‘Doctor Who’ season 10: Steven Moffat doesn’t expect to use CGI to revive past Doctors
One of the big things about “Doctor Who” as a series is that the title character of The Doctor is eternal — he just regenerates from time to time. Yet, with every transformation we like to think that there is still a part of the old Doctor that is there. So many wonderful actors have played the character, and you never want to lose them. The show also has a tradition of bringing back former Doctors from time to time for various cameos.
However, one thing that the series apparently is ruling out is trying to recreate some of them who are no longer with us via CGI, a trick that was (“Rogue One” spoiler alert!) used to recreate a young Princess Leia near the end of the most-recent “Star Wars” movie. Showrunner (at least for one more season) in Steven Moffat commented on this further in a new interview with Doctor Who Magazine, where he detailed in part why this is not something that the show is all that eager to revisit:
“Well, like every other Doctor Who fan, that was my first thought [when I saw Rogue One] … But, you know, word on Media Street is that Star Wars might have a tiny edge on us, budget-wise.
“I’m fairly sure those are quite expensive movies and possibly that sort of thing might be a bit beyond us for now.
“More importantly: will the software ever exist that can recreate the comic timing of Patrick Troughton?”
Maybe if we do at some point see “Doctor Who” have a big-budget feature film, this is something that they could explore even further — the idea could be more of a discussion point then, just because it would give us a great opportunity to celebrate the legacy of these characters. However, we also don’t think that it would be appropriate to recreate some of these pasts actors without the approval of their families / their estate. These sort of issues are always incredibly complex, and much of it depends on how you want certain characters to live on. This is a debate that exists far beyond this singular TV show.
What do you think about this discussion? Should there be a way to bring back past Doctors? Share below, and be sure to head over here to get some more news when it comes to “Doctor Who.” (Photo: BBC.)