Are they no longer making new episodes of “Dr. Who”? When and why did they stop, if it’s true?
Yes, it was cancelled 12 years ago (1989).
(Assuming you’re an American.): We in the US had a 3 year lag in seeing new episodes at the minimum. That’s because most Americans who saw it saw it on PBS, who had to raise lots of moola to buy episodes. On the plus side, the PBS stations usually showed a whole story (4-10 episodes) back-to-back and without commercials. I even contributed one year to WETA to get some Dr. Who books.
They did make a Dr. Who movie in 1996. They had the last Doctor, Sylvester McCoy (#7), regenerate to Paul McGann (#8), so it was technically a continuation of the series, maybe in hopes of sparking a new series. It was made in Canada and USA, so maybe they were hoping that North American Whovians would pressure a major network into going forth. No such luck. It also starred Eric Roberts (Julia Roberts’ estranged brother) as the Master.
There’s also a series of direct-to-video movies that have been made since 1987. They have Dr. Who characters, but no Doctor himself.
Ah, more info…
Fox was going to revive the series, but instead opted to fund “Space: Above and Beyond”. Thankfully, that died a horrible death.
Yeah, it’s too bad.
That movie in 96 was so horrid that I can’t imagine anyone putting more pressure on the networks after that. Better to stay in retirement until somebody wants to do it right.
As an aside, remember the episodes where the doctor is fighting the master in a computer generated world called “the matrix” ? hmm …
There has been a real feature film Dr. Who movie in the works for a couple years. Here’s the link to some information on it.
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/doctorwho.html
And, CBS is “considering” another Dr. Who series. I put it in quotes because it is not likely that it will happen. I would recommend sending a letter to CBS’s programming unit if you want to have it on the air, but don’t hold your breath.
Then again, I’d love to eat those words someday.
Look at Star Trek. The original series in the 60’s only lasted three years. It has been rerun ever since then, then finally in 1987, 20 years later, they developed new series. Three new series in facts. Not to mention there have been about 9 movies. Talk about life after death!
It seems like Dr. Who deserves at least one new series, and a couple good movies.
Thank God someone took it from the BBC. It didn’t take their bean counters long to figure out 9 Dr. Who videos= 1 years license fee and the whole thing was shifted to Woolworths.
Its the same with Blake’s 7 when will they start showing that again?
There’s now in the works “Star Trek: UFS”. Absolutely no details yet, but it’s slated to premier this year. It’ll probably have some spill-over from “Voyager”, hopefully that means more of Jeri Ryan. :D:D:D:D:D
P.S. - “UFS” stands for “Untitled Fifth Series”, which is how this is listed in IMDB.