{"id":20736,"date":"2024-05-07T08:50:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T12:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-05-08T09:32:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T13:32:43","slug":"russell-t-davies-on-returning-to-doctor-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/russell-t-davies-on-returning-to-doctor-who\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies on Returning to\u00a0Doctor Who"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a first for the 60-year-old franchise, Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0is set for a global release this week, with the new season arriving simultaneously on the BBC in the U.K. and Disney+ in the rest of the world. Produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios, there\u2019s a lot new about the latest season of the sci-fi hit. Beyond its new global streaming home, the Doctor has a new face; the 15th incarnation of the beloved time traveler is played by\u00a0Sex Education<\/em>\u00a0alum Ncuti Gatwa. There\u2019s a new companion, too, with Millie Gibson joining the cast as the Doctor\u2019s travel partner. New villains await, along with some old favorites, as Russell T Davies returns to helm the franchise he successfully rebooted in 2005, remaining as showrunner through 2010.\u00a0TV Drama <\/em>caught up with Davies to discuss his lifelong fondness for the show, the importance of bringing in new audiences and continuing to entertain longtime fans.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0The last time we spoke was just before the release of\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>a Sin<\/em>. I recall asking if you\u2019d ever return to fantasy and science fiction.
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0And I went, No, no, I never will! [Laughs<\/em>]\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0Why did you want to come back to\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>? And why now?
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0The irony is that these conversations started during the\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>a Sin<\/em>\u00a0time. I was literally lying to you! I\u2019ve been asked that question a lot over the years. Bear in mind, when I was asked that, someone else was running\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>, so the last thing they want to hear is the ghost at the door, rattling the chains, saying, I\u2019m back! They\u2019d call the Ghostbusters to get rid of me! It would genuinely have been professionally rude to have said, Hello, I\u2019m here! So, I had to keep it quiet; it was only fair. Why now? I\u2019ve always loved it. I\u2019ve been thinking about this show since I could think. It was my first memory of television. It\u2019s been in my head since I was 3 years old. When I was 11, I was drawing cartoon strips about this show. When I wrote\u00a0Queer\u00a0<\/em>as Folk<\/em>\u00a0in 1999, which revolutionized the depiction of gay men on television\u2014never mind that, I put a\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0fan in there! [Laughs<\/em>] It was really important to me. And then I brought [the show] back in 2005. I never stopped thinking about it. Unbeknownst to me, the BBC in 2021, during\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>a Sin<\/em>, was already looking at the property and thinking, Let\u2019s move this forward to the next stage. Let\u2019s look at those international streamers. What if it stepped up in production, visuals, style and broadcast to become a show that drops internationally? I loved that ambition. I already thought that was what\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0should be. So it was a great meeting of minds. I guess they thought they were coming onto the Zoom to persuade me. I required absolutely no persuasion! I broke my agent\u2019s heart by saying yes on the spot! [Laughs<\/em>] I couldn\u2019t say yes faster. I believed in it. That was the beginning of the process before Disney came on board. Then I became the person pitching to Amazon, Netflix, Disney\u2014everyone. And I loved that process. I went out there to sell\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>. I knew I could do it. I know the show well enough.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0The world has changed dramatically since you brought the show back in 2005. What were some of the things you had to keep in mind for the new season that will arrive on Disney+ across the globe?
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m not here to reinvent the wheel. The show brings a lot of love from the old days, and no one loves the old days more than me. I\u2019m not here to chuck away the companions or set it all on Mars and make the Doctor a professor with a pet beetle or something! The fundamentals of the show are the same, but the difference is it\u2019s 2024. Diversity is the name of the game now. I don\u2019t mean that in a trivial, superficial way. It\u2019s a very important thing, and I\u2019d like to think I\u2019ve been part of increasing the importance of diversity on television in the other shows I\u2019ve done. I\u2019m a passionate believer in it. I could have done better in the past, but I have done better than a lot of people in the past, and I hope I\u2019ll do better in the future, not just in terms of race but also in terms of disabled actors and more working-class actors, stronger parts for women, for all forms of sexual identity. Sometimes, I think I sound like a preacher in the town square, but I\u2019ve seen the results on-screen. You can see it now with Ncuti Gatwa. You could see it in\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>a Sin<\/em>, which was a blazing, astonishing cast of such joy and glory that I\u2019ve ever been lucky enough to be attached to. I properly believe in this. It has worth and weight; it\u2019s important. It brings in new audiences; that\u2019s very important. It\u2019s no good to keep relying on the people who have been watching\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0for decades. I\u2019m sad for people who don\u2019t watch\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>. I genuinely have pain in my heart that they can\u2019t share the show\u2019s joy, madness, sheer exuberance and exhilaration. It\u2019s enormous fun. I want more people to be part of it. You widen the audience, the stories become richer, the talent becomes richer, the pictures become richer; it\u2019s just a lovely process. This isn\u2019t just\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>; this is all of television. We\u2019re seeing great things. The past few years have been extraordinary. It could always be better, of course. It\u2019s astonishing how you can still sit down at 9 o\u2019clock and watch very straightforward and, dare I say it, straight, white productions, but nonetheless, the compass has shifted to an extraordinary degree.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0Talk about the casting process that led to Ncuti Gatwa becoming the next Doctor.
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0I do feel like I was the man lucky enough to be running\u00a0Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0in 2022 when Ncuti Gatwa decided to leave\u00a0Sex Education<\/em>. The\u00a0Sex Education<\/em>\u00a0people themselves, having had a glorious time, decided to wrap up their show. Of course, we leapt. We auditioned lots of people, men and women, from all sorts of backgrounds. On that list was Ncuti Gatwa, who came in last. I\u2019ll never forget it. He seized it; he owned it. He had one audition. You\u2019d think we\u2019d have a second for a part this big and a third. He had one audition, and everyone went, That\u2019s it. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s ever happened. Actually, it happened with David Tennant as well. But Ncuti was just astonishing on that day, coming in and delivering that script, he owned it from the first second.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0There have been many companions over the years, sometimes more than one in each season. Tell us about what went into selecting Millie Gibson to play Ncuti\u2019s travel partner, Ruby Sunday.
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0I love just one companion. I might change that in a few years because I love mixing it up. Jodie [Whittaker, who played the Thirteenth Doctor] had three companions at various points. I went back to my classic format, which is one Doctor, one companion. If the Doctor had been female, I would have cast a male companion. The Doctor is male, so I cast a female companion. I think it\u2019s good to have balanced leads. It\u2019s just healthy. And again, you\u2019re looking for limitless actors. I\u2019ve been watching Millie since she was 14. I\u2019m a great viewer of a British soap opera called\u00a0Coronation Street<\/em>. I watched her grow up. I used to work on soap operas; I know their rhythms and how they work. You could tell the writers loved her because they kept giving her story after story. That\u2019s a sign. It ended up in this extraordinary melee of stories in which her character was a heroin addict, holding her father hostage in a cellar with a gun for some reason, and at the same time winning regional hairdresser of the year! [Laughs<\/em>] But what you saw was an actor handling it. She handled all those stories all together, and I thought she was very special. Then she announced she was leaving\u00a0Coronation Street<\/em>\u00a0at 18. I liked that as well. I thought that was an unusual decision because she could have stayed on that show for life; they loved her, and they would have never killed her off. They wrote her out, but she just went on the run! A gangster\u2019s daughter, like they do! We got her to audition. Her last episode of\u00a0Coronation Street<\/em>\u00a0transmitted on a Friday night and she walked into our audition on Saturday morning. And again, I think that was just one audition. Ncuti was there. We saw the chemistry instantly. She\u2019s a foundling, abandoned on a church doorstep in the snow at Christmas. She\u2019s part of a fantastic adopted family; she loves her mum and grandmother but wants to set off to find her birth mother or father and find out who she is in life. The problem that foundlings have is there is no paperwork. What\u2019s starting to happen is DNA tracing, and yet, mysteriously\u2014or is it mysteriously?\u2014there\u2019s no trace of Ruby\u2019s mother anywhere. The search and the reveal of Ruby\u2019s mother becomes a story that, in the end, has fantastic twists. Honestly, I know I\u2019m here to sell the show, but it has some of the best surprises I\u2019ve ever come up with! Don\u2019t try to read any spoilers or leaks because the final reveals in episodes seven and eight are stonking. That\u2019s a British word. Astonishing! [Laughs<\/em>]\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0Having a day-and-date global rollout helps those of us trying to avoid spoilers!
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely! I love the global rollout. It deserves it. It\u2019s a wonderful show. Life is better for having watched it. I really believe that. So, let\u2019s share it with every country!<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0As a longtime fan, I do want to talk a bit about the extensive\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0<\/em>lore and how you determine which of the classic villains\u2014Daleks, Weeping Angels, Cybermen and on\u2014you want to bring back?
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0A new Doctor brings newness with him, so there are a lot of new enemies. It\u2019s a balance. Over the next two years, you can expect to see one or two old faces come back, maybe in a different form and guise, but there\u2019s that fanbase to satisfy as well. It makes it seem like a consistent, coherent universe. The Doctor would have enemies who regularly seek him out to kill him. There\u2019s no sign of the Daleks yet. I\u2019m holding them off. Jodie faced the Daleks every New Year\u2019s Day in a chain of stories written by Chris Chibnall. It means a lot of Dalek action has taken place on-screen. We\u2019ll give them a little rest. They are my favorites, so don\u2019t worry; I\u2019ll never give up on them. But it\u2019s time to rest them for the moment.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0Is there anything else you can tell us about the arc of this season?
\nDAVIES:<\/strong>\u00a0It gets stronger as it goes. There are mysteries placed in there. Strange things are happening. Even from one episode, the internet is starting to piece together some mysteries. Maybe they are right. Perhaps it\u2019s a great sleight of hand that we\u2019re pulling. Or maybe they\u2019re just really clever and have seen through all my cunning plans! [Laughs<\/em>] That\u2019s actually more likely. But there\u2019s a greater viewership than just the fans. There will be kids coming to it as brand-new viewers and adults. They\u2019ll start to piece things together. We\u2019ll hear the Doctor mention things from his past and think, that\u2019s interesting; things that he hasn\u2019t talked about in decades that become relevant on-screen now. All of that richness has a point. It\u2019s very tightly plotted. I\u2019m very pleased with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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