When Variety reported this morning that Harry Potter director David Yates is going to spearhead a reboot of the Doctor Who franchise for the big screen, I braced myself for whatever hit the fan. After having read a lot of comments on various articles on the subject all day, it was about what I expected. Fans of the series are not seeing this as good news. According to Variety:

Yates made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the material.

“Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch,” he said.

The most common reaction to this news seems to be “… wait, WHY?” It’s a fair question. Why take something that’s already massively successful and pretend it doesn’t exist? It’s pretty rare that something is rebooted while it’s still in production, particularly if people like it in its current form.  If the point is to bring Who to a larger audience, then that should include the existing audience, too. And based on the response so far, it seems like this might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, where the fans are the baby… well, you get the point.

Though there have been some tentatively positive fan responses, the overwhelming majority are along the lines of “NOOOOOO!” or “WHY DOES DAVID YATES RUIN EVERYTHING?” If there’s something we know about scifi fans, it’s that we’re serious about our continuity. Even the Star Trek reboot takes that into account.

So what say you? Worst idea ever? Is there a glimmer of hope? Is there some dream casting of the Doctor that would sway you to their side? (And don’t say Matt Smith – from the article, I think I have about as good a chance of being cast as he does.)

[Image: Day 214/365 – This picture is recommended by 7 out of 10 doctors / Tony Case / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]