Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[Lonemagpie]

Chibbers has said the Timeless Child thing would still be a theme in series 13, so there'd be no way for us to yet know what would be done with it in future anyway until we see whether it's fed through as ongoing thing, or is a self-contained arc with a planned ending, or what.

 

[Tomalak]

Retconning the Timeless child would be ridiculous. They should never cave in to the pathetic whining of offended fanboys. I personally thought the Timeless child was brilliant, not only acknowledging hanging plot thread of the Morbius Doctors, but restoring a sense of mystery to the character that has been missing for some time.

I'm in two minds about it. I didn't like the way Moffat made the Doctor a kind of God-like myth known across time and space, and resetting that was a good idea. But the Timeless Child thing makes the Doctor just as important and special in a different way.

I prefer the Doctor when they are just a clever, funny time traveller who gets into dangerous situations and uses their wit to get out of them.

 

[Turtletrekker]

As much as I don't want them to retcon the Timeless child, the funniest thing I've read about this online is someone on Facebook commenting that the first words out of the 14th Doctor's mouth should be, "Oh, you redecorated. I don't like it".

 

[Australis]

Retconning the Timeless child would be ridiculous. They should never cave in to the pathetic whining of offended fanboys. I personally thought the Timeless child was brilliant, not only acknowledging hanging plot thread of the Morbius Doctors, but restoring a sense of mystery to the character that has been missing for some time.

I am very, very wary of the idea, "OMG the Doctah is the mos' special person EVAR!!!1!" in the same way as I got really tired of "OMG the mos' importynt companyon EVAR!!!!1!"

 

[Tuskin38]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of retcons meant to please a specific fan set.
It happened, deal with it.

Like, I really don't like the Daleks in Manhattan story, but I wouldn't want it removed from the franchise history. Ignore it sure, but don't undo it.

 

[Hennessy Badger]

Wow! I just heard the news, and my brain is still trying to process it. The RTD era (or I guess, the first RTD era as we’ll soon need to refer to it) wasn’t perfect by any means, but it remains my favorite stretch of new Who.

Russell’s post-DW work has been some of the best television in the past decade imo, so I could not be more excited to see him return to Doctor Who.

 

[DigificWriter]

RTD's departure and the choice of Moffat as his successor was announced in May 2008, and the final story he (RTD) worked on, The End of Time, didn't air until over two years later, so it isn't really unprecedented for there to be a significant gap between the announcement of a showrunner's departure, the selection and confirmation of their successor, and the actual official end of their tenure.

 

[captainkirk]

I'm not expecting him to retcon the Timeless Child plot (even though I'd love it if he did), but I would find it hilarious if he undoes the destruction of Gallifrey.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I'm not expecting him to retcon the Timeless Child plot (even though I'd love it if he did), but I would find it hilarious if he undoes the destruction of Gallifrey.

Considering Davies was the first one to destroy Gallifrey (on the show, anyways), I'd be very surprised if he would undo that part. He did that for a very specific reason and I don't foresee him going out of the way to bring them back now.

 

[DigificWriter]

Going into this second RTD era expecting him to undo or ignore anything that has already happened in Series 11 and 12 or that may yet happen in Series 13 or next year's Specials is like expecting a certain politician to get their previous job back; the people engaging in that kind of thinking are deluding themselves.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Wow! I just heard the news, and my brain is still trying to process it. The RTD era (or I guess, the first RTD era as we’ll soon need to refer to it) wasn’t perfect by any means, but it remains my favorite stretch of new Who.

Russell’s post-DW work has been some of the best television in the past decade imo, so I could not be more excited to see him return to Doctor Who.

The new era will be "RTD2".

 

[StCoop]

Going into this second RTD era expecting him to undo or ignore anything that has already happened in Series 11 and 12 or that may yet happen in Series 13 or next year's Specials is like expecting a certain politician to get their previous job back; the people engaging in that kind of thinking are deluding themselves.

At the same time expecting them to form part of major storylines or even be referred to is equally delusional.

If part of the reason he's coming back is to make the series more mainstream again, carrying on a story that requires you to have seen and remembered stories from the 1970s isn't going to be high on the list of priorities.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Regardless of how I feel about Chibnall's work, I can't help but feel the announcement has been made far too soon. They could at least have let Series 13 and the first Special air before saying anything. I hope they at least keep the next Doctor's identity a secret until after then.

Think how much it would've taken from Series 13 if it had leaked out instead of a controlled release.

I guess I need to go back and watch the stuff about The Timeless Child, I was so disinterested by that point it barely rings a bell and I probably half-watched it if at all but it sounds pretty divisive. Any time the show gets its head up its ass about the Doctor's origins and Gallifrey and all that it loses me.

 

[Mr Awe]

^ There isn't an emotional connection to the Ninth Doctor role for Eccleston, though.

Well, not a positive emotional connection at least.

 

[Mr Awe]

The other interesting - in a shit way - thing I realised overnight is it's actually his prodco that's doing it (hence Tranter and Gardner being there too), which means they've basically privatised it and split it off from the BBC...

I'm pretty sure that was one of the incentives for getting him to return to DW even though he's stated he doesn't like to revisit work.

 

[Mr Awe]

Regardless of how I feel about Chibnall's work, I can't help but feel the announcement has been made far too soon. They could at least have let Series 13 and the first Special air before saying anything. I hope they at least keep the next Doctor's identity a secret until after then.

Possibly, but I'm thankful. It'll lower my frustration getting through the rest of his era knowing there's only a defined amount of it left.

I hope the best for his last season and specials. But, if they're more of the same, at least I know we have RTD to look forward to.

 

[DigificWriter]

At the same time expecting them to form part of major storylines or even be referred to is equally delusional.

I don't think anyone has said that this is something they're expecting, but I'm also not sure you can definitively rule it out.

 

[SolarisOne]

Okay, first of all, whaaaaaaaat? Did not see this coming. At all.
Second, it's too bad Jodie's not gonna stick around, because she deserves better than she got (overall) with Chibnall.
Third, Moffat may have been my favorite showrunner, but having RTD back has to be a massive improvement over Chibnall. It has to be. I mean, he is the guy who brought us the Ninth Doctor.

 

[Jayson1]

My theory is still he might reboot the canon by setting it in that alternate timeline with Tennant doctor married to Rose. It's also a perfect way to ignore the Timeless child stuff since neither of those characters would know. When that Tennant version dies he creates a new line of Doctors. Maybe Doctors who are more human. Then you eventually circle back someday and reboot the Timeless child with yet another reboot where we find out Tennant and Rose were basically the Adam and Eve of the Timelords. They gave birth to the Timeless child.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

...except there's no such thing as Doctor Who canon.

Also: NO.