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

[jaime]

Shorthand: you were lazy, borderline glib, and arguably even guilty of the same kind of misrepresentation you keep accusing RTD of. And clearly only selectively listening.

You're basically just arguing yourself in circles, at this point. Maybe take a break?

I wasn’t borderline glib, I was outright glib for the sake of satirising the writing these last two seasons. And I can’t be guilty of that same misrepresentation I am describing in RTD’s writing, by simple virtue of the fact I was writing a jibing short post on a board sending it up, not a multimillion pound BBC TV drama with a history and fandom. If I was, I would not be being glib and would put more thought into it.

Imagine, if you would, a scene where Donna confronts the Doctor, much like she did over giving away the lottery money, only it’s about Rose being Trans because of what the Doctor did. And the Doctor explaining that no, Rose is who she is because she’s *human* and no more no less. That the artron energy may have been shared with her, given her the memories to make her stuffed toys, maybe even given her her choice of name — which Donna would no doubt point out — but it didn’t change who she was, who she was always going to be. And that’s he sorry for the pain and difficulties that she went through, and wishes that could all be blamed on something else, on him, etc — which Donna would be strongly insinuating was the case — but that it’s really just to do with us, as humans. Everyone different, everyone special, everyone going through their journey.

Wouldn’t something like that have maybe been a bit more representative, a bit more powerful than ‘oh yeah, she flipped gender identity because of Time Lord juju in your head’.

Granted, I’d probably want to also fix the silly ‘let it go’ business too. Sexism is still sexism, even to a male presenting Time Lord. And I suspect I would have at least found a way to at least hang a lampshade on the fact that this is all happening in an episode where the main villain reveal hinges on (a) don’t be taken in by a cute appearance and (b) solar radiation changing the identity of entire races. The optics on that subtext just looks a bit icky. Would definitely want to find a way around that whilst still doing the Starbeast I guess. Not that I was ever big on that comic strip anyway.

Anyway, my point is, I do care about the way these things are handled in fiction, and think they have been handled badly. That’s not because I just want to criticise RTD, but because I genuinely think he made mistake after mistake after mistake. And some of those were more than a little bit offensive.
At least he did manage to circle back around to Conrad’s childhood in the end in the finale, even if it wasn’t exactly great either.

 

[The Wormhole]

I still enjoyed his first season and Gatwa and Ruby Rose

I'm not sure if you're missing a comma or screwed up the character name, but this sentence as written comes off as very confusing. Ruby Rose has never been on Doctor Who. Ever.

The only really mind bending thing I don't get is why he took Davros out of his chair because he seems to think society thinks most people in wheel chairs are bad people or something? Not sure where he got that idea from.

I find it's best to ignore RTD's comments and simply assume what we saw in that minisode was Davros pre-injury. And really, that was the only practical option in this case, as I doubt that minisode had the budget to do Davros's makeup job. And as it turns out, RTD did talk in The Writer's Tale about wanting to do a flashback showing Davros before he was injured, which I had initially assumed was finally being realized when I first watched the minisode before seeing RTD's comments about not wanting to villify the disabled.

Also Belinda having a Incel boyfriend really made no sense for the character and feels like it was done just to make a very weak plot, happen.

She made a bad judgment call when she was a teenager. What's so hard to believe about that?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Yeah, this is not wanting to vilify the disabled thing sounds good, and it is a good thing to be aware of, but this came down to budget and nothing else.

 

[Jayson1]

I'm not sure if you're missing a comma or screwed up the character name, but this sentence as written comes off as very confusing. Ruby Rose has never been on Doctor Who. Ever.

I find it's best to ignore RTD's comments and simply assume what we saw in that minisode was Davros pre-injury. And really, that was the only practical option in this case, as I doubt that minisode had the budget to do Davros's makeup job. And as it turns out, RTD did talk in The Writer's Tale about wanting to do a flashback showing Davros before he was injured, which I had initially assumed was finally being realized when I first watched the minisode before seeing RTD's comments about not wanting to villify the disabled.

She made a bad judgment call when she was a teenager. What's so hard to believe about that?

I had a mental fart. Not sure why I said Ruby Rose when I meant Ruby Sunday.

 

[Rich Watson]

I bet when Russell wrote his last/last for now DWM column he wasn't expecting it to hit the Hollywood Trades.

‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Says ‘We Don’t Know What’s Happening Yet’ Amid Uncertain Future, but Insists Series ‘Will Never End’

"Doctor Who" showrunner Russell T Davies is addressing the show's uncertain future after its Season 2 finale.

variety.com

 

[StarTrek1701]

I bet when Russell wrote his last/last for now DWM column he wasn't expecting it to hit the Hollywood Trades.

‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Says ‘We Don’t Know What’s Happening Yet’ Amid Uncertain Future, but Insists Series ‘Will Never End’

"Doctor Who" showrunner Russell T Davies is addressing the show's uncertain future after its Season 2 finale.

variety.com

Surprise to no one.

 

[Rich Watson]

We don't seem to get the Live+28 ratings any more but the ones for the Eurovision episode have been revealed. It added another 600k viewers and combined with other shows getting far less of a bump it now ends up in fifth place for the week.

So whatever the future does or doesn't hold for the show, don't doubt that the BBC want it to continue.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

That was never in doubt, frankly, despite the fans panicking about it.

 

[Starkers]

We don't seem to get the Live+28 ratings any more but the ones for the Eurovision episode have been revealed. It added another 600k viewers and combined with other shows getting far less of a bump it now ends up in fifth place for the week.

So whatever the future does or doesn't hold for the show, don't doubt that the BBC want it to continue.

Say what you like about RTD but making a Eurovision themed episode of Who and then sandwiching it between the FA cup final and Eurovision was genius! (I mean there was a not insubstantial risk of their not being enough time to fit it in there but still...)

Kudos to the BBC for actually trailing it a lot in the week before as well, to the point where sometimes it took a few seconds to realise whether I was watching a Dr Who trailer or a Eurovision trailer!

 

[Samurai8472]

Quite a lot of posts last night suggesting BBC are in talks with HBO and Netflix regarding Dr Who

 

[Rich Watson]

Quite a lot of posts last night suggesting BBC are in talks with HBO and Netflix regarding Dr Who

All based on a claim by one of the scammers who get people to pay for their MCU scoops, which are almost always spectacularly wrong, or totally obvious guesses.

Given that's two out of the three companies that they could be talking to I'd say the latter.

Funnily enough, the other well known leak scammer was claiming they were taking to Amazon, so that's the trifecta of guessing covered.

 

[The Wormhole]

HBO isn't that ridiculous an idea, Warner Bros had DVD distribution rights to Doctor Who in North America about twenty years ago, so they have a pre-existing relationship. Not that I'm suggesting I believe this.

But yeah, saying it's either going to be HBO, Netflix or Amazon are the safe bets, as it will 95% be one of them.

 

[jaime]

Didn’t HBO get a bit screwed over by the Disney deal and the renumbering?

I would say Amazon or Apple are the way to go. Both have a better track record with SF&F, and both lean in an Anglophile direction, meaning it fits well with their existing offerings. Both are also quite happy with adaptations, which in a strange way Who is on the edge of being — certainly in terms of it not being a work that the production team can truly lay claim to being ‘creator of’ and instead are working with accretion of story, lore, and fan expectations.

I do not think *any* streamers are going to want to keep RTD for very long if at all, after the general reaction (and not just the usual crowd of content creators waiting to pounce on something for clicks) to the last few series. I suspect the BBC either need to find someone — or someones — new to shepherd the series, or ask for help with that. Which just leads full circle, as both Amazon and Apple have more access to many of the creatives already under their aegis who could probably make a decent go of it.

Anyway, if I would throw one Random thing in in that regard, as he was in Apple’s Foundation series, maybe we could get Alfred Enoch as The Doctor. He’s the spit of his dad sometimes, who was after all the original lead of the show…

 

[Marc]

HBO isn't that ridiculous an idea, Warner Bros had DVD distribution rights to Doctor Who in North America about twenty years ago, so they have a pre-existing relationship. Not that I'm suggesting I believe this.

But yeah, saying it's either going to be HBO, Netflix or Amazon are the safe bets, as it will 95% be one of them.

please please please be Amazon as I have a prime subscription.

 

[Rich Watson]

HBO lose the US steaming rights to S1-13, TW & TSJA at the end of July, so it will be very interesting to see who picks them up...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I would say Amazon or Apple are the way to go.

I very much hate the idea of Doctor Who being inside Amazon or Apple's walled gardens. I hate that series that have been mass-market concepts, like Star Trek, are being put behind walls. Walls limit the reach and make the concepts niche. If Doctor Who or Star Trek need a walled garden to live, maybe they're really already dead.

 

[jaime]

I very much hate the idea of Doctor Who being inside Amazon or Apple's walled gardens. I hate that series that have been mass-market concepts, like Star Trek, are being put behind walls. Walls limit the reach and make the concepts niche. If Doctor Who or Star Trek need a walled garden to live, maybe they're really already dead.

That’s the thing. Those walls, those gardens, already exist. Outside the uk, it’s going into one of them. So where do we pick?
Amazon has the benefit of being common, because it’s comes with Prime I think. Apple? Well, it’s already where the anglophiles hang out. And both have good history with SF&F shows, and of not dumping stuff too swiftly.