9 posts tagged “doctor who”
We all knew it would happen sometime (not even John Nathan-Turner went on forever) and there have been rumours flying around for a while, but yesterday the BBC confirmed that Russell T Davies will be stepping down as executive producer of Doctor Who. He'll stay on for the four specials to be broadcast next year but will be gone before the show's fifth series in 2010.
I don't think anyone can deny that Davies' run of the show has been phenomenally successful. Ok, actually, I know that people can (and do) deny that, but a moment's reflection will hopefully demonstrate the stupidity of that opinion. Over the last four years Davies has resurrected Doctor Who and turned it into one of the most successful BBC programmes of all time. People have warm nostalgic feelings for the "old Doctor Who", but it was never anywhere near as successful as this new version. Of course there have been some dodgy new episodes (quite often in the episodes written by Davies himself) but no-one can doubt that it was largely Davies' vision of the show that has made it the success it is today.
I'm not as in tune with Doctor Who fandom as I used to be. But from what I've seen there seem to be two main objections to Davies tenure on the programme:
1/ It's not as good as it used to be
This is, to put it plainly, bollocks. Certainly the old series produced more than it's fair share of top quality TV, but if you actually sit down and watch the old series (and I mean a whole series, not just your favourite stories) you'll quickly realise that there was a lot of rubbish there too.
A related complaint is that too much has changed - from the format of the shows (largely single 45 minute episodes as opposed to four 25 minute episodes) to the emphasis on London (or, rather, Cardiff pretending to be London) or the "soap opera" aspects of bringing in the companions' families. Well, yes, things have changed. But the audience has changed too and people want different things from their Saturday evening drama. Yes, it might annoy the die-hard Who fans or the science fiction audience. But it's not made for them. If the BBC relied on pleasing those people then there's no way the show would have been as successful as it has been.
2/ Davies is gay, and therefore the spawn of the devil
Amazing as it seems in the twenty-first century, this is the second most common complaint about the new series that I've heard. Yes, Davies is gay. People are. And they don't hide it any more. And it's a perfectly normal part of society. Deal with it.
Davies is handing over Stephen Moffat. Fans of the show should be pleased with this as Moffat has written some of the most popular recent episodes - The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink (surely forty-five of the best minutes of TV ever broadcast). Older TV fans will also remember his earlier work like Press Gang and Joking Apart. And, in common with Davies, he seems to be a long-time fan of Doctor Who. The BBC story quotes him as saying:
I applied before but I got knocked back 'cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven.
Interesting times ahead for Doctor Who. Moffat has a big task ahead of him following in Davies' footsteps. But I can't think of anyone else who I'd rather see taking over.
I'm really not sure how I feel about this.
Actress Billie Piper is to return to Doctor Who, the BBC has confirmed.
She will star in three episodes of the sci-fi drama, reprising her role as the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler.
Rose's return will mean the Doctor has three assistants in next year's series - Donna, played by Catherine Tate, and Freema Agyeman as Martha.
I don't dislike the character of Rose as much as many people seem to. I just think it goes against the idea of Doctor Who to have companions leaving and returning so quickly. She's only been gone for a year. Doctor Who is about the Doctor. Companions come and go. They're less important. The audience shouldn't get too attached to them.
But we'll see how it goes. Maybe it'll work out ok.
On Saturday the third series of the revived (maybe "regenerated" is better) Doctor Who finished on BBC One. The last episode (capsule review - all a bit too silly for my tastes) ended with the Doctor alone in the TARDIS again as Martha Jones had decided to leave him and stay one Earth. Which all came as a bit of a surprise to viewers as there had been no news of her leaving the show (well, other than a ridiculous Sun story claiming that she had been sacked).
There was no information about what was going on from the BBC until Monday. At which point they started issuing a new press release every day to give more details about what was happening. Here's a summary of what we know so far.
- Martha Jones will be back. She is in three episodes of the forthcoming second series of Torchwood and will return for the second half of the next series of Doctor Who.
- Kylie Minogue will be playing a major role in the Christmas special. I suppose this will be a kind of one-shot companion like Catherine Tate played in the last Christmas special. Kylie's involvement has been hinted at on a few news sites previously.
- Catherine Tate will be the full-time companion in the next series. This came as a bit of a surprise. And, to be honest, not a particularly welcome one. I didn't really enjoy Tate's performance in the last Christmas special. But we'll just have to wait and see how she does next year.
There are also rumours flying round that this will be Russell T Davies
and David Tennant's last year working on the programme. But as far as I
can see, that's all speculation. There's been no confirmation from the
BBC.
The success of this weekend's Doctor Who story, "Blink", has led to a number of comparisons with last season's "doctor-light"[1] story, "Love and Monsters". And I really don't know why "Love and Monsters" comes off so badly in the comparison. It's true that "Blink" is right up there as one of the best Doctor Who stories ever, but I don't understand why "Love and Monsters" has a reputation as one of the worst. "Love and Monsters" was one of the funniest Doctor Who stories ever. Ok, so Peter Kay overacted massively and the Azorbaloff monster was a pretty stupid idea. But that wasn't really what the story was about. The story was about Elton and his group of misfit friends trying to track down everything they can about the Doctor.
One of the main criticisms that I remember from last year was that the Doctor wasn't in it enough. But that same criticism can be levelled at "Blink". And no-one seems to dislike "Blink" - so I can't see how that criticism can be at all valid.
The cast is very strong and the writing is great. If you're one of the deluded fools who think it's rubbish, then I strongly recommend that you watch it again. It's not as good as "Blink", but it's certainly one of my favourite episodes of the recent series of Doctor Who.
[1] A story that the Doctor only appears in briefly.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that March 31st was looking like the date that the new series of Doctor Who was going to start.
The Radio Times web site has listings for the next two weeks, so by now it should have the programme listed. And yesterday it was definitely there. It was shown as starting at 7:55pm on BBC1. But today it seems to have vanished. That slot (and the ones either side of of it) is showing as "to be announced".
I wonder what's going on.
Update: It seems that the Radio Times was all rather confused last week. It has now settled down and is showing Doctor Who as starting at 7pm next Saturday (31st March). A news article on the BBC Doctor Who site confirms this time.
I didn't see the Metro this morning - so I missed this story which might be considered the start of the publicity for the new series.
Doctor Who scenes showing actress Freema Agyeman have apparently been cut from the family-friendly show.
David Tennant - who plays the Timelord - told the Daily Star: "There was an underwear scene in a draft of the next series but we nixed that. It was bordering on the inappropriate."
However, there are scenes of the 27-year-old assistant, who plays assistant Martha Jones, in bed,
"It's not all that it seems," David explained. "You can't have shagging in the Tardis.
Plans for a Doctor Who spin-off starring Billie Piper as Rose Tyler have been cancelled according to a story on the BBC.
Plans for a Doctor Who spin-off show starring Billie Piper were scrapped at the last minute, series producer Russell T Davies has revealed.
"It was actually commissioned by the controller of BBC One and budgeted," the writer told Doctor Who Magazine.
Davies later decided the programme, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, was "a spin-off too far" and called it off.
Piper, 23, left Doctor Who earlier this year. She will be replaced by Freema Agyeman, 27, in the next series.
"We hadn't formally approached Billie," said Davies, "although we'd mentioned it to her."
This sounds like a bad idea on so many levels. Not least of which is the fact that they hadn't approached Billie Piper. And if she wanted to go on playing Rose Tyler, surely she would have stayed on Doctor Who.
Plus "Rose Tyler: Earth Defence" - that's a crap title.
BBC have issued a press release about their forthcoming Autumn season. The first programme mentioned is Torchwood.
This autumn on BBC THREE sees a season of bold, contemporary programmes with Torchwood, the new drama from writer Russell T Davies, as its centrepiece.
Starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles, Torchwood is a sci-fi crime thriller which tells the story of a crack squad of secret agents, setting their own rules and operating above the law to protect the public from both human and alien threats.
Julian Bellamy, Controller, BBC THREE says: "Torchwood is just the kind of cutting edge, ambitious drama of real scale that we're seeking on BBC THREE and I'm delighted to be unveiling it at my first BBC THREE launch as Controller."
Interesting that it doesn't mention the connection to Doctor Who at all.
