Showrunner Steven Moffat Explains Why There’s No Doctor Who Movie

Doctor Who may be set to live on television for at least another five years, but showrunner Steven Moffat can’t figure out how a movie version would work from a practical standpoint—whether he’d like it to happen or not.

Part of the problem is in the way the show itself is funded. Moffat said in an interview (via /Film),

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?

He also mentioned concerns over how the movie would relate to the series, which is important for a show that will seemingly never end:

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?

Doctor Who has weathered some odd film adaptations way in the past, but it’s hard to imagine fans at this point embracing any movie that steps outside of the series’ canon—if only because it would be disappointing in comparison to the idea of an actual movie in the show’s continuity. Moffat also said,

We’re talking one of the biggest TV shows in the world. It can’t just be a medium-size movie—it’s gotta be a colossal movie. I’ve sat with people, saying—and in the end it’s not my decision or my choice, I don’t own Doctor Who—‘Okay, explain to me how it’s going to work.’ And nobody has an answer.

I don’t know who Moffat has been talking to, but with the show’s fandom as large as it is now, I’d be surprised if there weren’t huge movie studios—the kind that would be undaunted by the “colossal movie” requirement—eager to answer that question for him. At the same time, the show’s 50th anniversary special was simulcast in movie theaters and came in at 77 minutes, and that’s not even the longest special they’ve done. As cool as seeing Doctor Who on the big screen was for the 50th, it manages to be plenty cinematic on the small screen.

Do we even need a Doctor Who movie, or is the TV show doing everything the property needs? Or do you want a movie so badly that you see all these reasons not to make one and get all:

(via /Film)

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