Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[jaime]

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.

It was still a bit… ropey. More for its clumsy ‘look bad government! All Cops Are Daleks! Defund Skaro!’ Stuff, and the fact that not only did Remembrance Of The Daleks do a significantly better story with its use of very very similar elements, but even farting Slitheen and Scissor Sisters Master did a better job with the political aspect.

Maybe it’s because I spent so long with the Cartmel era, but the Chibnall era was utter pony at doing commentary and allegory. McCoy and Capaldi were the best Doctors for that stuff (Battlefield, Happiness Patrol, Remembrance — heck, just through in all of seasons 25 and 26 — and Zygon Inversion and The Doctor Falls should have scenes and stories taught in schools) Whitaker was sadly saddled with sixth form am-dram stuff in comparison.

Though now am thinking about it, it’s possible I have ‘Daleks invade a big yellow storage’ confused with ‘that shit one that had police Daleks in’.

 

[The Wormhole]

Oh no, I was referring to the police Daleks one. Granted, in the case of its commentary on police brutality that was hardly prescient given that stuff was happening before 2020. I was more just referring to the fact that throughout the year, I wondered if the special would fit with a world that was essentially shut down due to the pandemic, and for the most part, it actually did. Though I guess it helped somewhat that like the US, Britain was a country where there were large amounts of the population ignoring the pandemic precautions so it wasn't so jarring in the few scenes where we do see large crowds gathered.

 

[jaime]

Oh no, I was referring to the police Daleks one. Granted, in the case of its commentary on police brutality that was hardly prescient given that stuff was happening before 2020. I was more just referring to the fact that throughout the year, I wondered if the special would fit with a world that was essentially shut down due to the pandemic, and for the most part, it actually did. Though I guess it helped somewhat that like the US, Britain was a country where there were large amounts of the population ignoring the pandemic precautions so it wasn't so jarring in the few scenes where we do see large crowds gathered.

I’m just glad it didn’t go too far in on it (though frankly, to be properly done, it really bloody should have) and such commentary as there was was barely there, and more about ‘government adopts silly electronic surveillance tech of unknown origin for policing and it bites them in the arse’ than ‘police brutality’ as that could have been *horribly* insensitively done in the wake of George Floyd and things closer to home.
It was basically more about China than policing, in a way, but it was all so clumsy you’d barely notice. (When it came to it, the doctor did the equivalent of dealing with a racist Trump-loving thug street gang by calling in a time travelling third reich with no planning, then resolved that problem by killing a living being of an endangered species… all in about thirty seconds)
Some of Who’s allegories have dated badly — Peladon, arguably for instance — and some are timeless. Some of the timeless ones seemed dated at one point (Battlefields CND ending should have been relegated, but is sadly more relevant than ever) but things like Orphen 55 fall into neither category by being at roughly the same level as clumsier episodes of Thundercats. Kerblam has already aged like fine milk.

As to the future… well, we should be glad Walliams was nasty and under a lot of rubber I suspect.

 

[Rich Watson]

Russell will be appearing as one of the experts on game show "The Wheel". (Three guesses for his specialised subject). Unknown air date but probably in November.

He should really be hosting masterclasses for other showrunners on how to publicise your show.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/russell-t-davies-the-wheel-doctor-who-expert-newsupdate/

 

[Starkers]

Agreed but it shouldn't just be the showrunners job to bang the drum, specialist PR within the BBC should have been doing this. Now if, as may be, Chibnall forbade them from doing this because he wanted to keep things a secret then it's on him, but if it was the BBC who said "Well RTD and Moffat could sell their own show why can't you?" then it's on them for not supporting/directing him to sell the bloody show!

 

[jaime]

Agreed but it shouldn't just be the showrunners job to bang the drum, specialist PR within the BBC should have been doing this. Now if, as may be, Chibnall forbade them from doing this because he wanted to keep things a secret then it's on him, but if it was the BBC who said "Well RTD and Moffat could sell their own show why can't you?" then it's on them for not supporting/directing him to sell the bloody show!

To be fair, it’s been pretty much part of the job since at least 1981.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Agreed but it shouldn't just be the showrunners job to bang the drum, specialist PR within the BBC should have been doing this. Now if, as may be, Chibnall forbade them from doing this because he wanted to keep things a secret then it's on him, but if it was the BBC who said "Well RTD and Moffat could sell their own show why can't you?" then it's on them for not supporting/directing him to sell the bloody show!

THANK YOU.

I'm so sick of this "Look at what Davies is doing!" crap.

 

[Mr Awe]

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

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

I agree. I won't rehash this in much detail because I've stated this several times here. But it makes much more sense for the Master to be the Timeless Child. If RTD made that change, I'd be thrilled. But that's not going to happen!

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think it’s pretty much always been clear that Doctor Who world isn’t supposed to be the real world. It’s not even a thing like Star Trek where there’s even some sort of debate to be had about it.

A spaceship was not broadcast over mass-media, crashing through the Elizabeth Tower in 2005.

Atlantis isn’t real.

The Mona Lisa is not a fake. Or at least if it is, it doesn’t have ‘THIS IS A FAKE’ drawn under the canvas, apparently centuries prior, with a 20th Century marker pen.

As far as I’m aware, there are no dormant colonies of anthropomorphic reptiles, hibernating underground in our world.

Not seeing COVID in Who never felt jarring to me. COVID didn’t happen in Doctor Who world. Good for all the people there.

Whatever Doctor Who looks like next year at Christmas doesn’t have to hold up to developments in the real world.

There have been times… times when Doctor Who has tried to sort of vaguely align itself with the real world, but it can’t help itself and before long we’ve got Autons turning over buses in central London in a time of cellphone cameras and *boof*, back in Doctor Who world we are.

I think the format of the show requires it to be so in order for it to be able to tell the stories that it does.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

To be fair, it’s been pretty much part of the job since at least 1981.

1963. Verity Lambert used to do a share of interviews, publicity shoots and so on don’t forget.

The producers go up and down in how prominent they wanted to be, but I’d say Letts and Dicks always had their finger on the press as well.’They used to think about season openers and big finales very seriously.

I’d say Dicks’s ‘The Making of Doctor Who’ is just as seminal a document as RTD’s published production diaries. It’s a distant ancestor I suppose.

 

[jaime]

1963. Verity Lambert used to do a share of interviews, publicity shoots and so on don’t forget.

The producers go up and down in how prominent they wanted to be, but I’d say Letts and Dicks always had their finger on the press as well.’They used to think about season openers and big finales very seriously.

I’d say Dicks’s ‘The Making of Doctor Who’ is just as seminal a document as RTD’s published production diaries. It’s a distant ancestor I suppose.

My copy is battered. I also suspect it’s my second copy xD
I just tend to think of JNT when it comes to the *pushing* to get Who in the public eye, rather than just being part of the BBC machine getting it done internally.

 

[jaime]

I think it’s pretty much always been clear that Doctor Who world isn’t supposed to be the real world. It’s not even a thing like Star Trek where there’s even some sort of debate to be had about it.

A spaceship was not broadcast over mass-media, crashing through the Elizabeth Tower in 2005.

Atlantis isn’t real.

The Mona Lisa is not a fake. Or at least if it is, it doesn’t have ‘THIS IS A FAKE’ drawn under the canvas, apparently centuries prior, with a 20th Century marker pen.

As far as I’m aware, there are no dormant colonies of anthropomorphic reptiles, hibernating underground in our world.

Not seeing COVID in Who never felt jarring to me. COVID didn’t happen in Doctor Who world. Good for all the people there.

Whatever Doctor Who looks like next year at Christmas doesn’t have to hold up to developments in the real world.

There have been times… times when Doctor Who has tried to sort of vaguely align itself with the real world, but it can’t help itself and before long we’ve got Autons turning over buses in central London in a time of cellphone cameras and *boof*, back in Doctor Who world we are.

I think the format of the show requires it to be so in order for it to be able to tell the stories that it does.

One of the things I keep pointing out is how celebrity casting can backfire. We’re just lucky a Fix For Sontarans was not a Quid Pro Quo, and that Savile wasn’t in Trial Of A Timelord as a result.
That kind of real world shift is different to fictional universes not quite aligning with the real world. Though it would be awkward if something big happened, like the States of America splitting, or the UK rejoining the EU and stories had explicitly relied on the status quo in some manner. (Unit vanishing for the sake of joke probably wouldn’t be enough, and it popped back into existence luckily.)

 

[Rich Watson]

I am highly, highly, highly (x60) doubtful but there are claims now that the Specials will release on iPlayer/Disney+ on the 21st-23rd November, with BBC TV broadcasts happening over the next three weekends.

 

[matthunter]

I think it’s pretty much always been clear that Doctor Who world isn’t supposed to be the real world. It’s not even a thing like Star Trek where there’s even some sort of debate to be had about it.

A spaceship was not broadcast over mass-media, crashing through the Elizabeth Tower in 2005.

Atlantis isn’t real.

The Mona Lisa is not a fake. Or at least if it is, it doesn’t have ‘THIS IS A FAKE’ drawn under the canvas, apparently centuries prior, with a 20th Century marker pen.

As far as I’m aware, there are no dormant colonies of anthropomorphic reptiles, hibernating underground in our world.

Not seeing COVID in Who never felt jarring to me. COVID didn’t happen in Doctor Who world. Good for all the people there.

Whatever Doctor Who looks like next year at Christmas doesn’t have to hold up to developments in the real world.

There have been times… times when Doctor Who has tried to sort of vaguely align itself with the real world, but it can’t help itself and before long we’ve got Autons turning over buses in central London in a time of cellphone cameras and *boof*, back in Doctor Who world we are.

I think the format of the show requires it to be so in order for it to be able to tell the stories that it does.

Not seen or mentioned directly on the main show, but the Thirteen webcast "Message from the Doctor" alludes to it, and "The Zygon Isolation" webcast was pretty direct about lockdown, featuring the two Osgoods chatting on Zoom and lamenting it's hampering one of them getting hold of a repeat prescription for their inhaler. "Hands, Face, Space" posters are also seen in the background in the TV ep "The Vanquishers" during Jodie's Flux series.

 

[Samurai8472]

The Instagram Subwave just confirmed a trailer tomorrow with more binary.


And there won't be a DW panel at NYCC this year

https://twitter.com/DoctorWhoPN/status/1705224463095058750

 

[The Wormhole]

That link's speculation is way off. They say a panel at NYCC wouldn't be possible because of the strikes, but the strikes are technically a non factor since Doctor Who's writers are not WGA, and its actors are not SAG-AFTRA.

Granted, RTD does support the strikes (or at least the WGA strike) and chose to cancel the Doctor Who panel at San Diego to stand in solidarity with the WGA, which is likely what's happening with NYCC as well.

 

[EnderAKH]

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.

This year's 2024 special starring Russell Brand as the Doctor!!

......too soon?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

This year's 2024 special starring Russell Brand as the Doctor!!

......too soon?

That wasn't funny before this week anyways. I've never liked that asshole.

 

[Rich Watson]

What does it say about me that the first thing I did after a seven hour flight was to open YouTube to watch the new trailer. And only then text my family to let thrm know I'd landed.

 

[Rich Watson]

Two quick thoughts: Ncuti's pretty clearly in the same place where all the old Doctors are in POTD, right?

UNIT are now based out of Avengers Tower. Disney synergy in action.