30 Doctor Who Episodes That Could Be Movies

The Episode: The Doctor and Rose return to present day Earth, where they discover that ghosts are now a common and accepted interruption to everyday life. People are no longer disturbed when the apparitions make an appearance…

The Movie: Ghosts have been integrated into everyday life as useful members of society. No longer scary shadowy things, they work alongside humans as crash test dummies and super-speedy messengers. But one man grows suspicious they’re planning a takeover…

Dream Director: Ivan Reitman

Cast: Jason Segel, Christina Ricci

The Episode: The First Doctor and his companion Steven Taylor wind up in 16th century Paris, where social unrest is rife. Protestant-Catholic battles are reaching a head, and the marriage of Protestant Prince Henri of Navarre to the Catholic Princess Marguerite de Valois is just making things worse.

The Movie: Period romp tracking the proposed marriage of Prince Henry and Princess Marguerite amid the social turmoil of 16th Century France. Except we’re going to throw in an alien invasion for good measure. Just to see how it plays out.

Dream Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Henry Cavill, Anthony Hopkins

The Episode: With the Doctor lost in time, trapped inside the walls of an old crumbling ruin, a young woman who visits the dilapidated house discovers the Weeping Angels – fearsome statues that come to murderous life when nobody is looking.

The Movie: A family move into a rundown house that they’ve inherited from a dead relative, and discover that the gardens are filled with creepy statues of weeping angels. Then at night, the youngest in the family sees things moving about outside his window…

Dream Director: Terry Gilliam

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan

The Episode: Professor Stahlman is heading project Inferno, which is a project seeking to penetrate the Earth’s core and use the gas sources found there as an endless supply of energy.

The Movie: As a last ditch attempt to find a new source of energy for the planet, a team of scientists plan to drill to the Earth’s core for precious gasses. Except when they get there, they find themselves in Hell. And now the demons there have an escape route, they’re sure as heck gonna use it.

Dream Director: Clive Barker

Cast: Tom Cruise, Shia LaBeouf, Eliza Dushku

The Episode: The Doctor and Ramona encounter the alien Scaroth in Paris, 1979. Split into 12 different aspects after his ship was destroyed, Scaroth has been gently guiding the human race toward the creation of time travel so that he can go back in time and prevent his ship exploding.

The Movie: A journalist discovers that the US president is actually an alien who crash-landed on Earth after his spaceship blew up. Now, in an effort to get a message back to his home planet, the alien-president is funnelling money into outrageous scientific experiments. But does this ET just want to go home?

Dream Director: Oliver Stone

Cast: Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas

The Episode: On the planet Segonax, the Doctor and Ace visit the Psychic Circus, where a deadly Chief Clown runs the show, along with a troupe of robotic clown footsoldiers. But the real terrors are the sole family watching the show – they are in fact the Gods of Ragnarok, who are obsessed with entertainment and will destroy the members of any show that displeases them.

The Movie: TV stations have been taken over by zealous, pitiless terrorists who will bomb any show/actor/presenter who doesn’t keep them enthralled. TV suddenly gets a whole lot better - and bloodier.

Dream Director: Spike Lee

Cast: Jodie Foster, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Sheen

The Episode: The Family of Blood want the Doctor’s body. They’re a dying race of incorporeal green stuff, and need a host to contain them. The family they have taken possession of are quickly dying, and the scarecrows seemed impractical – the near immortal Doctor would be perfect.

The Movie: A small town is subject to an outbreak of murders – the only evidence left at the scene is bits of straw. Could scarecrows really be responsible?

Dream Director: Wes Craven

Cast: Emma Roberts, Josh Brolin

The Episode: The TARDIS touches down in Venice, as the Doctor takes Amy and Rory for a romantic break away. But the 16th century city has been sealed off against the plague, and there are blood suckers on the loose.

The Movie: Sweeping dark romance, in which a 16th century traveller finds himself in Venice where the plague has taken root. Staying in a grand hotel, he encounters a mysterious woman who has been unaffected by the disease, and has something very alluring about her…

Dream Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Cast: Stephen Dorff, Penelope Cruz

The Episode: The Doctor and Leela investigate when a body washes ashore on the Thames River, discovering giant rats living in the sewers below London. They eventually arrive at the Palace Theatre, where stage magician Li H'sen Chang is kidnapping girls for his master, the ancient Chinese god Weng-Chiang.

The Movie: When new show Weng-Chiang’s World Of Wonders hits Shaftsbury Avenue, nobody links it to the sudden disappearance of numerous girls. But Detective Marshall discovers that every town Weng-Chiang’s show has visited has coincided with strange goings-ons. Could a supernatural murderer be on the loose?

Dream Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Robert Downey Jr

The Episode: “Are you my mummy?” Rose and the Doctor end up in wartime London, where the ghost of a dead boy wearing a gas mask haunts the city. Anybody he touches becomes blighted with the curse of a gas mask face, too…

The Movie: When building work in a suburb of London uproots a long-buried building thought lost in the war, a creepy child wearing a gas mask appears and wreaks a little hell on the city’s citizens.

Dream Director: Mike Leigh

Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent

The Episode: The Doctor and Rose wind up in the Scottish moors of 1879, and encounter Queen Victoria on her way to Balmoral. Invited to join her, the pair stay with her at the Torchwood Estate – unaware that it’s been infiltrated by a clergy of monks who are hoping to turn the Queen into a werewolf.

The Movie: History-twisting horror, in which Queen Victoria is the target of a werewolf ring who want to create the new ‘Empire of the Wolf’. When they eventually succeed in turning her, though, the Queen doesn’t seem much different…

Dream Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Christopher Lee, Maggie Smith, Johnny Depp

The Episode: The Doctor and Martha arrive in a futuristic New York, where the fast lane on the grid is a fearsome place where people disappear. The Doc then meets a cat man and human woman in the form of Dr Kincade and his wife, and discovers that they have been stuck in a traffic queue for years, with no sign of it letting up.

The Movie: A sort of future-set remake of Road Games crossed with Mad Max , in which people now live their lives in the confinement of their vehicles, sat in a never-ending queue toward some unknown destination. It’s a metaphor for life or something.

Dream Director: The Wachowskis

Cast: Rachel Weisz, Robert De Niro

The Episode: The Doctor and Martha arrive in a futuristic New York, where the fast lane on the grid is a fearsome place where people disappear. The Doc then meets a cat man and human woman in the form of Dr Kincade and his wife, and discovers that they have been stuck in a traffic queue for years, with no sign of it letting up.

The Movie: A sort of future-set remake of Road Games crossed with Mad Max , in which people now live their lives in the confinement of their vehicles, sat in a never-ending queue toward some unknown destination. It’s a metaphor for life or something.

Dream Director: The Wachowskis

Cast: Rachel Weisz, Robert De Niro

The Episode: The Doctor and Donna pitch up in Pompeii, the day before Mount Vesuvius is set to erupt and kill all who live there. Meanwhile, giant rock creatures called the Pyrovile use the volcano to transform humans into more Pyroviles…

The Movie: In Pompeii, life is going on as usual – until an earthquake unsettles its occupants, and Vesuvius starts to smoulder. When a local woman starts seeing visions of an impending tragedy, she attempts to stop it happening – and is sent on a perilous quest to prove that the people of Pompeii are worth saving.

Dream Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Angelina Jolie

The Episode: During World War II, the Doctor meets Dr Judson, who inadvertently releases Fenric. An old foe of the Doctor’s, Fenric is an evil entity who the Doctor once banished by winning a game of chess. He’s also brought evil Haemovore, vampiric creatures, back to life…

The Movie: When a meteor crash lands on Earth, it brings with it the discovery of a fossilised creature. As scientists experiment on it, one scientist snags his finger, and a drop of blood lands on the fossil. That night, the creature returns to life, and sets about creating more of its brethren out of human hosts.

Dream Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett

The Episode: Professor Lazarus, living in present day London, attempts to find a cure for aging. But the experiment goes horribly wrong and the professor turns into an abomination.

The Movie: Monster movie! A post-modern twist on Frankenstein sees the scientist himself transform into the monster, as a whitecoat attempts to reverse his aging process using gene splicing. As a consequence, he turns into a horrific monster. Not to be confused with The Fly .

Dream Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen

The Episode: The Doctor and Rose discover that clockwork devils are using fireplaces to enter homes on Earth.

The Movie: When a shoemaker’s daughter goes missing in the 17th century, he finds her favourite doll lying in the fireplace in her bedroom. Stepping into the chimney, he’s transported to a scary, futuristic ship where clockwork menaces are stealing children to eat their life force…

Dream Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ron Perlman

The Episode: The Doctor finds himself pulled out of reality into the world of fiction, where White Robots, Rapunzel and Gulliver all cross his path.

The Movie: Inkheart , but better. A jilted lover puts a curse on the man who spurned her, making it so that whichever book he picks up brings characters out of the pages and into the real world. Soon Voldemort, Darth Vader and the Red Queen are all after him…

Dream Director: Wolfgang Peterson

Cast: Ben Barnes

The Episode: A number of individuals race through space on yacht-like spaceships in order to win the ultimate prize – enlightenment.

The Movie: Space Race – a CG animation in which members of different planets race through the universe, dodging the various pitfalls along the way. Young Geo wants to win so that she can use the prize money to settle her planet’s crippling debts – can she do it?

Dream Director: John Lasseter

Cast: Various famous voice talents

The Episode: The Doctor and co land on the planet Vortis, and discover that it’s being controlled by giant ant-like aliens called the Zarbi.

The Movie: B-movie heaven in this ‘50s throwback, which features stampeding killer ants that need food for their young - and the only thing on the menu is human. Antz this ain’t.

Dream Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Chloe Moretz, Andrew Lincoln

The Episode: The Doctor arrives on his home planet, Gallifrey, where he stands accused of assassinating the Time Lord President.

The Movie: A big screen version of Dr Who that introduces our multi-organed hero afresh, and delves into his backstory. The Doctor is summoned to Gallifrey by the Time Lords, and must battle a deadly assassin in The Matrix – a nightmare world where it’s a fight to the death.

Dream Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast: David Tennant

The Episode: In 1883, the Doctor and Ace discover a household being run by an alien in human form, Josiah Samuel Smith, who is heading a plot to kill Queen Victoria and restore the British Empire to the glory of its early years.

The Movie: In modern day, an alien who empathises with the British public hatches a plan to bring down the Coalition Government. With a crew of human helpers, he masterminds a way to break into the Houses of Parliament and undo them from the inside.

Dream Director: Frank Darabont

Cast: Michael Sheen, Liam Neeson, Imogen Poots

The Episode: The Doctor travels to Varos in order to replenish his depleted zeiton 7 stores, which he needs in order to run the TARDIS. The planet is basically a prison for the poverty-stricken, who are entertained with public shows of torture.

The Movie: An inmate at a planet-sized prison is forced to fight other inmates as a form of entertainment. When he refuses to fight anymore, he’s entered into a deadly championship that could finally see the end of him.

Dream Director: Gus van Sant

Cast: Daniel Craig

The Episode: William Shakespeare crops up as the Doctor visits the Globe theatre in 1599. As the prolific writer puts the final touches to his new play Love’s Labour’s Won , a coven of witches plot to bring about the apocalypse by hiding a code in the play’s final pages.

The Movie: William Shakespeare falls in love with a beautiful woman, unaware that she’s a witch plotting to raise Satan from his hellpit. When she asks him to write a poem, he’s also unaware that it’s really an incantation to raise said Devil. Can Shakespeare save the day?

Dream Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Jude Law

The Episode: The Doctor and Peri find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic drug war when they land on Androzani Minor, a planet where a life-prolonging drug called spextrox is being refined. Overseeing the operation is Sharaz Jek, a madman who takes a shine to Peri.

The Movie: On a faraway planet, a humanoid whose brother dies after overdosing on an exotic new drug makes it his mission to bring down those responsible. As he works his way up through an alien gangster hierarchy, he comes face to face with the terrifying Jek…

Dream Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Christian Bale, Christoph Waltz

The Episode: The Doctor lands on a jungle planet, where the evil, snake-like Mara attacks any who cross its path. The slithery beast attacks by infecting a person’s subconscious and breaking down their confidence until they give in.

The Movie: On a strange other planet, four male humanoids all want to marry the same female. In order to prove their worth, they each enter the jungle in order to attain the head of the Mara. Whoever survives gets his girl. But will any of them emerge alive?

Dream Director: Robert Rodriguez

Cast: Unknowns

The Episode: The Doctor and Donna attend a dinner party in 1926 that is being attended by the one and only Agatha Christie. But soon guests show up dead, seemingly murdered based on Christie’s own stories. Then there’s a big giant wasp buzzing about the place…

The Movie: A sci-fi twist on the life of Agatha Christie, based on her actual and unexplained 10 day disappearance. Christie becomes the victim of an amorous fan, who begins offing innocent people in ways that Christie killed her own characters as a sort of valentine. Then there’s that giant wasp…

Dream Director: Duncan Jones

Cast: Judi Dench

The Episode: The Doctor investigates when an unseen killer starts offing the crew of a sandminer vehicle. Are the robots onboard responsible, or could the threat be human?

The Movie: Technological paranoia comes to a head as a futuristic high rise in San Francisco goes into lockdown when a member of staff is found murdered in the middle of the day. Could the creepy robots who do the office’s menial tasks be the ones getting stab-happy?

Dream Director: John McTiernan

Cast: Bruce Willis

The Episode: Donna and The Doctor answer a distress signal that takes them to the 51st Century. There, they find a planet-sized library that appears to be devoid of life, despite the Library’s computer claiming that millions of lifeforms exist there.

The Movie: Stay away from the shadows! A ‘50s set horror sees darkness itself coming alive to claim innocent victims. It has no rhyme or reason. But what is everybody to do when a solar eclipse is scheduled?

Dream Director: Tobe Hooper

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Samantha Morton

The Episode: On the planet Telos, a human archaeologist is attempting to dig up the last of the Cybermen tombs. When the Doctor arrives, he discovers that Klieg and his business partner Kaftan are planning on reviving the Cybermen.

The Movie: On Mars, an excursion of expertly trained archaeologists are digging up the remains of a lost civilisation. When they crack open an air-tight tomb, they awaken a legion of robotic henchmen, who declare all-out war on the universe.

Dream Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Hugh Jackman

The Episode: Martha and The Doctor attempt to rescue an alien ship that is hurtling towards the sun. With only 42 minutes to stop it (hmm, isn’t that almost the length of an episode?), their plight is not helped when a mysterious presence on the ship starts murdering the crew.

The Movie: Sunshine II: Solar Flare . The inhabitants of Earth are rescued by friendly aliens just in time to escape the sun’s supernova – but their struggles are not over, as the ship gets dragged in by the gravity of another star near the aliens’ homeworld. Cue screams and soapy drama.

Dream Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Keira Knightley