Do you want to see a Doctor Who film? Steven Moffat does, despite his previous derision of Harry Potter director David Yates’ publicised-but-uncommissioned plans for a silver screen TARDIS trip.
Steven Moffat has previously declared Yates’ words as a “weird fantasy” but it seems that other than finding it “intolerable” for a Doctor Who movie to take precedence over a TV series, he reckons we’ll get a movie one day.
Well, first of all, when? We spend all year making the series. The thing that I would find intolerable is that you get a film instead of the TV series because the TV series is more important. And I don’t think any showrunner or future showrunner of Doctor Who would tolerate the idea that David Yates was talking about, of rebooting it and having a second continuity. That’s just nonsense. Absolutely insane and a straightforward insult to the audience. We’d never, ever do that. The question would be how could we do it without delaying or harming the TV show?
I think it could be incredibly exciting to see that Tardis fly on the big screen. It would just be how do we arrange it? And how do we make sure we have … no offense, but you suddenly take American money and they expect to tell you what to do and all that. I wouldn’t be happy with that. But it will happen someday, I’m reasonably confident.
As confident as The Grand Moff is, we have to say that a movie is highly unlikely unless the BBC and whoever is in charge of Doctor Who at the time are able to retain creative control. A look at the 1996 TV movie is a good indicator of what can go wrong when too many interests are involved…
Personally I’d rather just leave Doctor Who in the world of television, at least while the series is still alive and kicking. That’s where it belongs, where they can tell longer stories within the episodic format. A movie is just too restrictive a format.
Thing is, during 2009, when there was no series, just a few specials, that would have given them plenty of time to shoot a movie. This year, when they only put out less than half a series, also a year when there’d be time. Next year, with only the other half of the series and an anniversary special would be another good opportunity.
I think what it comes down to is Moffat not having enough time in *his* schedule do to sherlock and other projects, nor the BBC enough in their budget to commit to a big movie undertaking. Because there has been time to do a movie, just not the money or convenience.