Current Events > Russell T. Davies returning to Doctor Who as showrunner

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58682472

Holy shit.

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Wtf

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oooooooo!

Looks like farting green slime monsters are back on the menu boys!

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Cool beans

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FurryPhilosifer posted...

Looks like farting green slime monsters are back on the menu boys!

Wasn't it RTD who came up with street-tile sex?

FurryPhilosifer posted...

Looks like farting green slime monsters are back on the menu boys!

I don't even give a fuck at this point. As long as it isn't the monster under the bed locking the Doctor in a mind prison for billions of years because of how awesome he is.

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I can only hope Jodie stays on for a Russel T. Davies season.

She's the best part of Chibnall's run, and I think she would fucking THRIVE under Davies.

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This is such a weird timeline.

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MrMallard posted...

I can only hope Jodie stays on for a Russel T. Davies season.

Probably not. Who is too big a commitment for a spastic release schedule.
Maybe a multiple-Doctor episode or two.

MrMallard posted...

I can only hope Jodie stays on for a Russel T. Davies season.

She's the best part of Chibnall's run, and I think she would fucking THRIVE under Davies.

That would be awesome, but she's already said she's leaving, I think. I guess she could change her mind.

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Alright, more concrete slab girlfriend blowjobs!

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Got to be honest, I wasn't really a big fan of RTD's era or especially his writing, but you have to hand it to the guy - he could definitely work the press to get hype for the show and keep it in the public eye, and he was an absolute powerhouse in terms of making sure the show was delivered consistently and regularly - two incredibly important things that Chibnall was, frankly, shit at (he wouldn't even provide publicity to Doctor Who magazine FFS). If Chibnall had RTD's talent for working the press and managing a schedule, then the show wouldn't be in anywhere near the sorry state it is at the moment even if the quality of the writing was the same as it is now.

This is a definite "safe" and uninspired option, and very obviously a bit of a step backwards, but a few seasons of being safe but familiar and consistent is 100% what the show needs right now.

Would I prefer a better writer who can do something fresh and exciting? Sure, but that can wait.

This is the right call for now and once things are back on track, I think an ideal set-up would be for RTD to stay on as exec/showrunner and oversee a fresh head writer (like Barry Letts coming back to oversee things when JNT took over). Keep RTD doing all the public-facing and admin side, where you have to say he utterly excels, and get a better writer actually handling scripts and storylines.

This also surely has to make Olly Alexander the favourite for the next Doctor, since all those rumours of him taking over in the press a year or so back got started because RTD said he thought Alexander would be a great Doctor.

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Xavier_On_High posted...

This is such a weird timeline.

Yeah right? Thanks Matt Smith for restarting everything.

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MrMallard posted...

I can only hope Jodie stays on for a Russel T. Davies season.

It's already confirmed her next season will be her last, with her leaving on the 60th anniversary.

So at the very least, RTD will be able to write for her for the 60th, which is cool.

(This means of the New Series Doctors, only Capaldi will have never been given a RTD-written episode.)

MrMallard posted...

As long as it isn't the monster under the bed locking the Doctor in a mind prison for billions of years because of how awesome he is.

Hol up, now I know you ain't talking shit about Heaven Sent.

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Rharyx211 posted...

It's already confirmed her next season will be her last, with her leaving on the 60th anniversary.

So at the very least, RTD will be able to write for her for the 60th, which is cool.

She's leaving in 2022, the year before the 60th.

Her last special is the for the anniversary of the BBC, not the anniversary of the show. Chibnall's still in charge for that one.


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Oh shit, I got my years mixed up.

Tragic.

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Not looking forward to everything he does being compared to his first run though.

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Bring back tom baker!

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Rharyx211 posted...

Hol up, now I know you ain't talking shit about Heaven Sent.

Heaven Sent is a really good episode, and then it ends with every single gripe I have about Moffat turned up to eleven. It almost feels like he's trolling the audience with it.

fwiw I was taking a general stab at Moffat, the post I made is an amagamation of like three different quirks about Moffat that bug the shit out of me.

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Thinking about it, I really wish Doctor Who would change it up a little. And not just in terms of "big story changes, now there's three companions, it's focused less on overarching plots" etc like we got through Jodie's episodes. But every showrunner, every season, since the revival, has had the same type of tone and vibe, and it doesn't need to.

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MrMallard posted...

Heaven Sent is a really good episode, and then it ends with every single gripe I have about Moffat turned up to eleven. It almost feels like he's trolling the audience with it.

fwiw I was taking a general stab at Moffat, the post I made is an amagamation of like three different quirks about Moffat that bug the shit out of me.

Gotcha. It *was* really annoying how much Moffat made the Doctor "the most important man in the universe" on a constant basis. He's supposed to just be a really smart doofus who loves traveling.

Felt like he really had a boner for his own headcanon of what the Doctor was supposed to be. And he really loved those "oh no, the Doctor's going to DIE!" plot lines that got really old.

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I'll give him this though, I 100% bought into the 50th Anniversary special. Great episode of television.

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The 50th was great, even if I don't care for Zygons at all.

Moffat does have good episodes (most from the RTD era, honestly), just a lot of his over-arching plot lines and tropes he loves to use become a mess after a certain point.

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ClunkerSlim posted...

Oh fucking hell. Not again. Im officially out with this series. I must be the only one who hated the RTD era.

don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya

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ClunkerSlim posted...

I must be the only one who hated the RTD era.

Well, Terrance Dicks is dead now, so that's not an option.

You're all talking shit about the fart alien and the concrete face, but that shit's from the single worst episode in his run. He had plenty of great episodes.

It's like if I heaped shit on Moffat solely for that dogshit "mind virus" episode, where the threat of the episode was basically a z-tier version of The Ring/The Game that was framed like a YouTube video. I find a lot more to heap shit on as a matter of personal preference, but that episode was objectively my least favourite Moffat episode - I'd even say it was THE worst episode of his entire run - and I almost never bring it up because it's genuinely such a miserable excuse of an episode. No-one needs to hear how shitty it is ad infinitum.

Like I'll admit I'm a fanboy for Davies, but at least inject some variety into the criticism. As.if his entire run was as bad as Love and Monsters - sod off.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

Wasn't it RTD who came up with street-tile sex?

Why you gotta bring that shit up.

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MrMallard posted...

I can only hope Jodie stays on for a Russel T. Davies season.

She's the best part of Chibnall's run, and I think she would fucking THRIVE under Davies.

She isnt staying on.

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ClunkerSlim posted...

I must be the only one who hated the RTD era.

I don't hate it, but I do find it hard to revisit most of his era.
I will say that in my opinion the best era of New Who has been the second half of series 3 to the first half of series 6, so I'm not totally against him.

MrMallard posted...

Like I'll admit I'm a fanboy for Davies, but at least inject some variety into the criticism. As.if his entire run was as bad as Love and Monsters - sod off.

Series two was the worst season of New Who with some of the worst episodes of modern television. Making the Doctor fall in love with a human was dreadful, having the next human fall in love with him even harder was worse, the constant journeys back to Earth (Eccelston didn't even get to go to another planet!), how the Doctor treats Mickey, celebrity casting (Kylie Minogue esp.), how each of his four seasons are repetitive, etc.
It's been said in this topic about the issue with Moffat making the Doctor a god, but that started back in Tennant with many RTD episodes using it (Voyage of the Damned being a very noteworthy example).

I could go on, and honestly I could make many complaints about Moffat's run. I guess that's my main issue: neither is universally better than the other and whenever people bang on about how awful one or the other is then it just makes me roll my eyes.
Except fuck Chibnall

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I look forward to this because I feel like RTD will callback to the previous Doctors and include that connection throughout the story. Also there's that chance of seeing David Tennant again.

MrMallard posted...

You're all talking shit about the fart alien and the concrete face, but that shit's from the single worst episode in his run.

Fear Her and The Idiot's Lantern were both pretty worse. Aliens in London/World War Three at least had some decent character development.

Hinakuluiau posted...

Series two was the worst season of New Who with some of the worst episodes of modern television.

Series 8, 11, and 12 are all much worse, brah. Series 2 had some bangers with the Cybermen, the Girl in the Fireplace, and actual Satan itself.

But yeah, RTD (and the revived series as a whole) loved being on Earth far too much, and the Doctor falling in love with an 18 year old is pretty fuckin awful.

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Rharyx211 posted...

RTD (and the revived series as a whole) loved being on Earth far too much

It's cheaper.
Pretty much all of the 3rd Doctor run was conveniently stuck on earth, for mostly the same reason.

Is being on Earth really so bad for what is essentially a child's history show?
As long as the writing is good, the show should work. The problem is the writing has been crap for a long time.

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ChocoboMogALT posted...

Is being on Earth really so bad for what is essentially a child's history show?

When half the point of the TARDIS is traveling space as well as time, I'd say so. Part of the charm of the show is seeing different planets and actors dressed up as campy aliens.

I mean, it's not like a majority of episodes in the classic series weren't on Earth either (outside of Tom Baker's run), but the revived series is here to an almost annoying amount. (Somewhat related, but the revived series also almost exclusively has companions from modern-day Earth; we need some more alien companions like the classic series had)

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Rharyx211 posted...

we need some more alien companions like the classic series had

If the show really had balls, there'd be a dalek companion for several episodes.

I'm still wtfing at this.

Hasn't registered yet.

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CyricZ posted...

Yeah right? Thanks Matt Smith for restarting everything.

Questionmarktarius posted...

If the show really had balls, there'd be a dalek companion for several episodes.

Oh that would be amazing

its weird that all anyone can name as far as the bad stuff rtd did was the same two/three episodes over and over and over lol. it's not like those were his only stinkers either but he put out a ton of bangers to balance it out.

the years with him as showrunner were just the best of the modern series, and every replacement he's had has either been almost instantly bored with their job or just terrible. im willing to give it a shot

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ultimate reaver posted...

its weird that all anyone can name as far as the bad stuff rtd did was the same two/three episodes over and over and over lol. it's not like those were his only stinkers either but he put out a ton of bangers to balance it out.

Yeah, I'll take the inevitable RTD cringe scenes over the show-runner's after him.

RTD made Years and Years which is overall great, but it does have some classic RTD cringe moments in it. Such as when a character runs over a cyclist with over dramatic music. If he can keep up that same overall quality in Doctor Who, I'll be happy.

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Kanaya413 posted...

Oh that would be amazing

Having to hear the way Daleks speak for entire episodes in a main role would get very annoying, very fast.

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Rharyx211 posted...

Having to hear the way Daleks speak for entire episodes in a main role would get very annoying, very fast.

Meh, I grew up when PBS was running K-9 era episodes

doctor who survived decades of guys dressed in bubble wrap and styrafoam pretending to be aliens, guys in party city period piece suits vamping in front of terrible matte paintings for hours on end, and a myriad of sleepy mostly-forgotten serial series that people will actively tell you to skip over. rtd making some stinkers along the path of literally bringing the series back from the dead and making it relevant again didnt really "forever taint the franchise" in any meaningful way that hadnt been done equally bad before or wasn't done after

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Wonder if they will use the Autons as the villain again in the first episode. They were in the first episode in the Nu-Who series and in the first episode of the 3rd Doctor's series which was essentially a new show at the time (in color, a focus on Earth, and the Doctor was more of an action hero).

ultimate reaver posted...

doctor who survived decades of guys dressed in bubble wrap and styrafoam pretending to be aliens, guys in party city period piece suits vamping in front of terrible matte paintings for hours on end, and a myriad of sleepy mostly-forgotten serial series that people will actively tell you to skip over. rtd making some stinkers along the path of literally bringing the series back from the dead and making it relevant again didnt really "forever taint the franchise" in any meaningful way that hadnt been done equally bad before or wasn't done after

Don't forget the killer plastic chair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXrAK6sUZ_0

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Rharyx211 posted...

Having to hear the way Daleks speak for entire episodes in a main role would get very annoying, very fast.

Im okay with it