Films/TV that could have been Doctor Who but weren't.

[Rich Watson]

So I was watching Amazon Prime's 'The Rig' recently and found myself agreeing with the people who said it feels like a 'Doctor Who' story where the Doctor never turns up. (Or if you're being unkind, the pre-credits sequence of a episode spread over six boring hours.) Which got me thinking about other things that with few changes could have been DW stories and these were the first one's that sprang to mind.

'Invasion' (1965): This one's a bit of a cheat since it was written by Robert Holmes who "repurposed" parts of it for 'Spearhead from Space'.

'They Came From Beyond Space' (1967): An eccentric scientist who drives an Edwardian roadster foils a low-budget alien invasion in the Home Counties.

'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973): The second of Hammer's Dracula films set in the then present-day has the Count dressing and behaving more like the Master, while Cushing's VanHelsing descendant could easily be changed to Dr. Who with Joanna Lumley as his latest niece.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

 

[Starkers]

In terms of Hammer I'd suggest The Devil Rides Out from 1968, Christopher Lee's Duc de Richleau could easily be the Doctor.

Obviously any Quatermass film (though Nigel Kneale would likely have hated the comparison)

 

[Rich Watson]

A reverse case is Victor Pemberton's "The Slide" which he wrote as a first Doctor story but then turned into a stand-alone series when it was rejected.

 

[Captaindemotion]

A great subject for a thread!

Time After Time, which features DW Unbound Doctor (and guest star in the real show) David Warner could probably be retooled as a Who story with a few tweaks.

 

[Christopher]

I've always felt that Attack the Block would fit perfectly into the Doctor Who universe, albeit the darker, more Torchwoody side. And I felt that even before Jodie Whittaker became the Doctor.

I've also often felt that Blake's 7 could be fit into DW's future history, and I gather there are a couple of novels or audios that imply that or state it outright.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I've also often felt that Blake's 7 could be fit into DW's future history, and I gather there are a couple of novels or audios that imply that or state it outright.

Not only that, but Tom Baker and Gareth Thomas wanted to do a walk-by cameo on either of the shows, but the higher ups nixed the idea. Plus, Terry Nation wanted to use the Daleks as the invading force in "Star One."

 

[Haggis and tatties]

In terms of Hammer I'd suggest The Devil Rides Out from 1968, Christopher Lee's Duc de Richleau could easily be the Doctor.

Obviously any Quatermass film (though Nigel Kneale would likely have hated the comparison)

Quatermass and the pit could have easily been the third Cushing movie, plus it certainly has that film and sound look and sound of the Cushing movies.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Quatermass and the pit could have easily been the third Cushing movie, plus it certainly has that film and sound look and sound of the Cushing movies.

I always think of the Pertwee era as being very much like Quatermass

 

[Sketcher]

Loki always felt like Marvel's answer to Doctor Who, complete with a centuries-old quirky hero with a dark edge and multiple variants.

Ex-Machina could be interesting. Maybe the Doctor's companion is separated from the Doctor and used to conduct a Turing test on a potential AI system, unknowingly unleashing a future robo-army, because it's Who, so you gotta.

 

[Christopher]

Ex-Machina could be interesting. Maybe the Doctor's companion is separated from the Doctor and used to conduct a Turing test on a potential AI system, unknowingly unleashing a future robo-army, because it's Who, so you gotta.

Except that in the director's own opinion, it's misreading Ex Machina to see the robot as the villain.

 

[Sketcher]

Except that in the director's own opinion, it's misreading Ex Machina to see the robot as the villain.

Wouldn't be Who without a mad scientist kidnapping companions.

 

[Lonemagpie]

'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973): The second of Hammer's Dracula films set in the then present-day has the Count dressing and behaving more like the Master, while Cushing's VanHelsing descendant could easily be changed to Dr. Who with Joanna Lumley as his latest niece.

Written by Don Houghton, who previously wrote Inferno and The Mind Of Evil for Pertwee-era Who...

 

[Jayson1]

During the Chibnall era I would say Legends of Tomorrow was actually the best Doctor Who on at the time.

 

[Jedman67]

The Kirkkit War from Book 3 of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy was originally written as a spec script for Doctor Who by Douglas Adams, and then it was repurposed into Life, The Universe, and Everything.

 

[Christopher]

The Kirkkit War from Book 3 of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy was originally written as a spec script for Doctor Who by Douglas Adams, and then it was repurposed into Life, The Universe, and Everything.

And Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency incorporated much of the plot of "Shada" and elements from "City of Death."

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

With Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant (at first) (also Sophie Aldred, Louise Jameson, Caroline John, Geoffrey Beavers, Nic Briggs, Michael Wisher and David Troughton), The Stranger (especially the first 3 movies) always felt to me like the Doctor really exiled on Earth (without a TARDIS or his memories).

Clearly it was a kinda-sorta knockoff of DW, so one could consider it part of the continuity if they wanted to

 

[Rich Watson]

Just realised I totally forgot about "Lifeforce" which is a straight up UNIT story albeit with added nudity.

 

[Starkers]

Good call, with Frank Finlay as the Doctor (although he dies) and Peter Firth as the Brigadier!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

About ten years at Shore Leave, a media sci-fi convention held annually in Baltimore, I moderated a panel along these lines -- what films and television can you add the Doctor to and it works, and what characters from films and television would work as companions? It was a fun hour, but I don't really remember what we talked about.

I can tell you that it sprang from two things. One, I read Edmund Morris' The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and the portrait Morris painted of the teenage TR was so captivating that I thought he'd be a great companion. And two, watching The Tudors, I felt like Sarah Bolger's Princess Mary would have kicked all sorts of butt as a companion to the tenth Doctor.

Event Horizon should have had the eighth Doctor in it.

I like to think John Hurt's H.R. Hadden in Contact is actually the War Doctor, and he's there to guide Ellie for unknown reasons.

I also view The Mouse That Roared as a first Doctor pure historical, with the first Doctor pretending to be one of the Grand Fenwick guards to ensure that Tully Bascomb does what he's supposed to do -- get the Q-Bomb from the Americans before they learn it's a dud.

ETA: Gerry and the Pacemakers' film Ferry Cross the Mersey. It's an early Lis Sladen role, when she was still in drama school, and I like to think she's actually playing a pre-UNIT Sarah Jane Smith.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Event Horizon should have had the eighth Doctor in it.

I've often expressed my dismay on how that film went from fascinating sci-fi parable to straight-up horror (yeah, I know, the set-up was there)...but I do think you're right about that. Feels like a Divergent Universe story, perhaps?

I like to think John Hurt's H.R. Hadden in Contact is actually the War Doctor, and he's there to guide Ellie for unknown reasons.

Oh, I like that idea very much. I loved that film and the novel, too. I definitely could see that working.