OMG! Doctor Who Cancelled! (NOT!)

[The Badger]

I'm going only on memories here so this might not be entirely accurate.

Back when new Who was first announced, but no one had been cast, RTD gave an interview saying that the companion couldn't be just another screaming girly, twisting her ankle and asking 'what is it Doctor?'. In the post Buffy days a female character would have to be far more pro active, especially if the show was to appeal to a female audience. This interview was shown on Ceefax (the BBC's teletext service) with the headline "'Buffy' type companion for Doctor Who".

The next day a different channel, I think C4, carried an edited version on their teletext pages. The headline here read "RTD wants 'Buffy' for Doctor Who'.

And the next day, a third channel, ITV I'd guess, had an article entitled "Sarah Michelle Geller to play Doctor Who!"

 

[Rarewolf]

The most bizarre "rumor reported as fact" I remember related to Doctor Who was actually perpetrated by the otherwise-trustworthy Doctor Who Magazine. At some point in the very early 1990s I remember DWM ran a story covering a press conference in which some actor no one had ever heard of had been cast as the Doctor. Nothing more was ever said with regards to his.

I remember it. I don't think it was ever reported as serious fact as such, but an actor called David Burton IIRC went around call himself the new Doctor Who, and told the magazine he'd filmed a pilot, called the Monsters Of Ness. He did a one page interview. But I don't think the magazine took him terribly seriously.

 

[Tomalak]

Probably just grateful to fill a few column inches.

This isn't exactly a rumour, but RTD has confirmed that if they hadn't secured the rights to the Daleks with the Nation estate, "Dalek" would have been rewritten for a new alien of the week, and "Bad Wolf" would have seen the Cybermen invading Satellite 5.

 

[diankra]

The most bizarre "rumor reported as fact" I remember related to Doctor Who was actually perpetrated by the otherwise-trustworthy Doctor Who Magazine. At some point in the very early 1990s I remember DWM ran a story covering a press conference in which some actor no one had ever heard of had been cast as the Doctor. Nothing more was ever said with regards to his.

I remember it. I don't think it was ever reported as serious fact as such, but an actor called David Burton IIRC went around call himself the new Doctor Who, and told the magazine he'd filmed a pilot, called the Monsters Of Ness. He did a one page interview. But I don't think the magazine took him terribly seriously.

I believe the story behind that one was that David Burton had been 'cast' as the Doctor - in the sense that John Nathan-Turner's production company Teynsham wanted to pitch for the contract to produce Who, and they'd chosen Burton to play the Doctor, though possibly only in some scenes for a pitch reel.
Going around in a car marked 'The New Doctor Who' on the strength of that was perhaps hyping the facts a bit...

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Ha, considering how much the BBC loves Doctor Who, I'd say it's safe from cancellation for the foreseeable future. Seriously, this may be a cult show in America, but in the UK it's mainstream.

 

[captcalhoun]

did you actually read the thread?

 

[diankra]

Probably just grateful to fill a few column inches.

This isn't exactly a rumour, but RTD has confirmed that if they hadn't secured the rights to the Daleks with the Nation estate, "Dalek" would have been rewritten for a new alien of the week, and "Bad Wolf" would have seen the Cybermen invading Satellite 5.

The 'new alien' in Dalek would have been the Toclaphane (who were just saved up for later use). And it isn't that Dalek would have been rewritten - it WAS rewritten, and then it was changed back (but with good bits from the Mk2 version added in), which meant Rob Shearman spent a lot longer working on it than most writers spend on one 50 minute script...

 

[23skidoo]

Ha, considering how much the BBC loves Doctor Who, I'd say it's safe from cancellation for the foreseeable future. Seriously, this may be a cult show in America, but in the UK it's mainstream.

I needed the laugh! Did you actually read the thread, and most importantly, the title of the thread? Oh well. Actually, I would be tickled to find out if some blog somewhere isn't right now posting that someone at TrekBBS has the scoop that DW has been cancelled! If anyone sees such a thing, please post it here - my life will truly be complete!

In other news, thanks to those who remember the David Burton incident. I was trying to remember who that was. I agree DWM did IIRC treat the news with some skepticism.

I also remember there being some reports that the Canadian animation house Nelvana had been contracted to do an animated Doctor Who series for US Saturday morning TV. That never came to anything, either.

Alex

 

[Tomalak]

The 'new alien' in Dalek would have been the Toclaphane (who were just saved up for later use). And it isn't that Dalek would have been rewritten - it WAS rewritten, and then it was changed back (but with good bits from the Mk2 version added in), which meant Rob Shearman spent a lot longer working on it than most writers spend on one 50 minute script...

That's right, I heard it was the Toclaphane. That would have been interesting I suppose.

I didn't know all that about the Dalek rewrites though. I was more interested in the bit about the Cybermen attacking Satellite 5!

 

[Starkers]

Would have been interesting to see how they'd have explained the Toclafane's back story...have to say I'm not a huge fan, organic matter inside of tin cans...just watered down Daleks/Cybermen IMO.

 

[Count Zero]

I think given their back story, it made sense. After all, the Master wanted to corrupt the humans the Doctor loves so much, and what better way to do that than to make them a bit Dalekish?
After the Time War both the Doctor and the Master would think of the Daleks as their ultimate foe/arch enemy.

 

[diankra]

Would have been interesting to see how they'd have explained the Toclafane's back story...have to say I'm not a huge fan, organic matter inside of tin cans...just watered down Daleks/Cybermen IMO.

I would guess there would have had to have been a bit more set-up explanation of how this lot were the lot who wiped out the Doctor's species - followed by taking the grin off Eccleston's face with the revelation that they were actually the last remnants of humanity.

 

[Starkers]

Ooh that would have been good!

Although how the Doctor would have maintained his love for humanity knowing they wiped the Timelords out is another matter...

 

[The Badger]

I also remember there being some reports that the Canadian animation house Nelvana had been contracted to do an animated Doctor Who series for US Saturday morning TV. That never came to anything, either.

They did come up with some character designs.
http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/tb_gallery.html

We were lucky this never happened.

 

[Starkers]

Well I liked their TARDIS console...but aside from that....could Cybermen look camper? K9 to look less doggy? Doesn't that kinda miss the point?

Lucky escape!

 

[Tomalak]

In fairness the new series Cybermen stomp around in metal thongs.

 

[ParticleMan]

I also remember there being some reports that the Canadian animation house Nelvana had been contracted to do an animated Doctor Who series for US Saturday morning TV. That never came to anything, either.

They did come up with some character designs.
http://www.cbc.ca/planetofthedoctor/tb_gallery.html

We were lucky this never happened.

Yikes...it looks like an animated regeneration of the Doctor would have left him looking like an elderly anime version of Egon from The Real Ghostbusters...and the gigantic question marks on the trenchcoat...eek...

 

[The Badger]

Well I liked their TARDIS console...but aside from that....could Cybermen look camper? K9 to look less doggy? Doesn't that kinda miss the point?

Lucky escape!

AFAIK that wasn't K-9, but rather the Doctor's bag, which carried all his gadgets for him. Perhaps they thought if it looked too doggy, K9's copyright owners would sue.

 

[Starkers]

Well I liked their TARDIS console...but aside from that....could Cybermen look camper? K9 to look less doggy? Doesn't that kinda miss the point?

Lucky escape!

AFAIK that wasn't K-9, but rather the Doctor's bag, which carried all his gadgets for him. Perhaps they thought if it looked too doggy, K9's copyright owners would sue.

The text says new K-9 as doctor's bag!

 

[captcalhoun]

it also says 'less doggy'.

that battle dalek looks fucking shit.