With a LEGO Doctor Who set coming out and LEGO Doctor Who rumoured for LEGO Dimensions, wouldn't it be cool if there was a Doctor Who episode told (almost) entirely through LEGO (like with the LEGO Simpsons one)?

It could start live-action with the 12th Doctor and Clara somehow transported into the world of LEGO and having to find a way out of this new dimension with the help of Wyldstyle (The LEGO Movie) and LEGO Batman.

I wouldn't mind it as a short or a Charity special, but the concept is too gimmicky for the show itself - not to mention a copyrighting nightmare I suspect. I imagine kids would love it though, and Lego crossovers are all the rage right now - it gave The Simpsons one of its best episodes in a very long while last year.

It's always difficult doing this kind of crossover. Simpsons to Lego works, because you've got animation to animation. Community have done live action to animation on occasion, but that only worked (when it did) because a) the programme is open about its 'geek' influences, and b) the audience recognised and understood the references. Doctor Who is not influenced by geek culture, it influences geek culture.

Having said that, I could see, say, an encounter with the Celestial Toymaker resulting in the Doctor and co being toys for a while - hopefully a bit more imaginatively done than Lego though.

Lego Batman is cool, btw.

I think it absolutely could work as a episode of the TV show, so long as there is a narrative reason for it and not just 'Hey, let's make a LEGO episode of Doctor Who!'.

No.

Up there with 'musical episode' and 'Sherlock crossover' and 'animated Disney movie' in the worst and most stupid gimmicky ideas ever list.

What do you propose as a good narrative idea that isn't just gimmick then?

A parallel universe made out of Lego? *rolls eyes*

Brickline.

The TARDIS is shaken violently by some unknown force and the 12th Doctor and Clara fall unconscious. When they awake, they find themselves in a strange new dimension where everything is made of bricks. But who sent them here and why?

What the 12th Doctor and Clara do know is that they're not supposed to be here and their presence in this dimension could undo the fabrics of the universe.

That's not a narrative idea - it's barely even a concept! And what would be the unique angle? It's very unoriginal at the moment.

I wouldn't mind shorts in the same vein as the Lego Marvel series. Where it's not 'LEGO' Doctor Who we're watching, but Doctor Who animated with LEGO.

But crossing live action into a LEGO universe... They would have to come up with an incredible idea to keep it from being mindless.

^ Seconded.

As someone else said, Doctor Who inspires geek culture it isn't inspired by it. All a Lego episode of Doctor Who does is take two high profile brands, blends them together for 45 minutes and has to wrap it all up by the end so that everything is back to normal.

The "we've awoken in brick-form" concept has been done to death. It was exactly what The Simpsons did in 20 minutes, it was sort of the crux of how The Lego Movie worked with a similar reveal. The Lego concept on its own is not enough to carry a whole story, and at the same time Doctor Who has enough of a fluid sense of reality that it is hard to imagine a story it couldn't tell without the Lego gimmick.

I still personally draw the line at musical episode, because if done in the style that Buffy did it (as Buffy has been a known inspiration of revived Who already) it can work really well - a gimmick you can excuse because it's executed well, and allows you to do something different with the characters for 45 minutes. Lego doesn't have that - you're telling the same story, just with Lego...or you're telling a story about Lego. It's just...it just doesn't work.

As I said though, for a short or a charity special it could be a lot of fun.

Fill in the blanks:
'strange new dimension where everything is made of bricks'
'abandoned space station'
'Sontaran cloning plant'
'damp cave'
'laundrette'

Instant Doctor Who plot generator!

I think a lego Doctor Who episode would divide the viewers to those who hate it and those that will love it. However the haters will be a lot more vocal.

But as a teaser, this is just what a Lego episode of Doctor Who would look like -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FWP23X7JE4

That is VERY similar to the new Bigger on the Inside storyline on Facebook/mobile game Doctor Who Legacy. The TARDIS is attacked by a mysterious force. Suddenly, everybody is made of pixels! The character costume drops for that section are all pixelart versions of the characters.

No live episodes. No musical episodes. No animated episodes. No cross overs with anything ever episodes.

Doctor Who should set trends. Not follow them just because 'OMG Geek culture!'. Just because Buffy did it. Just because Supernatural did it. These aren't reasons. Or the true nadir as someone on Twitter actually wrote 'If Eastenders can do it why not doctor who?!'. I mean are you serious?

Oh right, so basically just a clone of what The Simpsons did.

Whatever next? The TARDIS falls into a dimension where everything is made of Playdoh? Or how about a world made out of Pokemon cards?


This.

Yes it is....


The blend from live-action characters into their LEGO forms and how that affects them personally as well as the universe.

Yeah, because a LEGO Doctor Who episode has been done before....

Clearly you didn't watch the LEGO Simpsons episode then. It's nothing like it....

You've missed the person's point completely here.


I have and it is.

Nope. For a start, Homer is already in the LEGO world. Also, he is supposed to be in the LEGO world and there's no danger for him being there but he chooses to leave to be with his real family, not his LEGO family. There's no 'unknown force', nobody who sent him there, no ship shaking violently and sending him off-course.

I'm not arguing this with you.

It's wholly unoriginal still.

No, it really isn't. It's: Ooh... Something happens, but nothing inparticular, and this causes something else to happen, and things happen...

A narrative idea is saying: This specific thing happens, which causees this other specific thing to happen, which throws up these specific obstacles for our characters. Inb order to overcome these obstacles, our characters have to do this (action/sacrifice/reprehensible act) which has these specific outcomes.

None of that was in the post. It was a wisp of a concept.



not even slightly original. Has been done countless times before - just because 'LEGO' is the word used, doesn't make it any more unique.


Yeah, because that is the only way it could be unoriginal...

Seriously, you've never ever seen any other film or TV programme do exactly that nebulous concept? Clearly you haven't been watching much for at least the last 20 years.

But if you really think that it is unique and original, please never start creative writing. (Although, 50 Shades of Gray seems to have done horrifyingly well for really poorly written unoriginal Twilight slash-fic, which in itself was a really poorly written unoriginal series of books.)

Having different mechanics or macguffins to get to the same meat of a story does not make it unique. It makes it derivative - sometimes that can be a good thing, but mostly it creates trite knock-offs.

If you are happy to watch cloned knock-off shows, that's your prerogative. But it does not equate to clever or unique writing. And anyone who does that deserves the moniker: Lazy Writer.

Thankfully this dreadful idea can never happen.

Thank God for the BBC's commercial independence.

I don't want a LEGO Clara Oswald or an animated one.

I prefer to look at the real thing.