Who will return for the 50th anniversary?
daveyboy7472
Posts: 16,416 Forum Member
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Okay, I know, it's three years away, but I was just watching an old thread on Paul McGann and was wondering if he would ever come back for a 50th anniversary special. Then I thought wider and wondered if all of the surviving Doctors would come back? It's great we have this device established in Time Crash that two Doctors in the same point in time ages the elder Doctor, so Tom Baker could easily come back looking thirty years older! Or would he do a 'Five Doctors' and refuse again? Would Paul McGann return? I hope so! Who do you all think would and wouldn't return for a 50th anniversary special(assuming there will be one!)
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I wonder if it might not be interesting to tell a story through the eyes of the companions that are still with us instead.
The 50th anniversary is a one time only deal. I would be incredibly disapointed if we didnt get a story similar to five doctors with the remaining living actors in the story.
Not just some cameo but a full role. Looking at the next anniversary will be 15 years later and I just couldnt see both Bakers , McCoy appearing in them. I dont think Tom will be around in 18 years time as I believe hes in his 70s now I think.
Just an idea
I agree with you on that. If Tom Baker doesn't return for the 50th anniversary, I think it will be unlikely he'll be seen in the role again. Even if he did a small Dimensions In Time sort of cameo(but obviously better!) it'll be something. Problem is there is you have to accomodate for potentially 8 Doctors so no-one would have a massive role except the incumbent Doctor, who I assume will still be Matt Smith by then. I really hope Paul McGann returns, it's gutting he wasn't asked back for the New Series. The only Doctor I'm not sure who would come back is Christopher Ecclestone, since he was so quick to vacate the role, would he want to come back???????
How about having a different past Doctor partnered with the current one in each story of that season? Seven stories over ten episodes (McGann, Tom and one of the others-probably *sigh* Tennant-could get a two parter), then a three parter which would conclude the arc with cameos from all of them and maybe film inserts of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee...
- a story where the 4th Doctor is taken out of his time stream by an enemy, using footage from Shada and this somehow causes the following incarnations to age rapidly as one by one they die off until 11 saves the day (or 12 if Matt has moved on by then)
- a Star Trek style ' Trials and Tribulations" episode where the current Doctor must protect his past by hanging around unseen by his previous incarnations , in the background of previous adventures.
-new animated stories for each incarnation , with the best mimics providing the audio for Doctors 1-3
- a series of BBC 4 Dramas based around the creation and axing of the original series. Featuring former Doctor actors and their companions playing BBC execs and production staff from the early 60's and late 80's.
- a big budget computer game centered around the Time War. You get to solve puzzles as the Doctor or fight in the battles as The Master. Perhaps they could mirror the Star Wars battlefield games , where you can choose to fight for either side. Play as the Daleks and your mission is to hunt down the Doctor ,if you kill a certain incarnation , he regenerates and you get to kill him again until his life cycle is up:D
You are making me feel real old! Dad was working on Doctor Who the year before I was born as well as the year I was born - is it really 50 years (that would also be 47 years since he took me to Elstree and see the Daleks in real life)
I like that idea, that could work, but another idea is how about The Doctor forced to go backwards in his own life cycle and he solves the problem before as he gets to Tom Baker, thus having not to worry about the first three Doctors!:D
And Paul, you have my sympathy! Lol!
I was slightly joking about that last thread! Lol! You do raise a good point though, how DO you accomodate the first three Doctors in a 50th anniversary story? Recast them like Richard Hurndall in The Five Doctors perhaps? Hopefully not the spinny head malarkey of The Dimensions In Time?!(As Pertwee might say Good Grief! :eek:) As I said before, accomodating 8 surviving Doctors is problematic enough, how the hell do you do Eleven(or maybe even 12?) Who Knows...no pun intended!
There's another long-time fan who agrees with you - Steven Moffat. He's also pointed out that multi-Doctor stories don't tend to be terribly popular.
A multi-Doctor story is really limited to Smith, Tennant and the 12th Doctor if Smith is no longer in the role. Eccleston isn't coming back for something as self-indulgent as a multi-Doctor special, and Paul McGann wouldn't bring in a single viewer who isn't going to watch anyway. The other Doctors are simply too old. FAR, FAR too old.
A possibility for a multi-Doctor story is for this to be 11's regeneration story. Not trying to kill him off or anything, but the timing of the anniversary would be after 4 series, so quite a good run. I'm thinking not the typical regeneration, but one that happens mid story and the new Doctor carries on and defeats the enemy. So a normal 4th series for Smith ending in June, and a big Christmas special (potentially two parts) over Christmas to celebrate the 50th, followed by series 10 in the spring.
I know that of course the actual anniversary is 23rd November (and nicely enough, it's a Saturday in 2013!), but I don't see the BBC wanting a Wholess Christmas, and a month is too long between parts of a two-parter. The actual anniversary date can be celebrated with a big documentary featuring all the living Doctors who'll participate and/or a non-canonical Children in Need special that will feature all living Doctors willing to participate that will be played for laughs and/or nostalgia where it won't matter that the fourth Doctor's somehow managed to age 38 years since his regeneration.
Oh, look. Another pointless dig at Paul McGann from the man who never passes up an opportunity to have a pointless dig at Paul McGann. What a surprise. :rolleyes:
The fact that people keep on suggesting bringing him back seems to indicate that it would indeed bring in a few viewers, in fact. And the others are all still working.
I like the idea of it being an Eleventh Doctor regeneration story too. It could work as a three-parter in the same way that Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords did. I do think that multi-Doctor stories are a bit self-indulgent, and agree with what Steven Moffat says, but I believe that by 2013 he might have found the right idea for a good story.
You could probably partner the Eighth Doctor with Martha, Nine with Rose, Ten with Donna and Eleven with Amy (if she's still around by then). Have Jack and Sarah Jane work together on Earth to bring them together, and do something whereby Nine warns Eight about the future before he leaves, Ten having a nice affair, where he gets a happier send-off than his own regeneration, and of course Eleven regrettably turning into Twelve.
Also, "The Four Doctors" is about the only story title which is feasible now!
I agree! I really liked Paul McGann's Doctor and I was gutted he didn't get a series of his own. As I've already said, I think he should have been allowed to come back for the new series, don't know why he wasn't asked. As for the 50th anniversary, I think he'd come back if asked, from what I've seen or heard it sems it's a possibility.:D
I think that for viewers of the new series, this might be confusing. Seeing a new Doctor is one thing, but a new companion too? I don't think so. They at least know who the Doctor is, whatever his incarnation, but they wouldn't know much of Grace Holloway, if they were to even use her.
No, but a lot of people listen to the radio stories wth McGann on BBC7, so they'd know Lucie Miller or Charley Pollard. The eighth Doctor has had several companions, not just Grace.
True, but I still don't think it would work for just a one-off. Maybe though.
I think many who knew the eighth Doctor would have heard those companions on the radio, and those who hadn't would realise this was simply a companion we hadn't seen on TV before. It just strikes me as rather odd that he'd be unaccompanied or partnered with another Doctor's companion.
The fact that a few people on an internet forum (one of whom makes his loathing for the show plain in every post) want a McGann appearance means little. Most, if not all of them are hard-core viewers who'd never miss an episode. The list of hard-core nutters who've been boycotting since 2005 because McGann wasn't shown again is so small as to be effectively non-existent. So no, bringing back McGann wouldn't bring in a single additional viewer.
He wasn't brought back because they didn't want to confuse viewers by starting with a regeneration, which would also lessen the impact of the upcoming regeneration of the 9th Doctor with new viewers. Of course at the time all this was planned they had no idea Eccleston's departure would be leaked.
There is no dig at Paul McGann. Got nothing against him personally, his work, or his performance as the 8th Doctor. My issue is with those who pretend he's vitally important to the show rather than an historical footnote that can't be entirely ignored.
They're never going to give him a series or a major role in a special. He might have been given a cameo back in 2005 but they chose not to. They're certainly not going to make up for it by giving him a major part three or four Doctors later. It's simply never going to happen. And this thread is titled "Who will return for the 50th anniversary?" not "Who can't people accept never got a series?"