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Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

You know, it’s intriguing that probably the single best anniversary, in terms of media profile, releases, treatment by those running things etc… was probably the 30th. To the point that I feel *this* anniversary is trying to recapture some of that with branding choices, as much as it tries also to evoke the tenth and twentieth.
The fiftieth, in retrospect, seems lesser.

30th??? 1993??? Doctor Who wasn't even on the air anymore for the 30th.
 
I can't believe that anyone thinks that the 1993 anniversary, which was just a 15 minute special that is mostly just various Doctors and companions wandering the sets of fucking EastEnders and interacting with characters from that show was somehow the best anniversary. Especially compared to the 50th, which had a bunch of great stuff thats already been listed.

Imagine if Star Trek's 30th anniversary had involved cast members from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY all wandering around the sets of The Young and the Restless because, I don't know, Q was feeling particularly irritating that day :lol:
 
Imagine if Star Trek's 30th anniversary had involved cast members from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY all wandering around the sets of The Young and the Restless because, I don't know, Q was feeling particularly irritating that day :lol:
Actually...that sounds kind of fun, if only because of irritated Q. :lol:

But I agree that wouldn't be worthy of an anniversary special alone.
 
I can't believe that anyone thinks that the 1993 anniversary, which was just a 15 minute special that is mostly just various Doctors and companions wandering the sets of fucking EastEnders and interacting with characters from that show was somehow the best anniversary. Especially compared to the 50th, which had a bunch of great stuff thats already been listed.

Imagine if Star Trek's 30th anniversary had involved cast members from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY all wandering around the sets of The Young and the Restless because, I don't know, Q was feeling particularly irritating that day :lol:

I only remember the 10th, 20th and 50th, i can't remember anything about the 30th other that that Eastenders mess, and i think for the 40th it was on some cable channel for some unknown reason.
 
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30th??? 1993??? Doctor Who wasn't even on the air anymore for the 30th.

Yes.
But that seemed to make people try harder — the anniversary itself was everywhere. Morning TV. Newspapers. Pertwee in particular must have done every breakfast show.
And there was still dimensions in time.
Documentaries, repeats, it all kicked off.
 
....?!?!?!

How do you see that?

The 50th had a lot of great releases. Not just the theatrical release of "The Day of the Doctor," but we also got the surprise release of "The Night of the Doctor" that nearly broke fandom with excitement.

We got the extraordinary production of An Adventure in Space and Time, which was both a thoughtful and touching revisiting of how it all started.

We got my personal favorite (right along with "The Night of the Doctor"), The Five Doctor(ish) Doctors Reboot, which is such a sweet and fun love letter to the fans, and fans have been clamoring and hoping for a sequel! Alas it doesn't seem likely it'll happen for the 60th but who knows what surprises are in store yet?

And that's before you even get to the countless novels, comics, and other tie-ins (like Destiny of the Doctors) PLUS everything Big Finish did (and not just The Light at the End which I loved but I know others didn't).

There were so many of them that I even ran a poll about them and I still managed to forget some things that happened.

So I don't see how you could possibly come away with that feeling.

Oh I liked the fiftieth.
But ‘93 that logo was in all sorts of places.
There was a book every month from the virgin range, there was the repeat season… Pertwee was on daytime TV left right and centre.
Contests to win Daleks, what have you. Newspapers were covering the cancellation of Dark Dimension.
There was a radio documentary, and I think we may have got Ghosts of N-Space that year.
There were VHS releases, audio releases, a radio times cover.
DWMs special edition homaging the tenth anniversary Radio Times special was in newsagents everywhere. I think their ‘yearbook’ (basically a DW annual to replace the old world annual) kicked off that year.
I can’t remember if the MOMI exhibit started that year, or if it was already in situ.
Thirty years in the Tardis was on TV too — basically, for that year and particularly the later months, there was a high public profile for a show *that wasn’t even on the air anymore with new episodes* and by the standards of the day (and sort of… mentally adjusting for inflation) it was just saturated.

When the fiftieth came around it didn’t seem much bigger than it already had been at that time. No bigger than say the regen into Smith a few years earlier. Arguably less — the newspapers were giving out posters for the regen I recall. I don’t even remember if there *was* a proper special logo at the time. (40 had one, but not as much fanfare) Who was big because Who was big, rather than any kind of anniversary *bump* like we saw at ten, twenty, and particularly — as I said is my opinion — thirty. (25 got a small bump, stuff like the Dapol toy sets, a couple of mags) We had ‘adventure in space and time’ and some Bitsesize style documentary, but nothing as developed as 30 years in the Tardis.
The other things — concerts etc — were almost just like the existing levels of Whos media presence at the time.

I think that’s what I am talking about, the sort of ‘baseline’ presence of Who was so large, that the anniversary barely moved the needle, compared to previous anniversaries.

This year… well, we have the logo (which, like the thirty, sees us go back to Pertwee) and some new stuff (the choice of collection box set is cool too) but so far it’s main *bump* is that it’s trying to return to a media/pop culture presence that has eroded under Chibnall. It’s not as big as thirty or twenty — past doctors are not being wheeled out for photo calls, or doing the rounds on national TV — but it’s got some meat to it. Looks like the Fortnite thing has been delayed though, which is rather unfortunate.
 
Not to be gloomy but with Disney+ cutting back on programming of anything they don't own the IP on and scrapping already shot but not yet aired series, Doctor Who better do very well or the the BBC might have to go knocking on Jeff Bezos door instead. (Though actually, given that Sony own Bad Wolf and make a lot of shows for Amazon Prime, they might have been a better fit to begin with.)
 
The emphasis is on Disney-owned IP, if the media gossip is to be believed, but also on profitability. Doctor Who, for which (fan daydreams of nine-figure season budgets notwithstanding) the BBC is the primary funder, is better positioned on that front than Spiderwick or Nautilus, for which Disney+ was solely responsible. But certainly the streaming landscape overall looks different than it did two years ago when this deal was being made.
 
It's hardly been a secret but Yasmin Finney's character has finally been officially confirmed.

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1696840191707611247

Wait, but

According to what I could find, Donna Noble got married in 2010 in universe, and its 2023 now which (even at the most generous) would make any potential daughter of Donna 12-13 years old in 2023, not 20 (which is the actor's age). Are the specials, or at least the first one, set in the 2030s? I'm sure this has something to do with whatever the plot is, and not RTD forgetting how human aging works, but its odd.
 
Wait, but

According to what I could find, Donna Noble got married in 2010 in universe, and its 2023 now which (even at the most generous) would make any potential daughter of Donna 12-13 years old in 2023, not 20 (which is the actor's age). Are the specials, or at least the first one, set in the 2030s? I'm sure this has something to do with whatever the plot is, and not RTD forgetting how human aging works, but its odd.

Soap Opera aging syndrome. As also seen on Alexander in TNG/DS9 with some light Klingon Aging Handwavium.
Maybe Donna was from 2003 all along…
 
We live in a world where Ncuti Gatwa is playing a teenager on "Sex Education", so probably best not to think about it too much.

At least it's not "Riverdale" (RIP) with a cast full of 30 somethings pretending to still be 16...
 
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