Development of New Dr. Who Movie confirmed

[GreenScar]

It doesn’t quite add up to me, but the first official confirmation of an in-development Dr. Who movie has been buried by the BBC at the bottom of a considerably less interesting article on one of the Who spin-off TV shows.

Widely acclaimed as the best Dr. ever, David Tennant has this past week completed the filming of his final episodes of the show. In the next month, filming begins with the next Dr., to be played by Matt Smith. Unlike, say, James Bond, Dracula or… er… Reggie Perrin, each actor to play the role of Dr. in the series is actually a new, regenerated incarnation of the same character in the same continuity so the swapping out of actors requires no kind of rebooting. I’ve been hearing rumors for a while that the transfer from Tennant to Smith would be an odd one, however…

According to several well-informed Whovians, including /Film reader Mark Kardwell at Bad Librarianship, the Tennant-Smith regeneration could well be happening off screen. That seems to leave the door open for Tennant to appear in a feature film, thereby keeping the most popular Dr. alive and not interfering with the production schedule of the show.

It has been rumored that Tennant was after a feature film deal, and now I guess the rumors will change to claims that he actually got one. Everybody wants Tennant to be the Who who’s Who. We love him.

The next ‘proper’ season of Dr. Who will start on the BBC next spring. As well as the Dr. morphing, there’s been a change of guard behind the scenes. Show runner Russell T. Davies, credited with giving us the best ever run on the show, will be off to pastures new while Steven Moffat, for my money the best writer the series ever had, is taking over the reigns.

Neil Gaiman seems to have written an episode of that next season. Whenever pressed on the matter he will skirt around it and issue non-denial denials, but his behaviour and comments on the matter - and those of his friends, most particularly Jonathan Ross and Jane Goldman - actually have me 100% convinced. Will he also be called upon to write the feature? Less likely, but wouldn’t it be great?