wouldn't have minded cricketing gear, but he'd have liked proper cricketing gear, and not a costumey-looking thing that was only based on cricketwear.

Going back to the Tom/Lalla thing, Lalla once told Gary Russell, while making one of the Big Finish audios (Neverland, I think it was), that she'd actually quite like to do one with Tom. Tom's reaction to this, upon being told it by Mr. Russell: "....Ahhh!"

 

[The]

You'd seriously want Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor? Mr Bean? I'm not sure I've ever seen him in a serious acting role.

I don't need to. I saw him deliver the greeting "Yes...how are things?" to the Daleks in Moffat's Curse of the Fatal Death. That panache. That style. That total arrogant confidence and cheeky wink. That was The Doctor. That was all I had to see.

He said he wouldn't have minded cricketing gear, but he'd have liked proper cricketing gear, and not a costumey-looking thing that was only based on cricketwear.

Exactly what I've heard, as well. I think it goes without saying in my master plan that all the actors, especially Colin, would get major input into their attire.

Going back to the Tom/Lalla thing, Lalla once told Gary Russell, while making one of the Big Finish audios (Neverland, I think it was), that she'd actually quite like to do one with Tom. Tom's reaction to this, upon being told it by Mr. Russell: "....Ahhh!"

I had not heard that! That so very Tom, isn't it? I totally believe that if there were enough money in the offering, both would re-team without any sincere hesitation. And how awesome would that be?

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

This comes from never quite rising above its origins as a children's show and never (during its original run anyway) getting a repectable budget to realize any decent sci-fi concepts. It's a show that, for pretty much its entire run, rises & falls on the charisma of its lead actor. And the fact is that Tom Baker has more charisma in his little finger than Peter Davison, Colin Baker, & Sylvester McCoy put together.

Honestly, if I were the BBC at the time, I would have made Tom Baker a producer and seen what happened.

Honestly, I wouldn't. I would have given Tom his own Variety Show to star Tom Baker as Tom Baker. That's essentially what he wanted, anyway.

True enough. I suspect that if Tom Baker had his own variety show, it might end up looking a lot like the sort of freeform stream-of-consciousness comedy that we currently get on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

 

[Starkers]

This comes from never quite rising above its origins as a children's show and never (during its original run anyway) getting a repectable budget to realize any decent sci-fi concepts. It's a show that, for pretty much its entire run, rises & falls on the charisma of its lead actor. And the fact is that Tom Baker has more charisma in his little finger than Peter Davison, Colin Baker, & Sylvester McCoy put together.

Honestly, if I were the BBC at the time, I would have made Tom Baker a producer and seen what happened.

Honestly, I wouldn't. I would have given Tom his own Variety Show to star Tom Baker as Tom Baker. That's essentially what he wanted, anyway. If I had been in charge of the BBC, I would have given Tom two extra years as The Doctor, to give everyone time to create a proper season-long finale for the 4th Doctor. Then, on the 20th Anniversary movie called "The Five Doctors", I would have Tom bow out to regen into Peter Davison (who by that point should be the age he said he was most comfortable playing the character), give Peter whatever outfit he really wanted, and upped the budget to the most spent on a BBC production of the era. I'd get overseas co-funding to help if necessary, and the new era of Doctor Who would begin.

Peter would have four years (ending in '87), Colin would get five years (ending in '92), and then I would diverge and, as much as I love Sylvester, I'd throw gobs of money at Rowan Atkinson to be The 7th Doctor. He would have the role until 1996, when Paul McGann would be cast as the 8th Doctor. He would go for eight years, and then...2004, I'd call up a man named Stephen Moffat and see if he wanted to take over the show....with the contractual obligation to hire Christopher Eccleston for a three-year contract...

Paul McGann for 8 years!? Dear God man, have you gone mad Then again you gave Colin one more year than Peter so obviously you had!

And much as a lot of McCoy's era is somewhat pantominish, I wouldn't want to lose his Doctor. Give Colin three years, then McCoy three then McGann can do a TV movie and one season before he moves on...I somehow doubt Eccs would do three years!

Obviously Eccleston would be the 10th Doc, Tennant the 11th and Matt would now be the 12th and we'd obviously have addressed the regeneration issue by now!

Seriously though I wouldn't want us to have not had any of the 11 Doctors we've had. They all brought something to the table in my opinion.

 

[The]

^Hey, I love Sylvester, as well! Probably a lot more than most fans. But, we're talking about a mythical once-in-a-lifetime chance to rewrite the Who timeline to my personal whims. I'm going for it!

Besides, you wouldn't know the difference. You'd be all happy as kid-Starkers, watching a Doctor Who series that was written and designed with genuine foresight of the actual future. "Colin Baker is awesome!" you'd tell your friends, who were adamant about Rowan being far superior...

 

[Starkers]

But I already think Rowan was a better Doctor than Colin...




And Kid-Starkers, that's so gonna be my rap star name...

 

[The]

But I already think Rowan was a better Doctor than Colin...

Wow, check AND mate. I'll give it to you, I walked blindly into that one...

And Kid-Starkers, that's so gonna be my rap star name...

 

[diankra]

I totally believe that if there were enough money in the offering, both would re-team without any sincere hesitation. And how awesome would that be?

I think you're totally wrong: Tom will only do one if he feels like it. He's did the BBC audios mainly because he wanted to work with Nick Courtney (even though Courtney had to drop out due to illness, and Richard Franklin filled the gap), and he's been saying for ten years or more that he doesn't care about the money, as 'My wife is very rich'.

 

[Timofnine]

I remember watching it 'live' as a kid and loved it at the time.

Rose tinted glasses.

 

[Captain Pike]

I'd swap Sylvester for Rowan Atkinson in a heartbeat..

 

[ClayinCA]

I don't need to. I saw him deliver the greeting "Yes...how are things?" to the Daleks in Moffat's Curse of the Fatal Death. That panache. That style. That total arrogant confidence and cheeky wink. That was The Doctor. That was all I had to see.

Totally agreed. Loved that moment. Then again, this is the same story that had me totally buy, of all people, Hugh Grant as the Doctor for the moment when he tells Julia Sawalha to "look after the universe for me...I've put a lot of work into it."

I totally believe that if there were enough money in the offering, both would re-team without any sincere hesitation. And how awesome would that be?

I think you're totally wrong: Tom will only do one if he feels like it. He's did the BBC audios mainly because he wanted to work with Nick Courtney (even though Courtney had to drop out due to illness, and Richard Franklin filled the gap), and he's been saying for ten years or more that he doesn't care about the money, as 'My wife is very rich'.

Yeah, agreed here too. Gary Russell always said that he didn't believe it was ever a money issue for Tom, just an issue of whether or not Tom felt like doing Doctor Who again. Which sounds like Our Tom, when you think about it.

I remember watching it 'live' as a kid and loved it at the time.

Rose tinted glasses.

What's Billie Piper got to do with this?

 

[OmahaStar]

But I already think Rowan was a better Doctor than Colin...

You're obviously demented. Colin is a better Doctor than everyone you could name. And he'll tell you so himself!