The New-New Who
Returning showrunner Russell T Davies has demanded a Christmas Day special for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. He tells Huw Fullerton about his hopes for the show’s bright new era
YOSHITAKA KONO
- Huw Fullerton
This article was published in RT in December 2023 and is part of our digital Doctor Who anniversary bookazine — click here to download it for free.
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Russell T Davies is a hard man to deny. I should know because he’s currently eating my lunch. He has a force of personality that’s taken him from Welsh fanboy to top-tier television writer and producer – and allowed him to revive his favourite childhood TV show. Twice.
“I kicked in the door at the BBC,” laughs Davies, “and said, ‘Christmas Day, or else…’ I literally demanded it from day one because I think Doctor Who just suits it perfectly.”
This autumn, we’ve already had three hour-long specials starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Now, we’re here to talk about a new Christmas special, the first that Doctor Who has had since 2017. Given how meekly I handed over my chips, it’s no wonder Davies persuaded the Beeb to give Who back that coveted Yuletide slot.
“Look, it’s Christmas Day. It’s BBC1. It’s a new Doctor. It’s joy all around. I never liked Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials where they went to Hull or Spain. I think Christmassy things should look Christmassy. So, we have snow. We have Christmas trees. It’s properly, properly Christmassy, from beginning to end. We’re going to ride back into the job.”
Russell T Davies. BBC STUDIOS 2023, Ray Burmiston
And as he says, Davies isn’t riding alone – because as well as bringing festive fun back to the show, the new episode will also usher in a new Doctor, played by 31-year-old Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa.
“Every new Doctor should be a chance for brand-new viewers to step on board. And I think Ncuti will bring in a new audience,” says Davies. “So it’s an open door. It’s completely written with that in mind – you can watch it from scratch. It’s absolutely designed for new viewers.”
Gatwa, who’s already filming his second series for 2025 at time of writing, was cast in 2022 after a rigorous round of auditions that Davies was part of – in fact, he read the role of the Doctor’s companion. The choice was, he says, obvious after Gatwa’s very first reading. “For the Doctor,” he recalls now, “we auditioned men, we auditioned women, we auditioned non-binary people. So I didn’t fix anything in that regard. But I did the reading with him, and he blasted me off the face of the Earth.
“He was completely different from how he was in Sex Education,” he adds. “He had all this joy and menace and cheek. Many Doctors had a streak within them that’s withdrawn and guarded. Somehow, he manages to be all that, and yet he cries and he laughs. He’s a much more emotional Doctor, powerfully so. And that works beautifully. It makes us all reach into new areas, and try new things, and write new things. It’s very exciting.”
There’s so much paraphernalia that goes with Doctor Who... the profile of the show, the noise of it, is phenomenal
Russell T Davies
A new Doctor is big news for Doctor Who. But in many ways, Gatwa’s journey to the Tardis has been overshadowed by Davies’s own surprising return to the show, 13 years after he handed the reins over to Steven Moffat. “I left Doctor Who and went to do other dramas. And life was easier!” says the 60-year-old. “There’s so much paraphernalia that goes with Doctor Who – the world around it, and the fans, and the profile of the show. Just the noise of it is phenomenal.”
When Davies’s comeback was announced in 2021, there was surprise, even shock. No one could have seen it coming – not even Davies himself, until the BBC pitched the idea to him. He says that he’d kept thinking of ideas for the show, and of course, he still had Doctor Who in his bones, but Davies had hardly been short of work since he handed in his badge at the BBC. In fact, he’s been in a purple patch most writers would kill for, with hit dramas such as A Very English Scandal and It’s a Sin.
“I’m not saying any of those shows were easy to make, but you deliver a script, you shoot it and that’s it. So, I never envisaged running Doctor Who again. Honestly, I hadn’t,” he insists. “And bear in mind, it was immediately after It’s a Sin, which was such a successful show. It’s never quite true that a writer can do whatever they want, but I was pretty close to that. And, yes, I had many things I wanted to write, and many things on offer. But actually, I love Doctor Who more than anything. I genuinely love it with all my heart.”
Russell T Davies on the set of Doctor Who
There was also the fact that the BBC was keen to team up with an international streaming partner for Who. So with new money coming in and no successor lined up to replace Chris Chibnall as showrunner, someone had to steady the ship. “I completely agreed with everything the BBC wanted to do,” he says. “They wanted someone protecting the show. And I knew it would be hard work – but I love hard work.”
Money from American partner Disney has poured in, raising the bar – and stakes – for the new series. “I’ve never worked with this kind of budget – never,” says Davies. “It’s been brilliant for me to learn.” Special effects are glossier, the stories more ambitious. Davies waxes lyrical about what he has planned for Gatwa’s first full series next year, including a controversial move into ground currently occupied by shows like Stranger Things and The Witcher.
Billie Piper, Russell T Davies and David Tennant with the Drama Series Award for Doctor Who in the Awards Room at the 2006 BAFTAs.
“I was just a bit jealous that all those other shows were getting a bigger taste of the pie, so this Christmas, the enemy is goblins,” he says. “The show is taking a sly step towards fantasy, which will annoy people to whom it’s a hard science-fiction show. Episode two next year [The Devil’s Chord] is wildly fantasy. Completely making up scenarios on screen that we’ve never been able to show before. But the following episode is proper hard science fiction.”
During Davies’s first stint on the show, he was rushing to finish scripts five days before actors walked on set. Today, the scripts are delivered eight weeks before filming, which is done years in advance, with actors locked in for longer runs. There’s less improvisation and more long-term planning.
This new iteration of Doctor Who is obviously more organised, calmer than his first run at it. In fact, when he left the show back then, he gave an unprecedented look behind the curtain in The Writer’s Tale, a warts-and-all book (co-written with Benjamin Cook) recounting the stresses and late-night crises of his time at the helm. And while there was plenty of joy and success, he also clearly found the job stressful and demoralising at times. By the end, he was relieved to leave, and resisted attempts by the BBC to keep him in post. It’s hard, I tell him, to reconcile his comeback with the person who wrote that book.
Doctor Who showrunner Russelll T Davies with Ncuti Gatwa's Madame Tussauds figure. Madame Tussauds London
“Oh God,” Davies mutters. “Yeah, I can see what it looks like from the outside. I would say, it was a book mostly written at two in the morning, so it has a melancholy about it sometimes. If you see me at ten in the morning, I’m laughing! I should write books at 10am.”
And anyway, he says, it’s different this time. In the 2000s, he was overseeing two spin-offs (Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures) and a longer, 14-episode run of Doctor Who. “That was nuts,” he admits now. “How did I do that? I was significantly younger, I have to say. It’s not as bad now. I’m delivering nine episodes of one show.”
The pressure, it seems, is off. Today’s Davies is older and wiser – and after years of having to sing for his supper on other dramas, he can now dictate his own terms. “It’s tough getting drama commissioned. A Very English Scandal, Years and Years, It’s a Sin – I had to tap-dance to get those made. I had to sit in front of commissioners, and perform, and dazzle, and do all the tricks. And all three of those came very close to not getting made.” It’s a Sin was actually rejected by the BBC and ITV before it landed on Channel 4, and even then, Davies was forced to cut his episode count from eight to five.
“Now, I’ve just delivered a script for May 2025 that I know will get made,” he says proudly. “I don’t have to plead. I don’t have to pitch. And I think you write profoundly differently when you know your writing is going to get made, as opposed to something you hope will get made. In that situation, you’re kind of a beggar.”
Back in the big chair, the beggar is gone. Some days later, Davies commands the room at a 60th-anniversary screening, and looks more like some minor feudal lord, fêted and mobbed by the onlookers swarming around him, hoping a little of that Doctor Who stardust will rub off on them.
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“Obviously, you’ve got so many responsibilities – to the channel, to the programme, to the viewers,” he tells me. “Nonetheless, it’s a greater freedom. And I like that.” It seems ultimately, while it can be a cage, Doctor Who is a gilded one.
Authors
Huw FullertonCommissioning editor
Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.
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