Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

I disagree, and would wager that Filoni, Lucas, and others would (disagree) as well.

This conversation has gone wildly off-topic, though.

I'm rewatching David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor right now, and can't help but wonder if RTD will endeavor to - or have the time to - establish a personality difference for the Fourteenth Doctor or if he'll just treat Fourteen's personality as an evolution of Ten's.

 

This seemed appropriate.

 

In a vain attempt to get us back to Doctor Who, there's good news that the series was the most watched programme on iPlayer in 2022, after the World Cup.

So in a sense it had already become largely a streaming show even before Disney came along.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/world-cup-wins-2022-in-record-breaking-year-iplayer

 

My best guess, based on very little other than a hunch, is that he’ll be like 10. I think that had DT been back to do a full few seasons in the TARDIS, then he and Russell would’ve been keen to show his versatility and have him play a different take on the Doctor (many people have said that they thought Davison could’ve done likewise over the years). But this is not only a short return, it’s a 60th anniversary return. So I think they’ll lean into the nostalgia (as the “teeth” throwback seemed to hint, as does the return of Donna and Wilf).

Obviously both men are older and I don’t expect it to be a total retread of something they did over a decade, which is why he’s being referred to as 14 and not 10. But I think that they’re gonna want his return to be a crowd pleaser and give the fans some of the old magic.

 

RTD has said that like Moffat, he writes the Doctor the same regardless of incarnation and that it's up to the individual actors to interpret the written character in their onw unique ways. So, yes, in writing the Fourteenth will be written the same way the Tenth and Ninth were. Whether Tennant plays the Fourteenth the same way he played the Tenth or if he goes a different route will be a decision he makes.

 

I'd agree with what people have said, the whole point of brining David back is nostalgia and to give the franchise a boost, plus this seems to be a very particular kind of regeneration (the clothing changing etc) which makes it clear the Doctor isn't just regenerating into a new version with an old face, but an old version with an old face (if that makes sense?)

I do expect Tennant to change things of course, but I think they'll be nuances, he's not suddenly going to start playing Fourteen like a nervous Scottish academic who can't make eye contact with anyone.

 

I agree...but, damnit, now I want to see that!

 

I can sort of see it with Eccleston and Tennant (at least at first.
But at what point can the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors be argued to be written the same?
The difference me between them don’t just come from acting choices and actor personality.
I just cannot see Matt Smith saying many of the same lines as Peter Capaldi and still come over as the same Doctor incarnation.

 

I agree with you re Peter’s first season. Moff was definitely writing him differently - the whole “am I a good man?” stuff and the abrasiveness to Clara (telling her she was homely etc). But I think after a while he more or less wrote them the same and that, to me anyway, is when Peter seemed to be more comfortable in the role. The stuff with the guitar etc., to me, could totally have been played by Matt. YMMV, obviously.

 

I thought RTD already said the clothes changing during the regeneration didn't mean anything beyond RTD not wanting the only image of Tennant going around for the next year to be of him wearing Whittaker's outfit?

Granted, Moffat made the claim about writing the Doctor the same regardless of incarnation during Smith's run before Capaldi was cast. Indeed, when the audition script leaked that they wanted potential Twelfth Doctor actors to use, a common complaint among many fans who read it was that it seemed written specifically for Smith.

I think what it came down to was when writing Capaldi's first season, Moffat was becoming somewhat worn and rundown, particularly coming right off the 50th anniversary celebrations which Moffat has admitted left him burned out. He was genuinely looking to change things up, as also reflected in many interviews he did at the time and so went ahead and wrote a completely different Doctor along with. Though as noted, as Capaldi's run went along, the Twelfth gradually went back to being a more traditional sort of Doctor, which was partially at the request of Capaldi himself.

 

Capaldi has said grumpy Doctor was how he wanted to play it but also that he now understands that it's not what the audience wanted from the character.

 

I want Fourteen to start writing things down on a chalkboard!

 

Subscribers copies of the new DWM are arriving today so a few bits of news have come out.

The Specials will definitely all air in November and Russell would keep everything about the second one (which is one we know nothing about) secret until transmission if it was entirely up to him.

Another new director announced and despite some grasping-at-straws speculation that came up recently it's not Edgar Wright. Julie Anne Robinson who has mostly worked in America on some very well known shows*. (She's also making the upcoming Jekyll & Hyde series starring Mr and Mrs Tennant.)


*Including the Cones of Dunshire episode of Parks and Recreation.

 

Speaking of Moffat, as we were a few posts ago, he says we shouldn’t expect any episodes written by him in the near future. Of course, we all know his elasticity with the truth where DW is concerned… https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/steven-moffat-doctor-who-forever-exclusive-newsupdate/

 

I won't believe it until it doesn't happen.

 

Of course saying "I would have to be insane to do that!" isn't exactly a no...

 

More from DWM: The Christmas Day trailer was originally 90 seconds long and due to air straight after POTD but they didn't want to take attention away from Jodie's last episode. It would also have revealed their bigger plans and not just shown scenes from the Specials.

 

I want him to be grumpy and also get back to cracking hencemen over the back of the head with 2x4 just like the first doctor. :-)

 

There's no reason for RTD to have explicitly specified that Tennant's return to the program will see him playing the fourteenth officially numbered incarnation of the Doctor if we were supposed to see this as a return of the Tenth Doctor somehow.

The Fourteenth Doctor is not the Tenth Doctor even if he looks, sounds, and possibly acts the same.

My question was merely about whether or not RTD is going to feel a need to - or have the time to - convey that distinction onscreen.

 

We sort of did with Capaldi!