Doctor Who Becomes A Saturday Morning Cartoon In This New Video
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What if, instead of simply replacing Matt Smith with another actor, Doctor Who decided it was time for something a little more drastic, and relaunched the show as a Saturday morning cartoon. I guess it could also be a spinoff, but I like the idea of completely taking the show and animating it, but maybe that’s just me. Regardless of how you envision it, a Doctor Who cartoon might look a lot like this video.
The translation makes a certain amount of sense. Over the course of it’s 50 year existence, the show has widely been regarded as children’s programming (when has that ever stopped us from obsessing about a show, movie, or book?), and you know what kids seem to like? Cartoons, that’s what. To be honest, I’m a little surprised this hasn’t happened for real at some point. It seems like someone would have tried to get this off the ground over the years, and it seems tailor-made for animation. We’ve already got comic books, and Smith’s version was more than a little toon-y to begin with.
Either way, this short piece of animation from artist Stephen Byrne is a great deal of fun. Even without already knowing about the Time Lord and his adventures, I would totally watch this show. There’s a robot dog and a guy zipping around in a flying phone booth, what’s not to like about that? And there are tons of other fun little nods for already extant fans as well, like a Dalek, Cybermen, and a Weeping Angel, not to mention that opening clip that scrolls by a portrait of every one of the previous Doctors.
Being a modern version, this stars Peter Capaldi’s incarnation of the venerable character, accompanied by his most recent companion, Jenna Coleman’s Clara. The actual human versions of these characters will be back for continuing adventures later this summer, when season 8 starts in a few weeks on Saturday, August 23 on BBC. This will be our first real, proper introduction to Time Lord number 12, who initially popped up during the holiday special at the end of last year.
Much has been made of the fact that Capaldi’s Doctor will be a much darker incarnation, but just about everything you can imagine is darker than this animation. All you have to do is listen to that jaunty theme music and watch the characters bounce their way across the screen having a grand old time of it, and you know there’s not too much darkness to be had here. Maybe for his follow up, Byrne can put the Doctor and Clara through a grim, bleak journey into the very heart of darkness. That sounds like a blast.
