Russell T Davies: An Appreciation
Mark McCullough on Doctor Who’s former showrunner.
Back in 2005, Doctor Who returned to our screens, mostly due to the work of one man: Russell T Davies. However his work began long before 2005, in fact he submitted his first Doctor Who script way back in 1987. Amazingly it was rejected, but fear not, the same script was edited and we saw it in the form of The Long Game. It was this passion for the show that saw RTD fight to have it return to the BBC from the late 1990s until he eventually got his wishes in 2003.
However, even then he had to face off competition to get the show. He was not the only one with a pitch to bring the show back: his competition was: Dan Freedman, Matthew Graham, and Mark Gatiss. As we know, Davies’ vision for the show was the one chosen, Gatiss also went on to write for the show. The same can be said for Matthew Graham, however his greatest success was Life on Mars. With Davies’ installed as showrunner, the rest as they say is history.
Doctor Who
So what was it made Davies’ version of Doctor Who so special? It would be impossible to generalise this for all fans so I can only tell you from my experience and how RTD made me fall in love with the show. No matter what my opinion of her is now (and it is still mostly positive), Rose Tyler played a massive part in the success of the revival and my own personal involvement in the series. The first episode was named after her, it opened following her life and ultimately turned out to be about her.
The rest of the series followed suit as Rose acted as a very strong audience surrogate, investing us in the Doctor’s adventures. This was Davies’ vision of what a companion should be, and he focused on making them a believable person essentially grounding an incomprehensible world in the daily life of a normal London girl. Not only did this make the show more assessable, it actually served to widen the appeal, Doctor Who was no longer a pure sci-fi and that was something which served it very well indeed.
Another decision by Davies which I though paid enormous dividends was the fact that he stripped the show’s mythology down to the barebones before gradually building some of it back in over his four series in charge. This worked perfectly because it made the show easy to get into, you didn’t need any foreknowledge to be able to follow what was happening. Another factor in favour of the first series was that Davies’ wrote eight of the scripts himself giving the series a much needed sense of consistency. Of course, Davies did a lot more wonderful things in his time on Doctor Who with standout episodes in each of his series, he even bowed out on what I believe to have been one of his best ever stories. The only pity is that he hasn’t written for the show since stepping down.
Torchwood
Following the success of the first series of Doctor Who, Davies was approached by the BBC to make what was described as an adult version of Doctor Who, and thus Torchwood was born. Utilising fan favourite Captain Jack Harkness, Davies was able to craft a new team which offered not just a more mature view of the Doctor Who universe, but a more human one too. Like what defined Davies take on Doctor Who, the relationships between the characters gave Torchwood an ample platform to succeed.
And succeed it did lasting for four strong series and taking fans through a roller-coaster of highs and lows for the characters they loved. Gwen Cooper is widely regarded one of the strongest female characters in television and it is through her that we see the world of Torchwood. What makes it different from Doctor Who though is the death, the sex, and the darker themes which would be inappropriate for parent show Doctor Who. I’m not going to go into some of Torchwood’s greatest moments because I am aware that some fans have yet to have the pleasure. What I will say however is that it is unmissable, particularly the third series: Children of Earth which is quite possibly the greatest piece of television ever.
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Around the same time as he was asked to do Torchwood, Davies was also approached to write a series for a younger audience. From what I have read, initially the BBC were pushing for a young version of the Doctor, however Davies had the sense to realise that this would have detracted from the Doctor’s character as his backstory was better left untold.
Instead he opted to bring back a popular character from the classic series; Sarah Jane Smith. The Sarah Jane Adventure was an instant hit for viewers of all ages and rapidly grew to become one of my favourite shows. Davies continued to write strong scripts for the show until the tragic passing of Elizabeth Sladen when the correct decision was made that the show could not be carried on without her.
Conclusion
As fans of Doctor Who it would appear that we have a lot to thank Russell T Davies for. I haven’t gone into huge detail about any of his three major contributions to the Doctor Who universe. There are two reasons for that, the first being once I get started I will never get stopped such is the quality of Russell’s work, so a brief overview seemed like the best approach!
The second is because I didn’t want to draw comparisons with the work of others, this article is an appreciation of RTD following his most recent birthday, and I didn’t want to cover anything that might detract from that. So all that really remains to do is to send Russell a huge thank you. Because to put it truthfully it’s unlikely any of us would have been on this site tonight if it wasn’t for his effort and for that I am eternally grateful.
