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Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

The timeframe for casting, announcing, filming with, and broadcasting the debut of a new Doctor is all part of a unified production plan. It’s not like they nailed down the November 2023 airdate and only then said, what shall we make and when shall we make it? There’s a logic to the gap between the start of filming and broadcast, even if it’s just that “starve the audience” bollocks.
 
I think I posted this earlier but Scott left Big Finish recently after many years as a Producer (where he worked closely with RTD on their Torchwood continuation) and the rumor was he was going to work on DW.

In the replies on Russell's Instagram post we get this exchange which pretty much confirms it.

Handcock:
RTD: back to work xxx
Tracy-Ann Oberman: I hope you’re making him work verrry hard x
RTD: I’m a tyrant! Xxx
Handcock: What is daylight?
RTD: don’t you worry about that sonny
 
At a convention in Australia Eccleston said he would come back and play the Doctor on television but not as part of a multi-Doctor story. "If you want me back, get me on my own."
Damn, that's something. He must be really enjoying the character again with Big Finish.

I'd be down for a series or two of anthologies featuring The Eighth, Ninth, and Fugitive Doctors on their own solo adventures.
 
Damn, that's something. He must be really enjoying the character again with Big Finish.

I'd be down for a series or two of anthologies featuring The Eighth, Ninth, and Fugitive Doctors on their own solo adventures.
I've been saying this all along. Do one-off adventures with those actors that can still pull it off, from McGann onwards. Heck, even ol' McCoy could, if he were in his old TV Movie attire.
 
I've given up trying to understand what's going on in Eccleston's head. On the one hand my understanding is that Big Finish simply can't pay big money, even to get an actual modern Doctor on board. When I met with one of their producers he basically implied that Tennant had to keep overriding his agent to ensure he was still being offered BF work, and that Matt's agent was very against him doing BF. So I doubt he's doing BF for the money. At least not directly.

Obviously where he is likely raking it in is at the conventions. That's relatively easy money and a whole lot of it.

The question is, has Eccleston softened on Who because he realises how much money he can make off it, or has his experiences with BF and fans at conventions softened him on Who and the money's just coincidental?

To stress I have no problem with actors making money from conventions, but CE's attitude tends to rub me up the wrong way. The notion that he won't come back to be part of an ensemble but expects his own episode/series plays into that.

It is possible to believe that he was poorly treated by RTD etc back in the day, but also accept that maybe he doesn't play well with others. Wasn't there some Dr Who related thang in the early days of the pandemic and everyone was involved in promoting some concert or other, except Eccleston who insisted on doing his own thing? Edit to add, just checked it was the Big Night celebrating NHS workers, a short film featuring every living Doctor...except one! Eccleston instead read a poem on the One Show.
 
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Its more likely that he just needs the money that the enduring popularity of the character could generate were he to return on TV.

This seems deeply and unnecessarily cynical. Eccleston has been a constantly working actor for several decades. Unless he has been monumentally stupid with money, to suggest he's only open to returning to the role because he needs the cash is a weird way of impugning him.
 
I don't know about this one in Australia but for the big conventions in the US people are walking away with six figure paydays for doing very little. That's a lot more than he'd get from the BBC for working the same number of hours.

James Doohan once said that he could have retired in the late '70s just from the money he made doing conventions and speaking appearances at colleges and universities, and had zero need to do the Star Trek movies. He did them because he just liked to work.
 
I don't know about this one in Australia but for the big conventions in the US people are walking away with six figure paydays for doing very little. That's a lot more than he'd get from the BBC for working the same number of hours.
I've read a few articles about what the Berlantiverse actors were pulling down in appearance and autographing fees over the years; this one, from 2016, pegs Stephen Amell at a quarter of million for a weekend's appearance. Cynically, actors may look for a genre television gig to score conventions paydays like this.
 
At a convention in Australia Eccleston said he would come back and play the Doctor on television but not as part of a multi-Doctor story. "If you want me back, get me on my own."
That's actually a little disappointing to me. Why not both? The return of a former Doctor in a solo story would certainly be an event, but multi-Doctor stories are a celebration.
 
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