Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

I wonder how they will do the 60th because it would be a tough first episode for any new Doctor and I doubt Jodie would do it without Chibnall. It's probably going to be it's own thing.

 

I think it depends on whether there is a series between Jodie's last episode and the 60th Anniversary Special or not in terms of what we get. The announcement today is a bit vaguely worded. Saying he's back in time for the 60th Anniversary can be just the day itself or the year in general.

 

Indeed, an outright retcon would probably cause me to stop watching all together.

Think of it this way. I don't even like Star Trek V, but I didn't buy The Autobiography of James T Kirk by David Goodman because it treated the events of that movie as if they were apocryphal. On the other hand, I will definitely be buying The Autobiography of Mr. Spock by Una McCormick because it fully embraces the characters that connect to Spock from both Star Trek 5 and Star Trek Discovery.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. There's certainly enough time for Davies to develop, write (and/or assign writers), film, and edit another series between Jodie's final and the 60th anniversary. It could easily air during the first or second quarter of 2023 and then the show returns with the anniversary special(s), just like the 50th anniversary.

 

The funniest reaction I've seen to the news has to be the one from 'The Telegraph' (that's a right-wing newspaper for those who don't know) celebrating the end of Woke Who. I'm guessing they haven't seen "Years and Years" or "It's A Sin"...

 

If it turns out to be true that the next Doctor was cast months ago, I'd say that greatly increases the chances of there being one. Plus why announce him today if it wouldn't start shooting until 2023?

 

This is the last thing I expected, but the show was better then than now (in my humble opinion), so why not?

 

You know their readers tend to be a little...older.

Old enough to remember "Queer As Folk !". Well, old enough to remember writing to the Telegraph letters page to complain about it.

The dementia must have kicked in...

 

Yup, agreed. It seems pretty likely we'll get a 2023 series (COVID pending, of course).

 

I'm hesitant to say that they won't be in it since I would never have predicted Davies returning, but I do think it's unlikely both of them would return. And I don't really want them to. Let the show move forward for now. Treat this special less as a nostalgia trip and more like Star Trek 2009: an exciting fresh start. So maybe one legacy character in a minor role, and everything else is new.

One prediction I will confidently make is that the companion(s) will be from present-day Britain. No chance of historical or alien companions.

 

Yeahhhh...that was one of my biggest issues with the Davies run: So adherent to modern-day London. Uggghhhhh...

 

This news itself is exciting. The reactions here are significantly less so, especially the absurd notions that RTD's return means that the next Doctor is going to be played by David Tennant or that the Timeless Child lore that will have defined Chris Chibnall's tenure is going to be ignored or undone.

The first notion doesn't deserve a response, but as far as the second goes, RTD has already demonstrated that he supports what Chibnall has added to Doctor Who lore as it concerns the Thirteenth Doctor's story both through comments and through his own most recent writings.

 

Copying and pasting this from another site I frequent, 'cause I'm lazy.

Another big positive to this? Davies and Moffat are both staunchly pro-Big Finish/EU. Not that Chibnall's anti-Big Finish/EU. He's just not that into it himself. Davies has already collaborated with Big Finish to create the original cast for Series 5 & 6 of Torchwood (Jack, Andy and [Redacted] aside, it was an entirely new cast).

And during his original run he employed fellow EU writers such as Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Paul Cornell, Matt Jones, Gareth "I'm a transphobic piece of shit" Roberts and Robert motherfucking Shearman. Shit. The entire first series was written solely by EU writers!

Not to mention his original plans to have Jo Grant continue to play a recurring role on The Sarah Jane Adventures and bring other Classic Who companions like Ace back as well. What could this mean for the 60th Anniversary special and beyond?

This news also let's me breathe a sigh of relief and just enjoy Chibnall's final nine episodes for what they are instead fretting over the show's creative and financial future. For me, the Chibnall era was NuWho's 5th Doctor/Eric Saward era: A few legit brilliant episodes, a few embarrassingly awful episodes and a whole lot of "Meh. That episode was fine, I guess."

Who knows? The tail end of his two season run on Torchwood was bold and exciting. Maybe lightening will strike twice.

 

Might be a pipe dream but given that Davies has been fairly enthusiastic about Big Finish and even has an old story of his being adapted and released by them next year, I'd love to see some of the writers from there get a chance to do some TV episodes.

 

While I would love to see a new series with a new Doctor before the 60th I think it's incredibly optimistic. Even if they have casted already. Between the writing, filming, special effects etc they would have needed to start months ago and considering the age we are in I doubt development would have moved fast.
Maybe all that changes since it's a joint production between BBC and Bad Wolf but introducing a fresh new take to bring back the audience is going to be something that isn't rushed.

 

I see this move as an effort by BBC to right the ship of Doctor Who, which has been taking on water and is listing badly. I wish them the best.

As for myself, I have moved on from Doctor Who. Before the last season, which I did not enjoy at all, I was already watching less of the show, sold all my DVDS, and haven't seen the latest episode.

 

I just saw this story and couldn't believe my eyes. It's like the return of the "round things", I'll take it as very good news. RTD's tenure was the best of the 3 nu-Who eras, tho Moffat was a pretty close second.

As long as we don't see the return of the companion crush, I think things can only get much better.

I'm no fan of ignoring or deleting things from continuity, tho they could just kind of ignore the Timeless Child concept for the most part if it isn't a direction they want to go.

Good stories with the Doctor as the main focus is what I want.

 

Yeah, I think we're looking at a special in November 2023 and then a series to follow possibly Easter 2024. So around a year between Jodie's exit and the next episode.

 

I could live with that. Good timey-wimey sci-fi stories with the Doctor back as the lead will suit me fine.

 

I'm optimistic that Davies is going the route Moffat did with Series 10. The Husbands of River Song was originally intended to be Moffat's final episode as showrunner. When Chibnall wouldn't be available for a couple years due to Broadchurch, the BBC convinced Moffat to come back for one final run. Moffat was able to stretch those two years into a lot of pre-production (God, that year with only one episode was hell.) to really develop a post-script story worth telling and get things right.