We’re trying to make a Doctor Who that is of lasting value,” says the showrunner, “so we will do only what is best for the TV series”

Doctor Who has been on the big screen before – fans lucky enough to watch the 50th anniversary in the cinema won’t soon forget it – but the idea of a full blown Doctor Who movie has never gone away.

The recent Sony leaks revealed BBC Worldwide – the corporation’s commercial arm – were in discussions to produce a movie separate from the TV series. Before that, the series was only successfully rebooted in 2005 after similar plans were dropped.

Speaking to IGN at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, showrunner Steven Moffat gave the usual provisos (“I really don’t know, it’s up to the BBC. It’s a BBC show, they wholly own it”) before laying out the main issues.

“If it’s the same Doctor, what do we do, take all that time off? Do you really want one big movie instead of a whole series? Because that’s the arithmetic. If it’s a different Doctor, suddenly you’re trying to promote two Doctors at the same time, and how does that work? You don’t have one James Bond in the movies and one James Bond on a TV series. So I think there’s problems with it.

“That circle might be squareable, someone might be able to come up with the answer to that. And if they can, brilliant.”

Nevertheless, Moffat was quick to defend the corporations against accusations of money grubbing, saying “mainly what I think is nobody at all, including the BBC, is just trying to make a fast buck out of Doctor Who. We’re trying to make a Doctor Who that is of lasting value. So we will do only what is best for the TV series.”

News Source: Radio Times