Interview: Matthew Jacobs (Doctor Who Am I)
Doctor Who has been around for decades, but Doctor Who Am I is a rare documentary that combines a look at comic book convention culture with the perspective of one of its writers. This combination of professional know-how and passionate fandom provides a balanced yet personal approach.
Doctor Who Am I follows Matthew Jacobs, a screenwriter who wrote the rather infamous TV movie Doctor Who: The Movie aimed at US audiences starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. It had such a negative reception over the years that Matthew was a bit trepidatious on how he’d be received at science-fiction conventions.
Matthew Jacobs, who serves as the co-director with Vanessa Yuille, producer, and the main subject of the documentary, had to challenge his assumption of what Doctor Who fans would be like. “They’re a pretty friendly bunch. I really was arrogant and a little bit dismissive coming into it, but we turned up the volume on me being a curmudgeon in the first half because otherwise there would have been very little drama.”
One of many things Matthew enjoys about Doctor Who is the type of heroism he embodies over the years regardless of who plays the character. “He doesn’t have a gun; he has a sonic screwdriver. His prime directive is to help, not to fight. It was devised as a small half-hour children’s show; they didn’t even buy the rights from the writers back then. The building of the show came from a very benign place.”
Throughout Matthew’s career, there has been a fascinating series of influences, whether conscious or not, on his writing that originates from his father Anthony Jacobs playing Doc Holliday in the “Gunfighters” serial from season three of Doctor Who in 1966. “My dad took me along while they were filming, so that was my first experience on a movie set; I was only about 10 years old. Later on, in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, I actually have the “Hollywood Follies” episode where Indy is taken on by John Ford and they’re going to make a silent Western. They go and pick up Wyatt Earp, which was a real thing they did at the time. I unconsciously called a character Grace Holloway, which is so close to Doc Holliday. She’s the character the Eighth Doctor teams up with. I end up doing a Doctor Who set in America, so there’s that strange echo… And I end up moving here from England, so there’s that too!”
Doctor Who Am I is now available for purchase on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital formats; it’s also available on streaming for free with an Amazon Prime subscription.