Love Me Tender: Would Dean Devlin be interested in Electrifying ‘Doctor Who’?

Well, the answer to the above question would seem to be a definite ‘YES’ if you believe the posting he made just a few hours ago on his facebook page.

On Friday, Dean posted to facebook saying: “BBC is putting DOCTOR WHO out for tender! What do you think about them partnering with us at Electric Entertainment?”

Alongside the question was a video (admittedly AI) which showed him in the Capaldi version of the Tardis with avatars of Capaldi, Christopher Eccleston, Jodie Whittaker and Matt Smith. (Devlin actually did visit the set during the Capaldi years and the video is extrapolated from that).

(In 2018 he worked with former Doctor Who, David Tennant on the feature film Bad Samaritan, with Tennant in fine evil form and facing off against Robert Sheehan…)

Admittedly, Devlin isn’t British, but he’s long been an anglophile when it comes to UK science-fiction and as Doctor Who (hopefully) enters a new era the nationality of a show-runner or creative force might not be limited to British hands as long as the show would retain its unique British grounding.

This post is unlikely to be considered a formal declaration of intent – which would have to be made privately and with specifics – but Dean Devlin certainly has the pedigree to make such a tender if he so wished. While it might well only be fun, the very act of posting the idea to facebook might well be to casually gauge general interest and the replies to his post seem to be largely positive so far.

In response to the post, Devlin confirmed that if he ever did take control of the series “…I would definitely keep the Doctor British and I would bring back the best British Doctor Who writers…”

Originally an actor (appearing in the likes of My Bodyguard, The Wild Life, Real Genius, and Martians Go Home), Devlin found his true calling (and numerous awards) in producing and has produced and co-written some of notable big-screen ventures (including Independence Day, Independence Day: Resurgence, the original Stargate film and 1998’s Godzilla (collectively grossing more than 1.4 billion dollars worldwide according to the IMDb).

Since May 2001 he’s been successfully working in television under his Electric Entertainment banner with shows including Leverage, Leverage: Redemption, The Librarians (in both tv movie and legacy series formats) , Almost Paradise, The Ark and The Outpost.