Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Allyn Gibson, Sep 24, 2021.

  1. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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’.
     
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  2. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
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  3. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  4. Rich Watson

    Rich Watson Captain Captain

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  5. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    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!
     
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  6. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    THANK YOU.

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

    Mr Awe Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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!
     
  9. Richard S. Ta

    Richard S. Ta Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    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.
     
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  10. Richard S. Ta

    Richard S. Ta Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    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.
     
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  11. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  12. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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.)
     
  13. Rich Watson

    Rich Watson Captain Captain

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    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.
     
  14. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
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  15. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Vice Admiral Admiral

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  16. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  17. EnderAKH

    EnderAKH Commodore Premium Member

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

    ......too soon?
     
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  18. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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

    Rich Watson Captain Captain

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    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.
     
  20. Rich Watson

    Rich Watson Captain Captain

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    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.
     
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