Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[Richard S. Ta]

It's mad that they are filming the Christmas 2024 episode so far in advance. Seems like RTD is coming in with all guns blazing and getting a lot of work in the can before broadcast time.

Starting to get really excited now.

 

[Rich Watson]

It's mad that they are filming the Christmas 2024 episode so far in advance. Seems like RTD is coming in with all guns blazing and getting a lot of work in the can before broadcast time.

Ncuti has said in interviews that he wants to get back into the theater after he finishes the second series, so I'm hoping that part of the reason for the advanced schedule is to give him time to do something before coming back for a third series.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Doctor Who is my number one TV show. Always has been. This is going to be a ride. I haven’t been so excited about Who since Series 8 was airing.

For sure, everything that’s coming looks interesting. Somehow avoiding looking like the ‘same old’, whilst simultaneously bringing back 10 and Donna.

It’s gonna be bold for sure. Very exciting times to come.

 

[Rich Watson]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... 2024.

 

[jaime]

Going to be awkward if we get invaded or undergo a massive cultural shift by 2024 and Christmas trees aren’t a thing anymore. Mind you, I spose at that point Who won’t be on either.

 

[Mr Awe]

Setting aside any views we may have about the concept of the Timeless Child, I can imagine RTD seeing the potential for getting the odd big name to pop up for a handful of episodes, people who'd never sign on to be the Doctor for three seasons but are quite happy to be the Doctor for an episode or two. (imagining Kate Winslet popping in once a season as Doctor -4)

Yup! I'm sure that's the aspect of the Timeless Child that RTD loves! You can have big name single shot Doctors that don't need to fit in a specific slot other than being pre-Hartnell. That door is wide open now. Perhaps even theatrical movies with the right person.

 

[Mr Awe]

I am think a more metaphorical erasure. A ‘don’t ask don’t tell, and we’re not gonna mention it’

My druthers would be to handle the Timeless Child just like they did with the half-human thing, just not mention it. Let it fade away.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's mad that they are filming the Christmas 2024 episode so far in advance.

That's nothing. I remember RTD saying in an interview last December that he was writing the script then, noting it'll be the first Christmas special he wrote during the Christmas season.

Going to be awkward if we get invaded or undergo a massive cultural shift by 2024 and Christmas trees aren’t a thing anymore. Mind you, I spose at that point Who won’t be on either.

You sure are a cheerful one.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

My druthers would be to handle the Timeless Child just like they did with the half-human thing, just not mention it. Let it fade away.

I am hoping RTD just moves along with his own stuff and leaves what has gone behind him, and bring us some new stuff with a new Doctor, new companions and a new refreshed show, and all wrpped nicely up in a 60th anni refresh, the perfect place to start for all the above.

 

[jaime]

My druthers would be to handle the Timeless Child just like they did with the half-human thing, just not mention it. Let it fade away.

I was talking more about what I *didn’t* want to happen to everything between Tennant and Tennant, that the TC. The TC stuff in some respects I would rather see addressed and… changed retrospectively into something else. It’s fair game, from a certain point of view, since it flew so directly in the face of so much stuff that had gone before without any apparent payoff, or care. It was the opposite of ‘putting the mystery back in’ as really it was just ‘changing the character into something else’. In fact, it was almost anti-ethical to the character origins as had evolved until then — if I was being charitable, I could suggest it was a reaction to potentially colonial attitudes or interpretation of the previous set-up, and intentionally changed the Doctor from ‘saviour/coloniser’ into ‘avenger/victim’ but I am not sure if that implies more thought than actually went into it, or is actually even more distasteful in the subtext than some of the stuff we got on screen in that period.

Quietly contradicting it left right and centre until it fades into memory is fine though.

 

[jaime]

That's nothing. I remember RTD saying in an interview last December that he was writing the script then, noting it'll be the first Christmas special he wrote during the Christmas season.

You sure are a cheerful one.

I was largely joking. Though fundamentally, I do hope the cultural landscape doesn’t change too rapidly between now and transmission. At the moment it’s quite handy that Brand only guest starred in the Olympics, rather than Who, for example.

 

[Rich Watson]

So... given that Millie turned up in her outfit from this year's Christmas Special it looks like it was actually reshoots/extra shooting after all.

Not a total waste though as we did get this out it!

 

[jaime]

He’s regenerated into Alan Cumming

 

[Haggis and tatties]

He seems to have found Jamies old kilt.

 

[jaime]

He seems to have found Jamies old kilt.

I don’t know… from the length, are we sure it isn’t Peri’s? She went through a plaid stage…

 

[Starkers]

So... given that Millie turned up in her outfit from this year's Christmas Special it looks like it was actually reshoots/extra shooting after all.

Not a total waste though as we did get this out it!

Hmm, a time traveller outside of a bookies...

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I don’t know… from the length, are we sure it isn’t Peri’s? She went through a plaid stage…

Could be.

 

[The Wormhole]

Though fundamentally, I do hope the cultural landscape doesn’t change too rapidly between now and transmission.

I remember worrying that Revolution of the Daleks (the 2021 New Year's special) was going to look dated AF given it was filmed in the fall of 2019 and 2020 was a year that had some... significant changes occur throughout the world. But in the end, Revolution held up reasonably well for something written and filmed before a year that saw some drastic changes by the time the episode aired. So in the end. I wouldn't worry too much about whether something filmed now will accurately reflect the world we live in when it airs in late 2024.

 

[Rich Watson]

Today's WhoSpy.

That's the UNIT helipad on the screen and I know what they want us to think with those sunglasses but I wonder if this could be Osgood's desk?

 

[jaime]

Today's WhoSpy.

That's the UNIT helipad on the screen and I know what they want us to think with those sunglasses but I wonder if this could be Osgood's desk?

Ace and Seven confirmed due to their Raybans in Silver Nemesis?