Guest Feature: Why I’m Now Concerned about RTD’s Second Era

Feature article by guest contributor Cameron Smith.

Like most Doctor Who fans, I rejoiced when the news broke that Russell T Davies was returning to helm the show. After Chris Chibnall split the fandom in two, I felt the best person to resolve this was undoubtedly Davies, the man who brought the show back after 16 years off the air and made it the global hit that it was between 2005-2010. However, “undoubtedly” no longer seems fitting. Recent comments and actions from Davies have instead given me many doubts about the future of Doctor Who.

Repairing the Fractured Fanbase(?)

Instead of looking to fix the massively divisive Timeless Child retcon, Davies appears to be standing by it. He recently claimed that it would be “absolutely rude” to undo something that was written by someone he considers a friend. On a related note, when Davies revealed that Ncuti Gatwa’s first series of Doctor Who was being internally referred to as ‘season one’, he commented: “What fun it is to be controversial.” I completely disagree with both of these comments.

Firstly, I believe that a ‘true friend’ doesn’t let their friend get away with doing something reckless. When someone makes a mistake as egregious as Chibnall’s, a true friend would tell them it was a mistake and give them constructive feedback. There are certainly ways to retcon what Chibnall did. It’s canon that the Gallifreyan Matrix can be altered to present false data, and Davies is bringing back the Toymaker, a character who has some ability to make his own reality. Thus, the things that the Thirteenth Doctor physically encountered which tied back to her forgotten past, could in fact have been constructs of the Toymaker. Davies could have fixed this issue, but he is seemingly choosing not to.

Secondly, being intentionally controversial should not be ‘fun’. Chibnall certainly proved that when he went ahead with a plotline that he knew would be controversial. After years of low-quality Doctor Who and disappointed fans, Davies should be avoiding controversy at all costs. Film and TV shows are, ultimately, entertainment — their purpose is to entertain audiences. Of course, it can also serve as an artistic medium to get people thinking, but that’s beside the point here. To get people back on board with Doctor Who, entertaining the audience should be the priority, not upsetting them (again).

Oversaturation of Content

Davies seems to have not learned from Disney’s mistakes in this area. One reason Disney has been turning fans away from other franchises is by oversaturating the market with products of varying degrees of quality. Franchise entries such as Star Wars: Visions and I Am Groot are, for example, content for the sake of content. Fans have been crying out that they want quality over quantity. Yet, Davies can be quoted as saying, “If content is king, then we’ve got a right royal regal procession coming your way, so stand back!”

Although Davies was able to successfully oversee the simultaneous production of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures in the late 2000s, that was before the era of content. More recently, Marvel Studios has shown what can happen when a brilliant executive producer, such as Kevin Feige, is spread too thin. Although Disney does not have any control over the production of Doctor Who (as it does with Star Wars and Marvel), I think it would be better for Davies to focus his energy on making one high-quality show, rather than spreading his attention across various spin-offs and other content.

Political Correctness

Generally, I support the notion of ‘political correctness’. I believe it’s good that we’re seeing more representation of diverse communities in films and television, and I generally hate it when some media is unnecessarily criticised for being “woke.” Yet, I can see that sometimes political correctness can also be overdone.

“The Star Beast” is a good example of this. I was happy to discover that Rose Noble was a transgender and non-binary character. I also liked that the UNIT scientist Shirley Bingham was played by a physically disabled actress. This was good representation.

However, I felt that this positive representation was later diminished because it was overdone. Rose calls out the Doctor for assuming the Meep’s gender — it’s an alien, and its concept of gender could be wildly different from our own. When a UNIT soldier informs Bingham of a signal within the alien ship and that they’ve been ordered to investigate, he apologises that stairs are preventing Bingham from joining the investigation. Bingham quite rightly responds with, “Don’t make me the problem. Just get in there.” Neither of these exchanges needed to be included at all. These scenes, similar to Bill Potts’ constant references to her sexuality in Series 10, felt unnecessary.

There’s also Davies’ recent suggestion that Davros will not be disabled if he returns in a future episode. I would be interested in seeing this happen if there is an in-universe explanation for such a change (e.g., he absorbed regeneration energy from the Twelfth Doctor in his last appearance). On the other hand, I agree with those who feel that this change isn’t necessary. Yes, Davros is technically a negative portrayal of people with disabilities, but instead of changing him, all you had to do was balance it out with more positive portrayals of people with disabilities, such as Shirley Bingham.

The Same Old Problem: The Sonic

For years, fans have lamented the fact that the Sonic Screwdriver has become a multi-tool capable of solving any problem. No longer does the Doctor need to use intelligence to get out of a problem, the Sonic will do it instead. Davies has already made this problem worse in “The Star Beast.” The Sonic is now capable of producing holographic screens that display maps and other information, and can even create hard-light shields of any size.

It isn’t even enough to take the Sonic away from the Doctor at this point. Whenever the Doctor finds themselves without a Sonic, they make a new one, or the TARDIS makes a new one for them. Perhaps the most brilliant thing that Davies can do is not to fix the Timeless Child problem… but to fix the Sonic problem.

Conclusion

We are still at the very beginning of Russell T Davies’ new tenure as showrunner, and the concerns I’ve raised in this article may be unwarranted. Davies may still opt to ignore the Timeless Child plotline, the same way he ignored the 1996 TV movie’s plot line of the Doctor being half-human. Davies could be exaggerating his claims of upcoming Whoniverse content, and what we get in the future could be about the same as what we were getting in the late 2000s.

Positive representation and exploration of contemporary social issues have been a part of Doctor Who for some time, and have mostly been done well. This could continue to be the case in the future. This is certainly what I am hoping for because I want my favourite show to return to the glory that it once had. Yet, I also believe these are things that Davies should be cautious about as he moves forward.

The one concern that almost certainly will not be addressed is the Sonic. Its power will likely continue to grow until the Doctor is no longer the most feared being in the universe… the Sonic is.