In my story, I originally planned to use Doctor Who's villain called the Weeping Angels. But, taking the fact that I would like the publish the story and not owning rights to the Weeping Angel character, I need to create a character like the Weeping Angel from scratch. How can I create a new character with the same concept without ripping off the Weeping Angel character?
The idea of the Weeping Angel isn't going to get a whole lot of protection. You could change the name and use similar characteristics and probably be fine. The issue, though, is that readers are going to immediately see what you're doing and many of them conclude you ripped off the monsters. Those are popular Dr. Who episodes, and Moffat even won the Hugo for the first one. They've received a lot of play in commentary outside the show. So if you want to avoid the comparison all together, it would be best to go in a different direction. If you feel you have to have some of the characteristics of the Weeping Angel, try to identify the characteristic that is most important to you, then jettison the rest and go in a different direction with it.
That's a tough question... The weeping angel's are a pretty popular DW monster, very unique and interesting. So, unless you can find a way to detach them from Doctor Who in people's minds (ie: Changing them up enough that people won't recognize them as weeping angels) every Doctor Who fan from here to Timbuktu upon reading it will think, "This guy stole the weeping angels!" If this is something that you want to try and publish, I'm sure that you can come up with something original! The weeping angels were an original idea once! Even if you use them as a jumping off point, i'm sure that with some brainstorming and a little time you could come up with something really cool that's different enough that people wouldn't read it and instantly think your characters should be busting out sonic screwdrivers and bolting for the TARDIS. Hope this helps!
For a time, the Weeping Angels surpassed the Daleks in popularity. No way can you use anything resembling them in a story without Whovians recognizing them and despising you for ripping them off.
Thanks. I actually started coming up with an idea that would separate it from them. It's still going to require alot of thinking and work, but I think I can figure it out now.v
I figured out a solution and created a character that won't rip off the weeping angels. Thank you for helping.
