Earlier this year, Doctor Who fans were treated to some rather exciting, yet strange news. Students at the University of Central Lancashire had started a film project re-creating the lost First Doctor episode "Mission to the Unknown." I say "First Doctor," lightly, as it's the only televised story of Doctor Who to never feature the Doctor. Because of this, and it being only a single episode, it seems an obvious candidate for re-creation. Not to badmouth any of the actors involved in the episode, but none of them are irreplaceable. Even without Nicolas Briggs giving the project some weight, no sacred cows would be in jeopardy. Nobody has to fill the shoes of William Hartnell or his two lovely companions.
When I covered the new animated version of "The Macra Terror," I discussed the importance of re-creations. While a small portion of the fandom dislikes the practice, most fans agree that they're a good thing. The re-creation has taken on many different forms throughout the years. Classic Comics compiled the tele-snaps of lost episodes with captions allowing readers to follow the story. The Target novelisation is a sort of re-creation. For some, they act as the only way to experience lost episodes. There are the unofficial reconstructions from videographers like Loose Cannon. YouTuber Josh Snares has been working on some rather promising reconstructions of his own as well. Many of the narrated TV soundtracks have recently been pressed to vinyl. While it seems as though BBC is really pushing their animations, are those the final form of the reconstruction?
If you'd have asked me before the UCLAN students' project, I may have said yes. Now, I'm not so sure. The BBC seems to have sanctioned the project. Doctor Who actors Peter Purves and Edward de Souza even showed up on set to give their blessing. There's not a lot known as to exactly what sort of release the project will receive. Perhaps the BBC will release it on the Doctor Who YouTube channel. Or maybe it will be a blu-ray extra in the near future. But which blu-ray? An animation of "The Dalek's Masterplan," perhaps? Regardless, I believe it opens the door for an entirely new kind of re-creation. Enter deepfake.
For those of you not in the know, deepfake is a somewhat new form of cgi that uses facial recognition software to swap out a person's face for another, to varying degrees of success. You may remember it from the uncanny video of Jennifer Lawrence with Steve Buscemi's face. While many people fear deepfake's impact on identity theft and national security, there's also an undeniable artistic implication. Facial swap technology has been around for years in various forms. As a concept, it cropped up in places like the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man." In 1994's "The Crow," Brandon Lee's face was swapped in after his tragic on-set death. With deepfake technology becoming more and more refined, it's also becoming cheaper and cheaper. Which is the point I'm here to make to the BBC- it doesn't cost much!
If you follow my logic, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. What if we employed the methods of both the animations and the student film? What if the only thing an actor has to do is actually fill William Hartnell's shoes? Nobody has to recite his dialogue, they only need to be his body double. Deepfake can then follow the faces of actors mouthing the lines to the original soundtracks. With the same faithfulness to set design and filming that the students of UCLAN gave us, these episodes could see the light of day once more. Mind you, the sets would cost something, but weighed against the cost of animation, probably fairly comparable when you consider the budget of classic Who.
Let's face it, nothing will ever be as satisfying as the originals, but that's part of the fun of re-creating classic Doctor Who. It's a chance to be creative with the source material. But what about modern Doctor Who? How could deepfake impact the current series? There's no more obvious example than the 50th Anniversary special. While "The Day of the Doctor," was a critical success and loved by many (myself included) there is a glaring omission of the surviving Doctors. As I said in my article about older companions, the War Doctor was used as a sort of filler classic Doctor. Ironically, one of the show's biggest setbacks is time.
When they wheeled out DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner for six Star Trek films, there were no issues. But if you want to make a Voyager or Next Gen movie several years later, you have to explain why a hologram or an android got fat and old. Sure, Data could have upgraded with old age to feel more human, but we all know it's a dumb idea. While the Doctor is not an android or a hologram, they all regenerate. If Six regenerates with curly blonde hair (and Sylvester McCoy's face) then you can't see him with Colin Baker's wispy white hair. Though poor Peter Davison's weight and hair loss were explained by "time differentials" in "Time Crash."
In typical Doctor Who fashion, this multiple Doctor episode came with a caveat. Someone is always missing. It's funny then that the very technology I'm suggesting was used in the advert for "The Day of the Doctor." In a rather impressive sequence, we see several Doctors' faces on body doubles. We even get the closing shot of the episode where Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor joins his past incarnations to stand on a cloud. Sadly, the body doubles stood so still, I originally thought they were mannequins. (Gasp! Autons!)
It's inspiring to think that by 2023, Doctor Who will be celebrating 60 years in time and space. By then, it's entirely plausible that deepfake technology could get to a point where an episode like "The Fourteen Doctors," could happen. If we can replace William Hartnell with Richard Hurndall and David Bradley, or Matt Smith with Jacob Dudman, we can certainly replace Jon Pertwee with his son while a deepfake Second Doctor runs around with Fraiser Hines doing the lines. Doctor Who is a show that lends itself to these kinds of innovations. The very essence of this concept was instilled with the inspired concept of regeneration, or "renewal," as they called it back then.
I'll admit it, deepfake still looks pretty ropey, but so did most of the CGI in the Ninth Doctor's run. There are so many reasons why something like deepfake is perfect for Doctor Who. It's a chance outside of the comic books to see Jodie Whittaker running alongside Tom Baker and K9! We can create lost episodes. We can update missing scenes. There are multiple precedents within the show to look into the technology. We can finally do one better than ghoulishly sticking the Brigadier into a Cyberman suit. And if nothing else, we could finally get Christopher Eccleston back, sort of.
Well friends, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this quick little article. It's something to think on if nothing else. On a personal note, we finally finished building K-9! (Pics below) We're very proud of our accomplishment. The one we built is my friend Gerry's to keep at his house. We will be building a second K9 for me, however, so expect to see pics of K9 Mk II very soon! I may post a video as he does talk, but for now, enjoy these pictures!
Hey friends! Just a quick little update what I’ve been up to. My friend Gerry and I are working on a full scale replica of K9! As you can see, it’s nowhere near finished, but we’re massively proud of our progress so far! There won’t be any servos in the ears or the gun, sadly, but maybe in another future build! I’ll be sure to update as things progress! -N.
Hello friends! I said I would keep you up to date on our K9 build, so here we are! As you can see, we’ve added some paint and other accessories to the head. And here you can see we also built the body.
We’ve also done the back panel and a little side view screen we’ll play some clips on. It weighs close to nothing, even with the inner wooden frame. We’ll probably have him done this week! -N
