Revamp : Doctor Who

Ninth Doctor 

Eighth Doctor and Grace in
a cathedral-esque Tardis

I do love Doctor Who.
From reading this blog, you may have noticed this.
So with all the revamping elsewhere, I thought I would cast my mind back to the two relaunches of the show.
As much as I adore all the mythology, continuity and campness, I kind of knew they would have to strip back. You don't want to swamp the audience.
This is what the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie ends up doing but in the wrong moments. Leaving aside the inherent risk of Fox deciding on commissioning a series based purely on ratings for a pilot (and therefore relying on the strength of marketing rather than audience reaction once they had seen the actual product), the show needed to hook in anyone who had channel surfed. So starting it by focussing on the outgoing middle aged Doctor in the Tardis - not a great choice. The interior looks lavish but we need to explore the Doctor from a newcomer's perspective. It would make more sense to introduce your actual lead actor. Which is one of the smart moves of the 2005 relaunch, featuring a Doctor who has just regenerated off screen.
Another oddity of Who 96 is how it shows (in shadow) the Master being executed for his crimes by the Daleks. We don't know what the crimes are or, crucially, how come the Daleks seem to have evolved legal structures of any sort. This not only disorientates fans, it'll throw casual viewers as well especially as the tinpots and their genocidal rampages are part of popular culture in their own right.
Compare to the 2005 episode Dalek in which we see just the one Dalek. We feel, wonderfully, pity for it as it is tied up in an underground base, the last of its kind. And we also feel fear as we see it take on Henry van Statten's private army, especially the scene in which it electrocutes a squad using sprinklers.
This wonderfully sells the menace of Daleks to the new audience. And we learn more about the Time War and why this Doctor seems so grim in comparison to most other regenerations.
The show needed to have a slight departure from the upper-middle class eccentricity associated with the Doctor. What made sense in the 60s and 70s would have seemed very out of place in 05, especially coming out of Eccleston's mouth. The ninth also looks hard and street-wise with his close cropped hair and leather jacket. It doesn't take too long to get used to, mostly because it suits the character.
McGann's Doctor though is a Greatest Hits, but with a tendency towards Tom Baker, jelly babies, big hair and all. He's charming but not distinctive. Maybe that would have come in time.
However, one crucial mis-step of Who 96 isn't the Doctor kissing or single-serving companion Grace swearing but the revelation that his mother is human. Me, I don't have a HUGE problem with it but I just feel that we don't need it to relate to the character. Nor does it help the greater mythology any. (I adored all the Gallifreyan-ness of the novels, especially the time-looms from which Time Lords were grown. I didn't expect it to be referenced on-air but some wiggle room would have been nice.) Tony Lee, in his Doctor Who : The Forgotten story for IDW, rather wonderfully has the tenth Doctor pass all this off as a practical joke his eighth incarnation played on the Master.
Which is something that actually the TV Movie gets to work. I loved Eric Roberts's portrayal. Very High Gallifrey and very evil. Desperate to survive. Though it's a shame that the story descends to having two aliens wrestling with each other.
For all the talk of the Doctor's half-human side, this isn't a very human production. You don't get much of a flavour of Grace or of the threat.
Whereas Rose's focus is, well, it's there in the title. We meet her loved ones, explore her world first. It's this that the original show needed at times not car chases through the streets of San Francisco.
It also helps that Rose (pays homage to /rips-off ) the Auton invasion of Ealing Broadway, one of the more iconic moments of early 70s Who. It tells the older/more knowledgeable members of the audience that the production crew know the show's history, how it works and that there'll be more of this. (It's also good that the program doesn't continue re-telling classic stories though bar those that originally appeared in audio/novel form).
Crucially that first season is written by fans, who gave their a-game. Who knew that if this failed, the show would be dead forever.
So slowly introduce us to your lead. And re-think. Give an edge by all means (the loss of Gallifrey and the Time War was a shock but explains the dourness - and most rumoured revivals had involved Gallifrey's destruction so it was nothing that new to fans and, besides, the novels had alreaady done it).
Though make sure you're adding, not subtracting from the franchise's appeal (hello 80s Biggles time-travel movie). Yes, you need to pick up new fans but don't assume that you'll forever have the good will of the old ones.