Recently, a particular YouTuber produced a 55 minute, completely AI Doctor Who special. I’m a bit wary about even mentioning the title, because of course, you’re going to be curious. And you’ll look it up like I did. And you’ll watch it, and you’ll be amazed, looking at David Tennant’s 14th Doctor in the middle of his crisis ridden console room.

You’ll be watching AI David Tennant regenerate, and the new Doctor, played by an AI creation named John Warr. You’ll see him captured and interrogated at a facility where there are a variety of aliens being held captive near a rural Scottish village. A village renowned for bodies going missing for a century. 

By now, you may have guessed that I’m not going to credit the author or give the name of the episode. If you want to find it, you easily can. If you want to.

You may marvel at the new AI Doctor, a white, middle aged Scotsman with graying hair, who’s fairly charismatic and nerdy all at the same time. An interesting piece of artificial casting. You will see various familiar monsters, and even a new AI companion. You may very well think the acting is good, and the story, as good, if not likely better than we’ve gotten over the past several years. 

Feeding time

But you may wonder the cost or the consequences. About how every single element has been modeled, taken from someone, reshaped, and fed to us. For example, David Tennant is likely not getting paid for his “appearance” in this special. 

You may be interested to know that some are defending the production as “art”, while some others have actually issued death threats against the YouTuber, who says that he’ll continue to make more episodes with the new AI Doctor. This 55 minute special took him two months total to complete, all in. 

This YouTuber will be pumping out his new episodes every couple of months, and the tech’s only going to get better. 

The most shocking thing to me was how realistic this was. I’d say 97 out of 100. It would absolutely fool a lot of people. But here’s the thing— it’s all a bit terrifying. 

Firstly, AI has come this far, taking samples from all established art in history, and transmogrifying it into something else, and then pop that up on our screens. AI has many uses, some very helpful tools, but make no mistake, in cases like this, you have to realize that what it forms, what it allegedly “creates”, it takes from artists. Specifically, it takes from other artist’s work.

Artists who have no say in what’s being done with their work, their art, their likenesses. These AI “creators” naturally don’t see the harm, because they don’t see the faces of the artists they’re stealing from. They only see the space to enter in their prompts. Then they call themselves creators and artists.

Regarding using AI as tool, I’ve seen some very brief AI clips from The Daleks’ Master Plan, where they’ve basically taken scraps of photos from the story and brought it to life via AI. Essentially, “recovering” the old footage via recreating the scenes. The ethical questions there are a bit different, but that’s a discussion for another day.

My point is that there are tools, and there are levels. 

Pumping out Doctor Who

This particular episode was written by this YouTuber, then produced with AI, intending to be an all new first step in an all new era. Unfortunately, the BBC is still sitting on their backsides, slowly dribbling out the tender process, seeing which studios might want to take on Doctor Who in future. We likely won’t see new, “official” Doctor Who for another year or more at the earliest. 

Meanwhile, this YouTuber will be pumping out his new episodes every couple of months, and the tech’s only going to get better. 

The YouTuber says he’s not making any money off this, and that it’s expensive to produce. For him. He got over 400,000 views in the first day since its release. 

For some viewers these days, the ethical problem here doesn’t matter to them. If they can get new Who, great, bring it on. Other people have a big problem with it. I watched this only out of curiosity, but in this day and age of clicks, that was maybe wrong to do, as I’ve only added yet another click to the pot. 

The Beeb does indeed want studios to come a knockin’ to pitch their ideas and heavily invest in the future of Doctor Who. At the same time, here comes a production by one guy who did it in his basement at, I guarantee you, the slightest fraction of the cost any studio would spend on their production. It always comes down to money. How exactly will this development affect the mindsets of these studios? 

A troll of fans

Broadcast television is unfortunately, a dying media. The Beeb’s head is on a swivel right now. I’m not even sure if they have the capability to roll with any of these punches. They tend to panic and make bad decisions. They have little in the way of creative thinking, just what’s the best, fastest way to make money.  

I wish I could tell you I’m confident of what happens from here. I guess at the moment, I worry about fandom. Particularly that rabid section of internet trolls who’ve issued death threats and are basically acting, for lack of a better example, like Daleks. 

A different YouTuber, Tharries, a big Who fan, and a very fair and even handed young man, has even had to step away from his channel. He merely spoke up about the ethical issues he had with the AI YouTuber taking other people’s work, which is perfectly on point. He and his friends were then bombarded with hateful comments and slurs. Some even suggesting that Tharries had issued death threats against the AI YouTuber, which is the height of insanity, for anyone with a brain who’s actually watched the kid’s channel. It’s shameful and disgusting on every level.  

This is the kind of thing that makes me angry and sad. All the worst instincts of people hiding behind their keyboards with no lives, except to just live to hate. As I say, like Daleks. 

And what this whole thing will do to the show we love? Its status and future? No idea. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.