THE Dr Who programme will be on trial when the series returns to BBC television in the autumn.
The programme was threatened with the axe last year by BBC 1 controller Michael Grade, but he relented after an outcry by Dr Who fans.
Mr Grade said the programme had become "tired and unimaginative" and too violent, and warned: "I shall be watching the new series very closely."
The long-running and popular series will go into production at the end of March with Colin Baker returning as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as his assistant Peri.
Mr Grade said; "Dr Who too valuable a property not to continue with But I was unhappy with the last series for several reasons. "The show was tired and unimaginative and the stories were weak. There was some very explicit violence which alarmed me so I told the production team it had to be cleaned up.
Backwards
"I felt the show was going backwards, not forwards. These days we have people like Spielberg in the cinema, and Dr Who hasn't moved with the times.
I want it to be better - it needs refreshing. I shall be watching the new series very closely.
Mr Grade said Dr Who was a household name and an important export earner for the BBC. "If it wasn't so valuable I would have cancelled it," he said.
He added: "Dr Who works but if the production team can't make it work this time we will get other people in to do it."
The show's producer, John Nathan-Turner, said: "We are all looking forward to starting work on what we believe will be an exciting series with a strong element of humour, some stunning new monsters and the return of an old adversary - Sil, a galactic slug."
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
