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

[David cgc]

I remember there was an unsupported claim RTD had to chastise Ncuti for also cursing too much.

It's not unsupported, Ncuti himself said it in his Radio Times interview.

“The only time I’ve ever gotten in trouble for anything was when I swore [while wearing] a Doctor Who costume. I got called into Russell’s office. Woo! And he let me know that that’s not acceptable. He said, ‘Do what you want when you’re out of costume, but when you’re in costume, do not let us catch you swearing.’ I was like, fair enough. And I guess that was a lesson. For the last four years I’ve been co-leading an X-rated show, and so I’m on a constant journey of learning what it is to be a PG role model and the lead of a family show.”​

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It makes sense, there have been plenty of clips of bystanders recording filming from around a corner or something, a viral clip of Doctor Who using what you might call violent sexual imagery or complaining about all the little SOBs is a serious risk.

 

[JD]

The Rest Is Entertainment just did a segment on the Disney deal which covered it a measured and reasonable way, worth a listen.

What was interesting was Marina, who definitely has the contacts to know, saying that Ncuti hadn't been happy with the idea of all the extra requirements that come with the job beyond just showing up on set.

I don't know how anyone could sign up for a big franchise role like Doctor Who and then be mad about all the extra stuff you have to do. You'd have to be pretty oblivious to not be aware of all of promotional stuff you have to do, or pretty damn egotistical to think you'd somehow be exempt from all of it. The Doctor is one of the biggest roles on TV, of course it's not going to be the kind of thing where you can just show up on set film your scenes and be done with it.

When he joined DW he was wrapping up Sex Education and reshoots for Barbie. He was exhausted and overworked, and was probably excited to do the job for which he was hired: Acting.

Being a marketer/advertiser is not for everyone, some actors are great at it and some hate it. Some will do it for the money (Galaxy Quest comes to mind, lol, only "Jason" had any interest in promoting the "show").

You could maybe get away with that if this was some new series and that suddenly exploded in popularity out of nowhere, but Doctor Who is a 60+ year old franchise, so anybody getting involved with has to know what they're getting into.

 

[Set Harth]

He was told he couldn't be seen smoking in public while in costume, which seems fair to me.

"But I'm wearing a smoking jacket!"

 

[Jedman67]

Yeah I don't buy that. The role is what it is, a quick phone call to Matt or Peter or David or Jodie would have told him exactly how much work the role entailed.

And let's not forget that he had fewer episodes than any of the previous modern Doctors to work on, even before you factor in that in his first season one episode barely had him in it for more than a few minutes, a second had him pretty much standing still for the majority of the run time and the third he pretty much did over zoom...

The role is the television appearences. The marketing part, I don't know if that is part of the contract or just the expectation.
Doesn't matter. Some people have the personality for it, and some don't.