Saturday Night Showcase> Doctor Who Reboot

Can a show produced in AI still be a good story?

What if the story is written by a human, and it’s just the actors and sets/locations that are AI?

Doctor Who Reboot has all the failings of AI creation. The audio is too clean. Some of the dialog sounds off at times. The cinematography is often wonky. It’s proof that AI is not close to being ready to replace physical actors on actual sets or on location in real areas. What makes “The Curse of Kilmorag” worthy of examination is the story and the designs of the aliens included. The sets themselves look fine.

On the other hand, the episode is written by a human being, not a computer. Thomas Vittlowe of the YouTube channel The Unmade Season writes a story that seems to be bypassing the Ncuti Gatwa 15th Doctor in favor of his own, which isn’t a bad thing given the reaction to his time as the Doctor. We do see AI David Tennant, most likely the 14th Doctor (Tennant’s third face if you count the Metacrisis Doctor) given his outfit and the TARDIS still using the bland Davies 2 design. It’s better than his first one, but big and empty looking. I’ll take it over the “coral” console room or the deathtrap from Chris Chibnall’s run, but it’s still not that great.

The story finds the Doctor in the last moments of regeneration, still also regenerating clothes so we miss out on the wardrobe selection moment…again. His new form ends up in a Scottish version of Area 51, where aliens are being held, and suffering post-regeneration memory loss. Some scientist wants him to open “the box” (yes, you should know what he means) but the Doctor doesn’t even remember that, or his name. There are other mysteries in the village of Kilmorag, and someone there is looking to solve them. It will bring her into contact with the Doctor. If you can handle the limitations of AI photorealistic animation, you will find a good story here. If not, my apologies, but it’s still interesting. Enjoy?

(Don’t worry, I’m not going to make a habit of using AI stuff, and I’ll warn you before I do. I don’t hate AI and prefer the real thing, but imagine this if he could have afforded actors, location shooting, and actual sets.)