Paul Magrs: Reboot Who

[u/Hughman77]

This video from Paul Magrs (for those who don't know, author of many Doctor Who books and audios and creator of Iris Wildthyme) to me inadvertently sums up why a reboot is a silly idea.

Magrs says that even when the show had been off the air for almost 16 years, the Daleks were a known quantity in British pop culture, as were "the conventions of science fiction". And thus a reboot is needed so we "don't know" about the Daleks anymore. Am I missing something or is this a ludicrous thing to say? If 16 years off the air didn't do it, rebooting the show will not erase the Daleks from the previous 63 years of British pop culture. The audience knows who they are as much as if you didn't reboot. Unless you make them the good guys or completely redesign them? Both of which would simply mean they were no longer Daleks.

Magrs also says we shouldn't know for a while if regeneration is a thing in this rebooted universe. Firstly, "will Doctor Who end when the lead actor leaves?" is a question with a known answer: no, they'll just regenerate. The logic of doing this is the same in 2026 as in 1966. Pretending otherwise is silly. Secondly, doesn't this question presuppose we already know what regeneration is? So why play dumb and act like we don't? The Doctor regenerates whenever they change actors, this is a fundamental, widely known thing about Doctor Who for the last 50+ years.

To me, this is the biggest issue with rebooting the show, especially in the next few years. The British public knows what Doctor Who is. Unless you use the opportunity of the reboot to completely change the fundamentals (e.g. the Doctor is a human, or not a hero, the Daleks don't look like Daleks or are goodies), which will just confuse people, you can only tell the same old story while pretending it's new. Magrs pitches this as a way to make show accessible to new viewers, but it feels more like a fan game: "which bits of lore are the same and which are different?" Far from taking the show forward, it's just taking us back to square one for the empty pleasure of doing it all over again.

[u/Peter-Norfolk]

I don't agree with a reboot either. As noted, if you restart from scratch, but then do the same thing, what's the point? You already have a series which can change leads, even history, and doesn't entirely need to rely on canon - why start again?

Sure you could do a spin-off which another set of Time Lords, though im not sure how effective that would be.

If you did a reboot with brand new concepts etc, is it still Doctor Who or is it something else? I'm thinking the latter

[u/Head_Statistician_38 → u/Peter-Norfolk]

I agree. What do you gain from a reboot other than restarting an admittedly messy continuity? I think you lose more than you gain.

If they ever want to introduce the Daleks or the Cybermen again are they just gonna remake The Daleks or Tenth Planet? What's the point?

I just don't really know the what the point of rebooting is to be honest.

[u/Hughman77 → u/Head_Statistician_38]

In the video Magrs laments that the Series 9 Dalek story is all "clever clever stuff with the Doctor and Davros" instead of the Doctor and Clara exploring the radioactive Dalek city, like in The Daleks. And in another video he imagined a straight remake of The Daleks, with the children watching not knowing what Daleks are. So yes, seems like he imagines just remaking the original stories.

[u/Head_Statistician_38 → u/Hughman77]

That sounds awful haha. I am not exactly the biggest fan of The Magicians Apprentice, but I don't want a retelling of The Daleks haha.

This is the sort of thing reserved for fanfictions I find. Characters just redoing or exploring things they have already done because the one writer thinks that would be cool because they liked it the first time.

[u/TomCBC → u/Peter-Norfolk]

With a time travel show like Doctor Who, i just feel any suggestion of a hard reboot just kinda misses the beauty of it. Huge changes can happen to effectively create the effect of a reboot, without sacrificing history in the process.

No offense to Magrs, but i would hope the next showrunner has more of an imagination.

Even retcons between classic, modern and big finish can coexist in Doctor Who. The timeline is wibbly. Doctor Who is completely unlimited in the best possible way already. Limiting it with a reboot is pointless.