Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner
- Thread starter Allyn Gibson
- Start date
^ Beat me to it, I was just coming over to post that 
So looks like we'll effectively have 12 months without Doctor Who, which isn't terrible.
Heck of a first episode for the new Doctor though, the 60th anniversary, and presumably difficult to insert past Doctors into, you don't want the new guy overshadowed on his/her/their first day on the job!
So looks like we'll effectively have 12 months without Doctor Who, which isn't terrible.
Heck of a first episode for the new Doctor though, the 60th anniversary, and presumably difficult to insert past Doctors into, you don't want the new guy overshadowed on his/her/their first day on the job!
^ Beat me to it, I was just coming over to post that
So looks like we'll effectively have 12 months without Doctor Who, which isn't terrible.
Heck of a first episode for the new Doctor though, the 60th anniversary, and presumably difficult to insert past Doctors into, you don't want the new guy overshadowed on his/her/their first day on the job!
On the plus side, 60 isn’t a big one like 50. On the downside, the real problem isn’t so much past Doctors as the most immediate past Doctor possibly being part of the story for the next one. In some ways the fact Tom didn’t really appear in the Five Doctors sort of helped it, as it had only been two years. On the other hand, both 20 and 50 felt a little odd because we knew the current Doctor was on the way out, and who the next guy was.
The tenth was probably the cleanest cut in both these senses, and the 25th, 30th and 40th all show different approaches with the less high profile anniversaries. (The 30th was oddly big, all things considered.)
Yeah, I was kinda expecting the new Doctor to have a full series or a couple specials to establish them before the anniversary special.
Unless they’re planning to hold Whittaker’s final episode all the way till Christmas 2022, this will make 2022/3 the first time since 2005/6 that Doctor Who hasn’t been on at either Christmas or New Year’s.
Unless they’re planning to hold Whittaker’s final episode all the way till Christmas 2022, this will make 2022/3 the first time since 2005/6 that Doctor Who hasn’t been on at either Christmas or New Year’s.
Am wondering if RTD will take advantage of this fact actually.
I mean… unless it’s clean slate reboot, in which case he will just have New New Doctor Who (and he will call it that in an interview at some point) start on the same date as the original.
But, if not, he may be tempted to try the thing sometimes mooted and get back old Doctors for an episode or so before revealing his new Doctor. I mean, I wouldn’t bet on it, but didn’t have money on McGann and Night of the Doctor for the fiftieth either.
I mean… unless it’s clean slate reboot, in which case he will just have New New Doctor Who (and he will call it that in an interview at some point) start on the same date as the original.
But, if not, he may be tempted to try the thing sometimes mooted and get back old Doctors for an episode or so before revealing his new Doctor. I mean, I wouldn’t bet on it, but didn’t have money on McGann and Night of the Doctor for the fiftieth either.
This is what I think should happen, have a multi-doctor story without an incumbent and give each doctor equal focus and attention. In 3 Doctors, 5 Doctors, 2 Doctors, Day of the Doctor & Twice Upon a Time it was clearly Jon Pertwee's/Peter Davison's/Colin Baker's/Matt Smith's/Peter Capaldi's show.
IIRC, had Tom done The Five Doctors, he, rather than Peter, was supposed to be the one to solve things
Yep. In Terrance Dicks’s original plan, the Fourth Doctor would have gone to Gallifrey and unmasked Borusa (while briefly appearing to be the villain himself); the Fifth Doctor would have been one of the three to travel to the Dark Tower; and the recast First Doctor would simply have stayed in the TARDIS with Susan, Tegan, and Turlough.
I don’t think an anniversary special without an incumbent is impossible, but I do think it’s unlikely, given the new Doctor will have been cast, announced, and begun filming long before, that they’ll want to risk audience backlash against the first episode in a year not even featuring them.
I don’t think an anniversary special without an incumbent is impossible, but I do think it’s unlikely, given the new Doctor will have been cast, announced, and begun filming long before, that they’ll want to risk audience backlash against the first episode in a year not even featuring them.
When the 20th was aired, we had no idea Davison would be on his way so soon and Baker hadn’t been cast to anyones knowledge.
It's actually not a bad idea. I think what the show needs right now is a break and then a fresh start. Obviously, not one that just wipes everything, but one that isn't something only established fans will understand. And starting it on the same date is just a nice bonus.
I am not a fan of total reboots (makes anniversary celebrations a bit fiddly) but it does need another Rose or Eleventh Hour.
Preferably one closer to Eleventh Hour in quality.
This doesn't appear to be the case, but I'd been assuming new Doctor in a Christmas special, and then an Easter season (probably a short run) to establish the new Doctor before the 60th anniversary. Otherwise you're looking at a 14 month gap, and new Doctor in the 60 special.
I will take a Rose or EH reboot were we just meet the new doctor for the first time, no Whittaker in RTD show at all, do the regen in whenever her last episode is under the Chibnall era and then allow RTD to start with a clean slate and a newly regenerated doctor, works for me perfectly that way.
So i assume the first episode we will get from the RTD return will be the 60th, so 2023 i take it?
Looks that way. November 2023.
I think it’s interesting that when they tried for the ‘new entry point’ with thirteen (really fifteen) it fell a little flat, possibly because it was simply too ‘dark’ and because unlike the others there wasn’t as much of The Doctor to be familiar, and celebrate. The ‘this planet is protected’ felt recycled particularly.
By the end of such an episode, new audiences should know and like The Doctor and want to see the adventure, and old audiences should be ‘ah yes, there’s the one I remember’. The threat is always secondary in these episodes, to introducing the characters, which includes the Doctor.
I'd rather not. That's the mistake Philip Segal made in 1996 -- instead of starting fresh at a jumping on point, he closed the book on the past and dealt with that.
