What if it was a reboot/reimagining?

[Heeroyuy]

Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, James Bond, and to a degree the new Trek film have all had their continuity altered or changed, or given a fresh POV. However Doctor Who, like Star Trek TNG before it, is a continuation of the original series, although like with TNG it's clear somethings have changed since then (TNG-the peace with the Klingons, for instance, and new technology such as the holodeck, while WHO of course had the time war). It's obvious it's still in the same continuity though-Sarah Jane, for instance, and various other elements such as returning villains plus the ocassional continuity nod to the classic fans ("Dr.Jaime McCrimmon" for example, Captain Jack being a "Time Agent" and various other references). The only element I can think that's really changed is WHO's vision of the future, but even that was inconsistent in the classic series (How many Atlantises, Loch Ness Monsters, and end-of-the world events are there?) The novel writers attempted to make a coherent timeline for WHO, but even that was frought with problems.

However, what if WHO had decided to start from scratch? This was apparentally a concept they were thinking about for the TV movie over a decade ago, with some kind of mess about Borusa (The Doctor's time lord teacher from various time lordcentric serials in the classic series) being the Doctor's father and companion or some weird stuff like that, but ultiametly that too was dropped in favor of continuity with the classic series by including Sylvestor McCoy.

 

[captcalhoun]

there were several aborted attempts at rebooting it, before and after the '96 movie.

the Cybermen were supposed to become more 'pirate' and be called 'Cybes' in one...

 

[Jamee999]

Pirate cybermen? I think my brain just exploded because of too much awesome.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Why bother? The regenerations take care of all that. There is nothing they're really obligated to do because of the continuity. If anything the new series has laid down more problems for future series than what came before it.

 

[Karnbeln]

I agree with Mr. Adventure. The difference between Doctor Who and all those other shows is they can change the lead, the Doctor's personality, the Doctor's companion, the key enemies, and the look of the Tardis interior all within the confines of the show itself. The time travel aspect also makes continuity more fluid (you don't have to worry whether or not something should have happened with the Daleks yet when Daleks can travel through time, and, of course, timey-wimey stuff occurs), and the overall feel of the show makes you focus on the show on a more episodic basis, so it's easier to accept changes to the overall show.

To answer the OP's question, though, I'd focus more on the Doctor's Gallifreyan origins. The first time around, the Doctor's origin was shrouded in mystery, and we learned it piece by piece (or, as the writers thought it up). We aren't going to forget it all if a reboot occurs, so we might as well drop the mystery angle and search for more answers (although that kind of removes the whole concept behind the series's title).

 

[Mr Light]

I'm very happy with the current series, but if they did do a reboot I probably would have kept Gallifrey alive and the Doctor permanently on the run from his brethren. The Time War is a truly great storyline though!