Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[Steve Roby]

It doesn't really matter whether you think it's woke. A lot of howling, gibbering fanboys said it was. From Metro:

Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall has hit back at criticism that the BBC show has become too ‘woke’.

The writer is stepping down as showrunner after Jodie’s final upcoming special, The Power of the Doctor.

But during his reign, he’s faced various criticisms, including that the show has become too ‘political’ or too ‘woke’ – despite the fact that Doctor Who has always tackled current topics, with returning showrunner Russell T Davies hinting that climate change will have a bigger prominence in his upcoming series.

‘I think the world has changed, the show hasn’t! They should go and have a look at some of the past episodes,’ Chris told Metro.co.uk.

‘It’s a show of great empathy and humanity and tolerance and always has been, right from the start. I have nothing to say to that! It’s a mad old comment.’​

 

[kirk55555]

People complaining about something being "woke" are just never worth taking seriously, they're just idiots and bigots whining about how their antiquated beliefs are no longer accepted by the mainstream.

Also, Chibnall's era produced Kerblam, probably the most shockingly conservative Doctor Who episode since Robert Holmes wrote a story complaining about having to pay taxes, and I'd argue that Kerblam has a worse message.

The show, that once had a whole story written for taking the piss out of Margaret Thatcher, producing an episode basically praising and supporting a somehow more cartoonishly evil space version of Amazon is not "woke", even if that word had any real meaning outside of the heads of morons. But the people complaining about "woke" stuff are really just complaining about women, LGBTQ people and minorities getting fair treatment and roles, and in that one area I guess Chibnall did manage to be "woke", which is still not a bad thing.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I mean, The Sun Makers, the story you refer to, had the workers going against the taxation and actually throw the damn government official demanding such taxes off the building. Its not really the same ending as Kerblam!, where the Doctor leaves with the insipid hope that "things will get better" somehow.

The most basic criticism I have of the Chibnall is that it is so rigidly authoritarian. Right down to The Power of the Doctor, which has the companions be so subserviant to the Doctor, to the point where questioning him is an error. It even has the critical error of Ace apologizing to the Doctor for her behaviour towards.

Unbearable.

 

[Marc]

I mean, The Sun Makers, the story you refer to, had the workers going against the taxation and actually throw the damn government official demanding such taxes off the building. Its not really the same ending as Kerblam!, where the Doctor leaves with the insipid hope that "things will get better" somehow.

Thought the story was also developed after the writer had had run with the U.K's tax office (Inland Revenue?) so it was probably a bit coloured.

And it wasn't a government official - it was a corporate official and the taxes were going to company profits.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Thought the story was also developed after the writer had had run with the U.K's tax office (Inland Revenue?) so it was probably a bit coloured.

And it wasn't a government official - it was a corporate official and the taxes were going to company profits.

Yeah, right. Sorry for the mishap. In the end, he's in the pavement.

 

[kirk55555]

I mean, The Sun Makers, the story you refer to, had the workers going against the taxation and actually throw the damn government official demanding such taxes off the building. Its not really the same ending as Kerblam!, where the Doctor leaves with the insipid hope that "things will get better" somehow.

The most basic criticism I have of the Chibnall is that it is so rigidly authoritarian. Right down to The Power of the Doctor, which has the companions be so subserviant to the Doctor, to the point where questioning him is an error. It even has the critical error of Ace apologizing to the Doctor for her behaviour towards.

Unbearable.

Yeah, you're right, I was just trying to compare the closest thing I could to a conservative message Classic Who episode to Kerblam, but there aren't a lot of good examples, at least that I can remember. Kerblam is much worse, and I see a lot of it in the Chibnall era overall.

Love RTD's work or hate it, he definitely isn't someone who would produce something like Kerblam, and to me thats a very good thing.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Nah, instead he produces something like "Love and Monsters."

 

[Sci]

Or Rishi. He's fully invested in the "War on Woke". RTD has form in using the Doctor to call out UK Prime Ministers.

I wonder if RTD will return to his old habit of having a villain kill the British Prime Minister once a season?

(Okay, okay, in Series Two the Cybus Cybermen killed the President of Great Britain in Pete's Dimension, not the Prime Minister. That season, the Doctor merely arranged for the Prime Minister to lose office instead.)

The idea that RTD would ever get rid of Chibnall's 'wokeism' was always ludicrous, we were always going to get a different kind of woke, it'll just be a way more fun kind rather than the turgid lecturing we got too often in Chibnall's era (and there's an argument for another day about just how woke Chibnall's era even was; the Doctor as literal police officer, giving us a female Doctor then robbing her of agency, the Doctor handing over an Asian Master to the Nazis etc etc...)

Having the Doctor serve as a volunteer union-buster for Space Amazon in "Kerblam."

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Nah, instead he produces something like "Love and Monsters."

Honestly, while not great, I like it until Absorbaloff appears. And then there's the abominable epilogue... but before that, I don't actually hate the episode. Frankly, I have much bigger disagreement with Fear Her, from that season.

 

[Starkers]

I always think of L&M as RTD at his very best, and his very worst.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Love and Monsters is a great episode. You can debate whether the epilogue really works or is necessary, but the meat of the story, the gentle satire of the highs and lows of fandom, is very well done.

 

[The Wormhole]

Anyone who thought RTD's new era wasn't going to be woke was obviously delusional. But then, not the first time fans have been delusional on such matters. Like back when Moffat was announced to be taking over, some people were glad because he was going to "put a stop to the gay agenda." Despite some of the more overt references to homosexuality in the first RTD era were actually in Moffat scripts, which Moffat himself even pointed out when he was commenting on the matter in an interview.

 

[kirk55555]

Nah, instead he produces something like "Love and Monsters."

I'll give you that, but I'll take a regular bad episode over a bad message episode any day of the week, even one that ends with a woman trapped as an immortal, immovable face on a slab implied to be spending the rest of her life doing nothing but talking to a guy and...pleasuring him sexually. Ok, that ending does really drive L&M up to the line, but I still think Kerblam's style of bad episode is worse, at least L&M is too stupid to take seriously, and really says nothing (positive or negative) about real world stuff, making it a fairly harmless terrible episode.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Honestly, while not great, I like it until Absorbaloff appears. And then there's the abominable epilogue... but before that, I don't actually hate the episode. Frankly, I have much bigger disagreement with Fear Her, from that season.

Yeah, not that bad a episode, and when you think of it the monster would not have be out of place in a classie Who "obvious a guy in this weeks rubber monster suit", episode. Lol

As for Fear her, i can see what it was trying to do, but i guess they only had enough money to go to the guy who did the Take Hart art show animations. Lol

 

[Captaindemotion]

If nothing else, I think that Marc Warren’s performance in L&M is, as is always the case with him, pitch-perfect.

 

[Rich Watson]

Atomic.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^^^ Who is that?

Looks kinda like Debbie Harry.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Blondie, yeah.

And I am ashamed I even know the song Atomic!

 

[Commander Troi]

Blondie, yeah.

And I am ashamed I even know the song Atomic!

No shame! I have the LP.

 

[Steve Roby]

Blondie, yeah.

That's Debbie Harry. Blondie is the name of the band, not a person.

And I am ashamed I even know the song Atomic!

Why be ashamed of knowing a fine song by a great band?