Spoilers Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[Turtletrekker]

Damn, I hadn't heard about his passing until just now.

There's a memorial thread in Miscellaneous and this year's Major League Baseball thread has been named in his honor.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

What I meant was, Disney have dropped LGBT+ themes, and especially trans+ themes, from films and shows of theirs in the last couple of years, and Who stood in sharp contrast to that. Maybe the latter was a factor, but other things would undoubtedly have played in, too.

Or outright canceled them like The Owl House (but at least it was able to end on its own terms). Even then, showrunner Dana Terrace had to fight an uphill battle from the beginning.

Another way to look at the crux of this issue, that's just occurred to me: being cautious with LGBT+ themes, or eliminating them altogether, especially in the current climate, comes across as trying to appease people who cannot be appeased. They will always want more. Give them an inch, they'll demand a mile. Therefore, give them nothing, and just tell the diverse stories you want to tell. RTD seems to understand that.

Oh, yes, very much so. People have been pointing that out ever since a certain governor's stupid war against Disney...and Disney eventually capitulated.

There's a memorial thread in Miscellaneous and this year's Major League Baseball thread has been named in his honor.

Yup, I just saw the baseball thread which made me realize it was very recent. Thank you for the heads up about the Miscellaneous thread.

 

[bdub76]

I didn't actually mean Disney dropped Who because of the LGBT+ themes, so sorry for the confusion.

What I meant was, Disney have dropped LGBT+ themes, and especially trans+ themes, from films and shows of theirs in the last couple of years, and Who stood in sharp contrast to that. Maybe the latter was a factor, but other things would undoubtedly have played in, too.

Another way to look at the crux of this issue, that's just occurred to me: being cautious with LGBT+ themes, or eliminating them altogether, especially in the current climate, comes across as trying to appease people who cannot be appeased. They will always want more. Give them an inch, they'll demand a mile. Therefore, give them nothing, and just tell the diverse stories you want to tell. RTD seems to understand that.

Disney+ audience is for mainstream children and their parents. You get some Disney adults too. And you get some viewers that like their other content too. It's not a huge indie studio outside of Fox Searchlight, which I don't know is still a thing. A24 is the home for indie films, and their content is going to HBO MAX.

I don't think it's a LGBT+ thing as that has gone mainstream. It's tough to find any show these days that doesn't have at least one LGBT+ character.

What has changed is that Disney has backed off from its trigger warnings before shows and scaled backed on its more diverse content. It got crushed with Snow White. I think, the studio is going more middle of the road to maximize its audience numbers. It would rather have both a conservative and progressive audience, rather than picking one over the other.

If Doctor Who wants to go beyond what's considered mainstream today, then Disney is not the right partner. That puts it back into a niche.

What I do know from watching old Matt Smith and Tennant episodes recently is that the storytelling today isn't on par with what it was in the past.