Russell T Davies on Doctor Who’s New Season

Doctor Who landed on its new global home of Disney+ last year with Ncuti Gatwa stepping into the shoes of the iconic time traveler and an old friend of the show at the helm with Russell T Davies back as showrunner, returning to lead the BBC Studios franchise he successfully rebooted in 2005 and stayed with through 2010. Ahead of Disney+’s second season premiering on April 12 (with a simulcast on BBC iPlayer in the U.K.), Davies caught up with TV Drama to discuss the new episodes, which see Varada Sethu joining the cast as the Doctor’s new travel companion, Belinda Chandra.

TV DRAMA: Tell us about what’s in store for your second season back on Doctor Who.
DAVIES: We’re coming in with wilder swings than ever! The beautiful nature of Doctor Who means it never sits still; it keeps moving. Of course, it’s an anthology show, but it’s an anthology with teeth. It’s never the same. Every week, it changes genres. We start with a great big space opera story: robots, lasers, spaceships and explosions! Episode two then goes to Miami in 1952, where a cartoon has come to life. I’m not even sure what genre that is! Episode three is much scarier. It is one of those great Doctor Who adventures on a hostile planet 500,000 years in the future. It’s deserted. A colony has been found dead. Episode four is about whatever happened to Ruby Sunday. Ruby is left at home happily at the end of the last season. What is life like after Doctor Who? Surely, there’s a bit of PTSD. There’s also a love story. We’ve never had a chance to tell a love story. How do you find a man who replaces the Doctor in your life? I’ll tell you how. You get Jonah Hauer-King in. That’s easy! Goodbye, Doctor. Hello, Jonah. That’s just half the series. It keeps rolling on and rolling on, with bigger swings than ever. We’re always delighted to be different every week. And this went madly different every week. I hope it keeps hopping. I hope it keeps fun. I hope we keep it lively. I’m very excited. I can’t wait for you to see it.

TV DRAMA: We talked last year about why you wanted to come back and your ambitions for the show. Were there lessons learned from your first season back, and your first with Ncuti on Disney+, that you’re bringing to this season?
DAVIES: Doctor Who is always a work in progress. It’s not so much [about] lessons as it is keeping it varied again. We all loved Millie [Gibson] as Ruby Sunday. There may be a danger that it becomes a little bit Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, so we’re bringing someone who’s more Ncuti’s age to balance that out. Someone who doesn’t accept what he says so easily, who challenges and provokes him while keeping Millie on board because she’s loved and adored. You wait until the end of the series, where you see a Ruby Sunday showing strength like you’ve never seen before. That’s really what she learned on board the Tardis. It has callbacks all the way to her very first adventure in [the first episode of last season] “The Church on Ruby Road.” It’s very powerful stuff. So, it’s a constant process of learning, but it’s not a radically new series—you can tell we have confidence in the show, and that confidence is rolling along. That show you loved is still there.

TV DRAMA: I was thinking that when I watched the first episode of last season, with that scene when Ruby Sunday first spots the Doctor dancing in the nightclub. It felt like it was a younger, hipper show—but it also felt like the same show I’ve loved for ages.
DAVIES: That was a pivotal moment in my creation; my first thought was that she sees him dancing. Before I’d thought of the story, the plot, a word of dialogue: it’s a nightclub, and she sees him dancing. It says a lot without any word of dialogue. It was shot beautifully by [director] Mark Tonderai. And they put [the Doctor] in a kilt and a yellow vest! It’s just glorious. It’s the Doctor in motion. It’s exhausting to make Doctor Who because the Doctor never stops. He never sits still. Murray Gold, the musician, says that 25 minutes into every single episode, everyone starts running, and then they never stop! It’s not a deliberate thing, honestly. But he’s right; he sussed years ago that it’s full of energy, life and action. It’s a moment of stillness as well. It’s a really lovely, perfect combination.

TV DRAMA: This season features a new companion with Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra. How did you approach making that change?
DAVIES: I’ve done it a lot of times, and I always love it. Also, we’re reaching a new audience on Disney+. You’re showing off the format of the show. It’s not the Doctor-Ruby show, it’s Doctor Who. There always is a new companion. That’s the format. We’ve been clever with it this time. We adore Millie Gibson, so she does come back for episode four and the finale. There are gorgeous moments where she meets Belinda. To get the legacy and the history of two companions meeting—it’s like icons meeting to me. I absolutely love that. And the actors love it as well. It just keeps it fresh, it keeps it moving, it keeps it new, and I think the show should always be that way. I think it’ll always keep happening.

TV DRAMA: It’s a challenging time for the content business. How do you see the commissioning sector today?
DAVIES: Well, it’s an interesting time. I’ve just been watching Adolescence on Netflix. I do not deny that there are problems, and I do not deny there are people out of work, but Adolescence is the most British show you can ever watch, with Northern actors who I’ve been working with here in the north of England. There are actors I’ve worked with for 30 years. All are speaking in their Northern accents. It’s the darkest, most brutal subject matter about all the problems we have in society today. It’s so localized, it’s British, it’s so intense—and produced by Brad Pitt! Something is working there; one of the world’s great names, whose name alone gets things made, is investing in local British talent, presenting a story that goes right to the heart of society today. There is healthy stuff out there. There’s really good stuff. I’ve got a new show next year about the state of gay politics and where we are now. It’s on Channel 4. I got that commissioned kind of instantly. I’m very proud of it. My heart breaks because there will be writers, producers and directors who are out of work listening to this. But honestly, I’m not yet ready to despair because I still believe that a good idea will be made.

TV DRAMA: I did want to talk to you briefly about mentorship and your work bringing new writers into the fold. What’s your message to up-and-coming talent about navigating the landscape today?
DAVIES: That it’s possible. In 2003, I executive produced [for] three writers having their first dramas on television. Jamie Davis [on the ITVX drama You & Me]. Lenny Henry is very famous in Britain but never had a drama series on television before. I helped to get [Three Little Birds] on air. And a Welsh writer called Matthew Barry, who’s written an awful lot in America and never had his own drama on BBC One. I was an executive producer on that [Men Up]. So, I don’t just talk the talk. Coming up in this series of Doctor Who, there’s a script by Inua Ellams, a world-famous playwright with plays in the National Theater, who’s never had anything on television before. Juno Dawson is a novelist whose books are on the New York Times best-selling list. She’s only ever had a five-minute little playlet on television before. It’s very important to reach out and get these voices in to make the whole sphere of television richer and more diverse. I’m very proud of the fact that I do that.