Doctor Who (BBC/Disney Co-Production)



This is an idea for a possible reboot of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who that could have been helmed by more than one production company. It would also be helmed by Walt Disney Pictures. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called "the Doctor", an extraterrestrial being, to all appearances human, from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue 1960s British police box. Accompanied by a number of companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes while working to save civilisations and help people in need. The seres would continue production until 2010 when the Doctor regenerated into his 11th incarnation (Matt Smith) and Disney entered negotiations with the BBC as to whether to continue collaborating with them on the series

Premise
Doctor Who follows the adventures of the title character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who goes by the name "the Doctor". The Doctor fled Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension in Space"), a time machine that travels by materialising into and dematerialising out of the time vortex. The TARDIS has a vast interior but appears smaller on the outside, and is equipped with a "chameleon circuit" intended to make the machine take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise; due to a malfunction, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box.

Across time and space, the Doctor's many incarnations often find events that pique their curiosity and try to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only ingenuity and minimal resources, such as the versatile sonic screwdriver. The Doctor rarely travels alone and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures. These companions are usually humans, owing to the Doctor's fascination with planet Earth, which also leads to frequent collaborations with the international military task force UNIT when the Earth is threatened. The Doctor is centuries old and, as a Time Lord, has the ability to regenerate in case of mortal damage to the body, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous recurring enemies during their travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master, another renegade Time Lord.

Episodes
Each season would comprise of 14 regular episodes, a Christmas special and the occasional minisode, amounting to 15-16 episodes in total. There would also be a series of specials after season 4 bringing an end to the tenure of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). Each season would keep the same episodes as the existing show and an additional episode would be written into each season:

Season 1

 * 1) Rose
 * 2) The End Of The World
 * 3) The Unquiet Dead
 * 4) Aliens Of London
 * 5) World War Three
 * 6) [Untitled Sixth Episode]
 * 7) Dalek
 * 8) The Long Game
 * 9) Father's Day
 * 10) The Empty Child
 * 11) The Doctor Dances
 * 12) Boom Town
 * 13) Bad Wolf
 * 14) The Parting Of The Ways

Specials

 * 1) Born Again (2005 Children In Need Special)
 * 2) The Christmas Invasion (2005 Christmas Special)

Regular Episodes

 * 1) New Earth
 * 2) Tooth And Claw
 * 3) [Untitled Third Episode]
 * 4) School Reunion
 * 5) The Girl In The Fireplace
 * 6) Rise Of The Cybermen
 * 7) The Age Of Steel
 * 8) The Idiot's Lantern
 * 9) The Impossible Planet
 * 10) The Satan Pit
 * 11) Love And Monsters
 * 12) Fear Her
 * 13) Army Of Ghosts
 * 14) Doomsday

Specials
The Runaway Bride (2006 Christmas Special)

Regular Episodes

 * 1) Smith And Jones
 * 2) The Shakespeare Code
 * 3) Gridlock
 * 4) Daleks In Manhattan
 * 5) Evolution Of The Daleks
 * 6) The Lazarus Experiment
 * 42
 * 1) [Untitled Eighth Episode]
 * 2) Human Nature
 * 3) The Family Of Blood
 * 4) Blink
 * 5) Utopia
 * 6) The Sound Of Drums
 * 7) Last Of The Timelords

Specials

 * 1) Time Crash (2007 Children In Need Special)
 * 2) Voyage Of The Damned (2007 Christmas Special)

Regular Episodes

 * 1) Partners In Crime
 * 2) Fires Of Pompeii
 * 3) Planet Of The Ood
 * 4) The Sontaran Stratagem
 * 5) The Poison Sky
 * 6) The Doctor's Daughter
 * 7) The Unicorn And The Wasp
 * 8) [Untitled Eighth Episode]
 * 9) Silence In The Library
 * 10) Forest Of The Dead
 * 11) Midnight
 * 12) Turn Left
 * 13) The Stolen Earth
 * 14) Journey's End

2008-2010 Specials

 * 1) The Next Doctor
 * 2) Planet Of The Dead
 * 3) The Waters Of Mars
 * 4) The End Of Time-Part One
 * 5) The End Of Time-Part Two

Production
The production would be helmed by both the BBC and Walt Disney Pictures. The three main producers would be Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson, and they would also deal with casting and hiring writers and directors for individual episodes. Disney would finance larger-scale production facilities, larger-scale sets and provide a larger budget for the BBC to film beyond South Wales.

Effects
Effects (both practical and visual) would be provided by a variety of both British and American institutions such as The Mill, The Visual Effects Company, Framestore and Industrial Light And Magic. Creature prosthetics would be provided by both the BBC's in-house team and the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

Music
The soundtrack for all episodes would be composed by Murray Gold and Ben Foster, and recorded by the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales.

The recognizable theme tune, for the first 3 seasons would be based on the electronic melody sound sampled from the original 1963 Delia Derbyshire arrangement with rapidly upward- and downward-arpeggiating strings added as a counter melody, later nicknamed by fans as the "chase". The opening theme follows the normal pattern of the main theme and a repeat to fade. The closing theme would again have the scream followed by the main theme, middle eight and outro.

For Season 4 and the 2008-2010 specials, Gold would create a second theme arrangement. It would still feature the original electronic Derbyshire melody, but the strings would be different and drums and piano would be added to dramatically change the feel. A new ending arrangement, with "middle eight" intact, would also be composed and again recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.