‘Doctor Who’ season 9: Don’t expect movie with Peter Capaldi, any other Doctor

While “Downton Abbey” executive producers Gareth Neame and Julian Fellowes have each suggested that a feature film may be possible following the runaway success of the ITV series, it does not appear as though “Doctor Who” is going to be following that lead in the slightest. There is not going to be a movie in any capacity coming up in the near future, or at least however long that prolific showrunner Steven Moffat is the one steering the ship.

Moffat himself confirmed this news in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining that there are a wide variety of different reasons why this is a project not particularly likely to happen. The biggest one here is merely the fact that this series comes on via the BBC, and given the way in which the network is funded, it is very difficult to then go back and try to get some other funds to add to the overall repertoire. Also, there is an issue of casting, and what would happen in the event you had two separate Doctors each in action at the same time. Imagine the confusion that could come out of that:

“I don’t think there is one … No one has ever squared the circle on that. How do we do this? How do we do it without leaching from the television series—which we’re not allowed to do, because Doctor Who is public funded? If it’s going to be a different Doctor, are we going to try and sell two Doctors at the same time? I know there’s been loads of Doctors, but there’s only been one at a time. You don’t have a James Bond on television and one in the cinema. If he’s the same guy, then when are we going to make that?”

Honestly, we wish that there were more shows out there that would turn their noses up at a movie, if for no other reason than that it feels like these projects are in many ways a direct scoff at their present medium. TV is great enough these days; you don’t have to be a feature film to be considered special, and we don’t particularly love the notion that this is needed in order to take that next step.

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