Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

That's a decent point. The Time War can be seen as a metaphor for the cancellation of the show in the '80s, with Gallifrey's restoration during the 50th Anniversary likewise being the show growing beyond having that chip on its shoulder and no longer having to be defensive and moody and lightly badass about it. I'm not sure what Gallifrey being re-destroyed in a far more perfunctory and unaffecting way by the Master, and having all the people turned into regenerating Cybermen, is supposed to represent, but Gallifrey does have a history of being a stand-in for Doctor Who's relationship with its own larger Doctor-Who-ness.

 

now you got me curious. What would the other Gallifrey stories represent, say, "The Deadly Assassin" or "The War Games"?

 

In terms of the original series, I was thinking more generally, that more Gallifrey stuff happening in Doctor Who would generally correlate with how self-serious and impenetrable the show was about its lore and legacy, but my point mainly applied to the revival.

 

Yep. As weird as it sounds, there are people who only tune into Doctor Who to watch regeneration episodes. What better way is there to celebrate BBC's 100th anniversary than to have to have a regeneration happen and bring in all those viewers?

Tradition. The one thing everyone looks forward to in a Doctor's finale is getting to see the new Doctor, even if it's just a one scene cameo with them wearing their predecessor's costume. RTD definitely understands the importance of having the new Doctor show up in their predecessor's finale. In The Writer's Tale, he talks about how he spent an entire week getting arguments ready to convince Moffat they needed to have the Eleventh Doctor in TEOT, only to find out when he had a meeting with Moffat that Moffat had spent the preceding week getting arguments ready to convince RTD the same thing.

 

I think she will.

Eccleston- He's out

David Tennant- Probably one more time

Matt Smith- He seems game for it unless his work schedule interferes (Movie or GoT prequel filming)

Peter Capaldi- He said he wouldn't be returning for any future specials.


The other doctors are getting too old to carry a 90 minute special.

 

Brilliant! Of course they did!

 

The good news about this is people on YouTube will never complain about Doctor Who anymore. Finally fandom will be at peace.

 

Yes, this is for sure to happen!

 

io9's James Whitbrook thinks that Davies' (re)hiring might herald Doctor Who many spinoffs like Davies tried to do during his time because the all of the big franchises are doing it now. (Forgetting, of course, the fact that Star Trek did the same thing a decade before Davies...)

Here's the important part of the article:

“I was in the middle of running an empire, and my god I did that 10 years too soon, didn’t I?,” Davies recently told writer Paul Kirkley. “There should be a Doctor Who channel now. You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble, and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a 10-part series.”

It’s hard to state how unprecedented Davies’ shepherding of Doctor Who along its rise to success in those early days was, especially considering the current media environment. Having behind-the-scenes accompaniments like Doctor Who: Confidential, announcements of “mature” spinoffs like Torchwood, or something like The Sarah Jane Adventures—an even more explicitly family-focused riff on Doctor Who—and airing them alongside the continuation of the main series, with characters from each bounding around to show up on them, was practically unheard of at the time. Now? It’s just... what happens on TV.​

 

Yes, there's some speculation that RTD might ultimately go on to become more of a Berman/Kurtzman-style overseer of the franchise rather than a showrunner, once the first couple of series are off the ground. But it is just speculation as far as I know.

 

I really don't think so. If that were the case, they'd have specified that at the article.

 

Berman was only brought in to produce TNG initially. The franchise part comes later! It's all total speculation based on Russell's "wouldn't this be great" interview. All we know is that there's a special and at least one series to follow.

 

I could get behind that.

I doubt they'd make a thing of it this early, but I'll bet it's on the radar.

 

Pessimistic I know, but RTD's return does prompt the question, if it turns out even he can't generate an upswing in ratings etc, where do the BBC go from there?

 

Silver catsuit?

 

Christmas, Easter and summer specials.

 

Doctor Who prequel, pre-First Doctor where the Doctor smokes cigarettes and wears a yellow rain coat

 

Unless your name is Jed Mercurio the days of 2005-2009 ratings are gone for television in general, let alone DW, so I'm not sure what metrics the Beeb will be using to judge their no doubt sizable investment in him and Bad Wolf on.

And it should be mentioned that Chibnall's series have still beaten 90% of the rest of drama on British TV in the ratings and aren't that far off what Moffat was getting for Capaldi's series.

 

I think eventually the show will leave the BBC and new episodes will come from HBOMAX. Then we will see the spinoffs. One about The Master, a Amy and Rory dealing with weird stuff happening in 1940s New York. A. Trek like spaceship show, and a Susan living on earth show.

 

8th Doctor show. 8th Doctor show. 8th Doctor show.