Steven Moffat for Doctor Who movie

New Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat has said that he likes the idea of a new movie for the time-lord.

Speaking at the Guardian’s Edinburgh International Television Festival, the writer of the award-winning Who episode Blink said “As long as it was great and fantastic then yeah. But a film is on for 90 minutes, and that is not as important as the series. But as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the show, we could do it.”

Two Doctor Who films were made in the 1960s, both starring Peter Cushing as the time traveller: Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965), and Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150AD (1966).

The movies were more clearly intended for children than the television series, featuring bright colours and comic antics, and are not beloved of all Whovians. Additionally Cushing’s character in the films was a human inventor rather than an alien from Galifrey, and specifically referred to himself as ‘Doctor Who’ rather than the Doctor, a canon-breaker that the TV series only ever made in the closing credits at various points.

The Guardian also points out that BBC fiction controller Jane Tranter had made a similar comment on a new Who movie: “I would not rule out a film version of Doctor Who, no.”

In the piece, Moffat also mentions that Steven Spielberg was sympathetic when he had to withdraw from the three-film TinTin project to work on series 5, which will broadcast in 2010 after Russell T. Davie’s truncated ‘special episodes’ next year. Spielberg is reported by Moffat to have said “the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who”.

Moffat commented on the unlikeliness of the actor in the role getting any older in subsequent castings: “”The show is really tough for a superfit David Tennant, so you might kill somebody who takes on the role in their 60s. For Doctor Who to turn into an old man, you’d be pissed off.”

“Even William Hartnell had trouble back then, he was often ill and he forgot his lines. I think the Doctor will always be about 40.”

Guardian