And now for what they said..........
The BBC is stunning in its failure to really deal with the facts here. Doctor Who is one of the BBC's most valuable assets and they appear to be paralysed with indescion over what to do with it. Enemy Within the Fox-TV telemovie was screened on the evening of Easter Monday bank holiday when many people are out and about, still managed to pull in over NINE MILLION viewers. The released videos of the TV series constantly appear in the video charts and popularity of the New Adventures and Missing Adventures books prove that demand is still high and very much ou there. So why does the BBC sit on such a popular and profitable venture ?
Well maybe because it knows that bold vision and brave hearts are needed and the simple fact is that in staid world of the corporation no one is willing to be to be adventurous. This weekend, the 1st of March, the BBC unveils its 'new series', Crime Traveller, about a Policeman who uses a time machine to solve crimes. You see they, the grey men of the BBC, realise the that demand for quality sci-fi is out there but they daren't risk it so in a daring display of cowardice they resort to one the the most tried and trusted and over used genre's in Television and produce a 'Cop Show' with a bit of Sci-FI thrown in. A spokesperson even alledgedly went on record and announced that this series '..was not really science fiction..' as if to admit to it been such would in some way be beneath the BBC. The BBC is quite happy to adopt the attitude that Science Fiction is not popular and won't pay. I suggest the BBC put that point to Paramount Television, owners of the Star Trek franchise and see if they agree. The simple fact of the matter is that Sci-Fi has NEVER been more popular. The re-released Star Wars Trilogy, Independance Day, Mars Attacks, Star Trek, Babylon5 and the X-Files are all huge money spinners and yet with maybe the exception of Star Trek not one has the pre-exsisting fanbase of Doctor Who. If the BBC dosen't, as they say, have the money(and I'm not surprised when they sink £30million into such tosh as the series Rhodes) then they should actively seek out people who do and bring them on board. Just sitting waiting is not going to get anyone anywhere. Just how many voices does the BBC need to hear before it produces what people what and not what the 'greymen' think we need.
The BBC is been sued by a consortium, backed by Bryan Ferry and John Illsley, for fourteen million pounds after alledgely going back on plans for a big screen version of Doctor Whoso many British newspapers reported The film was to have starred Alan Rickman as the Doctor and would have directed by Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy. The consortium said they had exclusive rights for the project but the Beeb pulled out at the last minute in order to make the FOX-TV version. The BBC has stated they will fight claim stating that the consortium failed to get the backing needed to launch the project. Although it seems that all the the above was at a very, very early development stage. In fact this consortiums plans are detailed in the book The Nth Doctor by Jean-Marc Loofficier.
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