I suppose the questions is, would Doctor Who fans be willing to accept an American, even a hardcore anglophile with a UK visa, for such an inherently British series, given Babylon 5 and Sense8 and the like? Would I be worthy?

Any fan who wouldn't accept you for being an American is a racist quite frankly. Christopher Nolan is half British and did the most popular version of Batman, who actually IS an American hero, unlike the Doctor who is an alien. Whilst I am a huge fan of Babylon 5 (Gkar's character arc is the best and it's hilarious that the guy who wrote that is questioning if he is worthy to work on a show currently run by the guy who wrote Space Babies. Seriously you cited sci fi shows and classics like I Claudius as inspiration when writing B5, RTD used heat magazine as inspiration to write his version of DW.) I personally would only accept you as showrunner if you decanonised New Who. THAT is a far bigger obstacle to overcome for viewers than your nationality. I am not alone in thinking that. I and I would say about 90 percent of actual fans and audiences absolutely will NOT follow a version of Doctor Who that has the Timeless Children as the characters backstory, Jodie and Ncuti's parodies as the official versions, David Tennant twice, Missy as the Master (she retconned his entire character into wanting to shag the Doctor.) Cyber Brig as the Brig's canonical ending, Bi regeneration as a concept, Hartnell not being Susan's grandfather who raised her etc. If anything I and others would resent you if you took it over and did a good job, as that might legitimize these changes that destroy the Doctors fundamental identity even further LOL. If I were you I also wouldn't want to associate with the current fandom who push for a continuation of new who. Obviously not all of them are bad, but you still don't want to get caught up with the ones who are. Speaking as a relatively young millennial fan in case you think this is an old timer not moving with the times. I can safely say DW fandom and mainstream sci fi fandom is not like when you were starting out or even in the heyday of B5, where the worst kind of fan you had to worry about was an obsessive about continuity. Modern fans are a toxic, tribal, cult, who if you step out of line will happily ruin your life through smears and accusations. They are seriously dangerous people Look at Gina Carano? Whilst it was Star Wars fandom, again the same type of lunatics have infested it too. Gina contrary to what the media says is NOT LGBTphobic. She was someone who practically grew up in a gay bar, has played bisexual characters, defended her lesbian rival Tonya Evinger who she befriended to such an extent that people thought they were a gay couple, plus she supports pride parades and month, yet she STILL gets tarred as a homophobe by modern fandom because she didn't do EXACTLY what these type of faux activist narcissist fans demanded she do all the time on social media. They don't care about LGBT rights or any other cause, most of them aren't LGBT, but upper middle class brats who hide behind shallow forms of progressive politics as an excuse to relish in being able to bully someone and having power over others from fellow fans to actors and writers who they can smear until they dance to their whims. They'd 100 percent do the same to you if you got caught in their cross hairs and stepped out of line in a way you didn't even realise. It is like living under John Hurt's Caligula where he takes offense to anything and reacts in insane ways. That's why you need to make sure your DW appeals to actual SCI FI fans who are scattered but still exist, and if you carried on with the current canon, that wouldn't happen as the current canon is entirely these people's creation and is a joke to sci fi fans with Billie Piper, a past companion being the Doctor out of desperation. The first 7 years of New Who whilst not up to the standard of the best of classic was very good in its own right, but I'm afraid it's too difficult to go on with it as canon due to how connected it is to the crap after. It needs a clean break, either with an alternate sequel to the original, or a reboot. Either works for me. I'd love to see a new Doctor show up in a series written by you that just goes on adventures, is written in character and who later in say his second season mentions he is on his 9th life. All of new who's baggage is cut out that way from its silly retcons to its toxic fanbase who realising they have 0 power will move on and mainstream audiences won't care and this version can carry on with mainstream viewers and families as its audience instead. Or again just start over completely. Do whatever you want in a reboot, retro who, your own flavour it's all good. However no I am NOT interested in carrying on with New Who canon and again I suspect the same is true of most viewers.

@Burunman1 @straczynski "you decanonised New Who." Dude The BBC will never do that the realistic/best thing that can happen is if its a Soft Reboot like in 2005 with Minimalist Continuity where you can headcanon what eras you dont want and go from there

What IS it with DW fans, even critics that have this religious almost devotion to it all being one canon. Your approach of just ignore it will lead us right back here in a few years. What are we going to have Doctor Who in the 22nd century be bound by The Dalek Invasion of Earth? "Oh well let's just forget the Dalek Invasion of Earth" well if we do that what's the point of having it be the same continuity then? "Oh continuity doesn't matter" and on and on it goes in an eternal loop. There could very well be new DW stories being told in the 22nd or the 27th century assuming humans are still around then LOL. We've been telling stories about King Arthur and Hercules for hundreds and thousands of years, why not the Doctor who has more in him than King Arthur. Again is DW still in the 29th century going to be bound by 20th century DW? Can we just have what most franchises have, reboots, alternate sequels etc. I feel like this bit from Blackadder 2  Edmund: I thought it was standard policy for a ship to have a crew. Captain Rum: Opinion is divided on the subject. Edmund: How so? Captain Rum: Everyone else says it is essential, I say it isn't. Meanwhile Me: I thought if you wanted a clean break for a character that's endured for decades/centuries it was standard practice to do either a reboot or a remake or an alternate or a loose sequel? That way you let the original stand on its own, but give yourself a greater flexibility in terms of how faithful you want to make it if need be, and allow people easier jumping on points IE if they want to watch the Burton Batman or the DCAU Batman they don't need to have watched the Adam West Batman or care about it, but those who do still can, and those who like the lore have lots of different versions, drawn from the same source, that all have proper beginnings, middle's and ends. Rather than it all being smashed together to the point where none of it matters because otherwise the continuity gets too overwhelming, yet no new version is allowed to breathe as they are all in each others shadow. IE a romantic Doctor might have been fun in a reboot like a romantic Dracula was, or a comedy Batman, but because we have to imagine that it IS Hartnell shagging Billie Piper or Rogue, it becomes a parody of the original and is judged more harshly than say a romantic Dracula was, and on top of that the original source material gets dragged into whatever stupid changes are made because it's all one thing, so something a guy stuck in in 2025 for an agenda is as legit as Hartnell, and it becomes diluted to the point where it loses itself. Oh and jumping on points are harder as its all officially connected and people might still feel lost, whilst long term fans who like the lore come to hate it because it's too tangled and contradictory. DW fans: Opinion is divided on the subject? Every single other long running franchise, from Dracula, to Sherlock Holmes, to James Bond, to Robin Hood, to King Arthur, to Hercules, to Batman, to Spider-Man, to Wonder Woman, to Miss Marple, to Poirot, to Frankenstein, that have endured for decades, centuries, or even thousands of years and successfully reinvented themselves and stayed relevant say that's a basic rule of story telling, us Doctor Who fans say it isn't.

@Burunman1 @straczynski Doctor Who is unique because it doesnt need to do a Huge Reboot and go back to Doctor #1 internally each era can be viewed as a reboot check out Whopixs Chronology page: whopix.wordpress.com/chronology/

NO that is exactly what led to new who's destruction, even more than any culture war crap. Don't get me wrong that didn't help, but ever wonder why DW is the most murdered franchise even when compared with others that got tangled up in the culture war? It's this stupid myth of "DW has no canon, it can turn into absolutely anything" that prevented it from having a strong sense of identity and caused its fans to roll over and take its vandalization until it was too late (unlike Star Wars fans who as soon as Luke was mistreated spoke out like @thatstarwarsgrl. If she were like your average DW fan she would have had to wait for Luke, Darth Vader, Hans Solo, Leia, Tarkin, Bobba Fett, Obi Wan, etc to be vandalized dozens of times over in ways that were like parodies, not just out of character, like Darth Vader becoming a horny Disney character, an oversexed Donald Duck who wanted to shag Hans Solo, before we saw her say even mildly "hmmm maybe this isn't the best way to represent it." That's not hyperbole remember that is literally what happened to the Master. He was a villain famous for being a suave, manipulative, megalomaniacal, power hungry, vicious bastard, literally the Doctors Moriarty, who was once kept alive by his burning hatred of the Doctor when he was nothing but a skeleton, and he actually was turned into an oversexed Mary Poppins that wanted to shag the Doctor via Missy and official fandom said that channelled the original played by Roger Delgado. PS whenever I bring up that Missy is Roger Delgado to people in the real world, older viewers who saw Delgado and still remember him, they burst out laughing. My mother didn't believe me years ago when I told her people say she channelled him. She said they must have been taking the mickey out of you. My dad thought it was hysterical and always says whenever he sees Delgado in something "hey look there's that big woman that wants to shag the Doctor." DW did NOT have no continuity, and did not reboot itself. It always had a strong core identity, as did the Doctor as a character under his new faces, one that could be put into new environments easily, which was how you kept it fresh. Focusing however on rewriting the continuity is the wrong way to do that. Continuity isn't just a few nerdy references. It's a basic facet of writing. You can't do things like character arcs, characterisation, world building, story arcs, you know all the things we value in writing without continuity. Yes there were continuity mistakes in Classic Who like the UNIT dating, but you get that in all long running shows. People will forgive something minor like getting the exact year of a story wrong. Also no one is saying you have to reference continuity all the time. Obviously not. Just make it natural, which again is what classic who did. All of the Doctors eras in classic who flowed into one another and built on what came before. They NEVER came to a grinding halt and treated it like a totally different show. Hartnell to Troughton? Hartnell's last companions carry on for a whole year in Troughton's time, there's a historical in Troughton's first year which was Hartnell's signature style, the Daleks, Hartnell's main villain also appear twice in Troughton's first year, also the Cybermen, Troughton's main foes are introduced in Hartnell's last ever story.  Troughton there is a bit more of a clean break, but even then the Pertwee era is a sequel to his as the Doctor is exiled to earth at the end of Troughton's era with Pertwee constantly trying to escape that exile for the first 4 years, and the Brig, Pertwee's main companion is introduced in Troughton's time as are the Time Lords who are Pertwee's overarching enemies/bosses.  Pertwee to Tom? Pertwee's last companion Sarah is there for Tom Baker's first 3 seasons, the Daleks, Pertwee's other big foes were there in Tom's first season, UNIT, the staple of Pertwee's time were there for FOUR stories in Tom's first two years, the Brig was also in two. It's not until the middle of Tom's third year before it severs all ties from the Pertwee era when Sarah leaves.  Tom to Davison? Adric, Davison's companion is there for a year with Tom, the Ainley Master who will become Davison's main foe is introduced in Tom's last story and kills Tom's DOCTOR, Nyssa and Teegan, Davison's companions are introduced with Tom etc. Davison to Colin? Ainley's Master carries on, Peri is introduced in Davison's time, and even the turbulant crossover from Colin to McCoy had Bonnie and the Rani to ease it.  Also the Doctors character changes as a whole. Hartnell starts out a selfish git, who only wants to travel, but over the course of his era becomes a more selfless heroic individual, and Troughton builds on this by being a straight up hero. Pertwee meanwhile learns the inner workings of his TARDIS more and so is able to better pilot it, unlike Hartnell and Troughton and he also becomes more rebellious after being exiled, leading to Tom being more like that. Davison meanwhile is more vulnerable after Tom's loss in Logopolis, and Colin is more cocky to make up for his predecessors loss of confidence and McCoy finally being the last wants to clean up his old messes after hundreds of years. Only the Doctors outer persona changes, his core personality is always the same and evolves naturally like any other. Another fine example of this is the Davros arc. Tom doesn't wipe out the Daleks in Genesis as he thinks morally it is wrong to exterminate them at birth and that maybe they have a place in the universe, as evil as they are as they do unite races in fear. However he realises that is wrong in Destiny and so Davison tries to kill Davros, but finds he can't shoot him when he is unarmed, but instantly regrets it, so Colin is ready, but is too cocky and arrogant to make up for his past self, and blunders into Davros' trap, so Colin tells Davros next time he'll be waiting for him and sure enough he is. McCoy the next Doctor lays the trap for Davros and is able to seemingly finish him being ready from a practical and moral point of view, though even then he still has his doubts like Tom did, with the cafe scene being a nice companion to the "HAVE I THAT RIGHT?" scene from Genesis. Hell even in New Who itself the smoothest crossovers are Eccelston to Tennant with Billie and the Daleks, Matt to Capaldi with Jenna, etc. It's a show that grows into its new forms naturally, it doesn't come to a full stop, and whilst some arcs can be abandoned for a while, overall it is the same thing and if you want to completely abandon what has come before do a reboot. I have 0 issue with there being rebooted versions, as like I said even with him changing his face and its vast premise there does come a limit to what you can do in one canon. It's common sense. Like I said is DW in possibly the 31st century going to follow the same canon as the 20th century? Again Kevin Sorbo's Hercules is what 1000 years after the original? Why not assume that for DW? Why not cut to the chase now, since new who canon is such a mess. This is where the all one canon comes over like a religious belief as it is so illogical. The whole no canon thing was a lie invented by the makers of New Who to justify their version having 0 to do with the original. They basically wrote new who as a reboot from the start, but wanted to cash in on old who's audience and fame and so said it was a sequel and now and again crow barred in some member berries to link them. They got away with it at first, because there had been a gap from classic who, and old fans were happy to see it back. However even then there was a lot of controversy over the Doctors core character being messed with, like the romance angle, so RTD pushed the shit of "it never had canon". He didn't believe it, hence why his own era had incredibly tight canon, actions mattered, stories built up over years etc, which ironically was part of why his era was successful. Moff however came to actually belief that shit and started to fiddle with the foundations of the show to a greater extent, which led to a bad mantra of "the way you do good DW is to mess with its past." Which Chibnall and later RTD himself followed with. As a result the show lost its core identity that fans and long time viewers and even the GP to some extent loved, and it put off new viewers as it has to revel in its past ironically to change it, more than if it just did Classic Who's approach of referencing it when need be, but moving on. This also gave the culture war charlatans a greater hold over the show, as again, we didn't have a @thatstarwarsgrl to call them out. Her counterparts were seduced into thinking "no these changes are fine as ALL change is good, DW reboots itself." And didn't see this shit coming until it was too late. JMS or whoever else takes over the show will do well to acknowledge this as if they try and wimp out and think they can just ignore continuity for the moment, sooner or later we'll be right back here, as whoever comes next will then think continuity doesn't matter and will have the same destructive idea as Moff did, and also they could reference the bad things again and bam DW is back to being a tangled mess with no core identity.