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Interview with Mike Dicks, chair of the Forum session:
Encounter with Doctor Who
«Doctor Who» is a major television series in the UK that is tempting its viewers to migrate to a downloadable interactive game in order to get closer to the plot. Mike Dicks, digital specialist, talks about what to expect from the session about «Doctor Who», about the programme’s success as well as the challenges of the convergence of TV and multiplatform.
Mike Dicks, what can the delegates expect when they join your Early Evening Session?
Dicks: An inside track on how to devise, plan, create and exploit a mainstream, multi-platform drama. We’ve managed to bring together the key people who created the new Dr Who series and interactive episodes for the BBC and people attending will get an insiders view of the project, which will help them to go back and create their own, truly, multi-platform ideas. We’ll meet the writer, the game-makers, the commercial brains and the management from Dr Who and find out how they devised and made the 4 interactive episodes and the 12 TV episodes, how they connect and how they plan to sell them.
«Doctor Who» is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world. What makes it so successful?
Dicks: That’s one of the things I hope to find out in this session, personally, I think it’s because it is the perfect sci-fi drama for TV – the main protagonist has his own replacement built into the plot – a real bonus for a producer, as these shows often die when the cast move on to better things. But also the series has always been able to reinvent itself for each new generation of audience, innovate and take risks, and the new interactive episodes are an example of that.
You think the interactivity is the new recipe for success?
Dicks: It’s part of it, great TV is always a must – there will always be a place for a great linear story, well told and well made, but a proportion of the audience always wants more, and games are a great way to deliver that longer, deeper relationship with an entertainment «brand». Interactivity has it’s place in the mix, along with live events, books, films and toys – it’s not there to replace to the TV experience, but to enhance it, and used well it can bring new audiences and revenues.
In Germany the show got the chop after a short broadcast time. So it might not work everywhere and with all target groups.
Dicks: That’s an interesting question for the panel, «Doctor Who» has such a huge following in the UK, and a growing one abroad, but it is a quirkily British sci-fi programme (for some reason the Daleks and Cybermen seem to prefer to attack London or Cardiff). We should look at this session more as an opportunity to learn how to extend a TV brand into games that should be universally valuable to producers.
What do you think we can learn from the «Doctor Who» team?
Dicks: I’m keen to find out how the funding worked, who paid for what, how did they decide on the format, the team, the style? How do they plan to market the series and the interactive episodes, is there a charging model or a licensing one?
