Just a theoretical question really, but what do you think Sydney Newman would have thought of Doctor Who today if he was still alive?

He certainly wasn't very happy with it during Colin Baker's Era and even wanted Patrick Troughton back in the role at that time as well.

And he was asked by the Michael Grade to submit ideas for the show to make it better as well in 1986. Do you think he could have made it better as it's creator? Looking through the notes he made, he even wanted The Doctor to be a woman at a later stage, but also, some of his ideas seem a bit stuck in the 60's and 70's. If you have The Eighties Book it's in there in full.

I've tried to find the actual article online but couldn't find it. This the closest to Newman's ideas in full I could find, but it gives you the general idea of what he had in mind:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...Time-Lady.html

My view is that some of his ideas were a bit too far removed from Doctor Who at that time but maybe with a bit of adjusting he could have pulled it off. I also think he would have liked new Who enormously as it came a long way from his invention in '63.



P.s, please, please don't turn this into another tiresome RTD v SM debate. (Tony take note!)

Where's Derek Acorah when you need him?
'That's three taps for RTD. Four taps if you think Moffat is better....'
Tap tap

Tap tap

'Oh Sidney! What have you done!'

I doubt he' even recognise it as the same show. A few of the old guard have made it clear in recent years that they aren't keen on new Who, or on a lot of modern TV in general (the late Barry Letts for one). It's all pretty far removed from the kind of stuff they were producing, and I have a lot of sympathy for that viewpoint. Most modern TV drama can't compare with the dramas of the 60's, 70's and 80's.

As creator, though, no bad he may have thought it'd got, he would have been impressed that something he created has lasted for so long.

But I can see your viewpoint, though, hence my comment that his ideas in 1986 were very 60's and 70's.

very true - I think he'd be amazed that Doctor Who, is still going 50 years later but I think it's impossible to say for sure what he'd of thought of todays Doctor Who. I certainly think if Billy Hartnell, was still with us he'd be thrilled at how good and well made new Doctotr Who is.

I think he'd be thrilled as well, since he thought the show was going to last for Five Years at one stage and now look at at it!

One thing I'm certain he wouldn't have happy about is the romantic side of things that happened during Tennant's time. And from what I've read about his prejudices, if they were true, the whole gay agenda thing wouldn't have gone down well with him either.

I dopubt it. If the assessment of Bill's views on gays made by some of his co-stars is accurate, I think he'd be horrified by much of the last few years. I don't think he was particularly keen on non whites, either. Or pretty much anyone under 30, for that matter. A great bloke, but very much a product of his era.

He'd turn in his urn. It is a pale shadow of its former glory.

Which former glory would that be, exactly? I doubt he'd be too happy with much of what's been done with the show since 1996...

Don't forget the Jews, he hated them too, according to Nicholas Courtney's autobiography!

Sad to see Anneke Wills say Hartnell was impossible to work with on the Gunfighters dvd. I guess he wasn't well by that point.

As for Sydney Newman, he clearly wanted Dr Who to be a straight children's show which helped teach them about history, so I'm not sure he'd approve of what it is now either.

As both Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert were Jewish and WH was happy to work for them, and I believe Carole Ann Ford is also Jewish (although I could be wrong on that one) and WH was happy to work with her, the details of that particular prejudice on the part of William Hartnell may have been a little exaggerated.

It certainly isn't the show he envisaged it as being. It hasn't been thst since about December 21st 1963.

What was Anneke Wills doing on The Gunfighters DVD? She wasn't even in it?!

One of the extras was a documentary about the third year of Doctor Who. Anneke was one of several people who contributed to it.

That documentary, The End of the Line, is really good, by the way.

I think he would be very proud of what his creation has become

I think he'd have tried to brain RTD with a rock.

No Tony No!

Yes, Tony, let's try to have a sensible discussion without your usual RTD bile as I requested?

Thanks!

Actually, my comment was tongue in cheek. I wouldn't be quite so direct!

I do think we should leave the RTD arguement alone though!

To be fair to him, up until that last post, he was making some very sensible comments!

Racism is illogical, it's completely possible he disliked all Jews except the ones he was friends with, I've seen that happen. (Though this is wild speculation of course.)

People under 45 forget how much things have changed over the past 50 years. When Dr Who first came on our screens homosexuality was a criminal offence. So I imagine the vast majority of viewers in the early 1960s would have been appalled at the explicit gay agenda in the rebooted version. And given that homosexuality was illegal, to describe William Hartnell as being homophobic is nonsense, since by the mores of his time his view of homosexuals was probably the one most people subscribed to.

I see what you're saying and you're probably right.

However, I personally never said he was homophobic, it what I have read. It is well known that during The Myth Makers he refused to act with one actor because he was gay.

Newman wanted Dr. Who to be started up again, but did not live to see it. He must not have minded all the changes made to his doctor from his first inception during the early discussions in 1962 and the first program aired in 1963. They were looking for a children's program to fill up a particular time slot and the BBC children's section was particularly angry with the scenes in which Susan starts wielding a knife in The Edge of Destruction. But I don't think Newman intended to be strictly a history-teaching program. Certainly the episode The Dead City with the Daleks was not one of those, tho it garnered 7 million viewers. I think there is no difference in the first doctor going to visit the Aztecs and the 10th doctor going to visit Pompeii.

Everything the doctor became was laid out in the Hartnell years; Newman should have been proud I think and stunned at the technical advances made since he had to cobble together a TARDIS.