New Who views

Dreamwatch canvases a panel of famous names about new Who.

The latest issue of Dreamwatch includes an in-depth look at the new series of Doctor Who.

It asks a number of famous names what they think of the news that the series is coming back and whether they feel it can live up to the hype and fulfil viewers' expectations.

The panel includes experts such as Sophie Aldred (Ace), Ben Browder (Actor, Farscape), Tom DeSanto (Producer, X-Men and X2), Gerry Anderson (Creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Space: 1999 and UFO).

Here's a taster:

Colin Baker
The Sixth Doctor

"The combination of Russell T Davis and Christopher Eccleston is very exciting indeed, as one of the best pieces of television in the last decade was The Second Coming. I couldn't be more pleased; it's as if we had been told that Dennis Potter and Michael Gambon were back working together.

"If Doctor Who is to emerge as the equivalent programme for 2005 as it was in 1963 then this is just the kind of approach that is needed. I hope the budget matches the talent that is being assembled."

Stephen Gallagher
Novelist, screenwriter, producer and two-time Doctor Who writer

"Christopher Eccleston? An unexpected choice in the context of Whos-gone-by, but potentially a very, very good one if his selection is a marker of Russell T's intentions for a radical new approach. The first Doctor was a patriarchal and eccentric figure, setting a pattern that even the casting of Paul McGann didn't break – to my eye; McGann was Hartnell's character in his younger and more vigorous days. The thought of Eccleston's Doctor conjures an image less of the elderly professor than of the heroic risk-taker. To which I can only say, 'Go for it!'

"I suppose the downside for the fans could be that the Davies/Eccleston approach could give them a Doctor so radically reconceived that they'll find little to recognise. But the show's only going to be good if it's conceived with joy, not with a constant anxiety about whom you may displease."

Rockne S. O'Bannon
Creator of Farscape, SeaQuest DSV and Alien Nation

"The new show will need to both satisfy the memories of fans of the series' previous incarnations and present a genre drama that will have resonance for today's larger audience who has never seen nor heard of Doctor Who.

"It's always a precarious balancing act when you bring back a series that came to prominence during many fans' childhoods. The gauze of childhood nostalgia is an especially difficult filter to overcome. Plus, part of the charm of the earlier series was the ratio of 99 parts imagination, one part production values – it definitely wasn't the effects or sets that we all fell in love with.

"A new Doctor Who with the same high imagination quotient and state-of-the-art effects and production design could be the best of all worlds. And who knows the concept of 'all worlds' better than the good Doctor? I, for one, can't wait!"

Dreamwatch issue 117 goes on sale on 29th April.