Anthony Head Says Doctor Who Owes a Debt to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
By Barry Rice
British actor Anthony Head, who has a long and varied history with Doctor Who, says in a new interview that the revived series took influence from his previous show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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For seven seasons, Head played Buffy’s mentor, Rupert Giles, on the UPN series (where he was credited by his full name, Anthony Stewart Head). Prior to Buffy, Head was under consideration to play the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who TV-movie, and has since gone on to do voice work and narration in several Doctor Who productions.
Head is mostly remembered by Whovians, though, for his guest-starring role in the 2006 Doctor Who episode, ‘School Reunion,’ where he played the evil headmaster, Mr. Finch. A few weeks ago, Head was voted as the best guest-star of the modern Doctor Who era by the readers of RadioTimes.com. In a new follow-up interview, Head talks about the precedent set by Buffy:
"“Russell T Davies said that he used Buffy as a model for when he was rebranding Doctor Who, because [Buffy creator] Joss Whedon was the first person to actually say you can have genuine comedy and life-changing events happening on the turn of a dime.“You could laugh in one moment and be terrified the next moment, and the two emotions actually complement each other.“Joss was also very keen to make sure that every event had a repercussion. Nothing happened without it having a follow through. He changed the face of sci-fi TV as a genre, I think, completely.”"
It’s a valid point. Buffy essentially changed the game when it came to genre television and, in some ways, all of television. It was smart, sophisticated television that blended sci-fi, horror, light comedy, and drama, and featured strong, well-written female characters. Certainly Doctor Who took influence from Buffy, as did nearly every other genre show that’s followed it.
Related: Buffy’s Anthony Head Keen to Return to Doctor Who
In the interview, Head also talked about his initial reluctance to take on the Finch role in ‘School Reunion’:
"“I almost didn’t know about doing the part initially. I always like to keep people guessing, like to sort of keep pushing what people think I do. It was a schoolteacher, it was a headmaster and I thought ‘ooh, is that a bit close to Buffy?’“Then I read it and it was such a great character. I’d love to see Mr Finch come back in some incarnation.”"
For now, Head is still dabbling in genre television with a regular role on SyFy’s Dominion — yet another show I’ve been meaning to check out but just can’t get past my distaste for. I never saw Legion (the 2010 film that Dominion is based on), but it looked dreadful. Am I wrong?
What do you think, Watchers? Does Doctor Who owe a debt of influence to Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Sound off in the comments below!