Russell T Davies to return as showrunner in 2023!

...from the BBC's Doctor Who Instagram page...

Russell T Davies to return as Doctor Who Showrunner to celebrate the 60th anniversary in 2023, and series beyond. BBC Studios are partnering with Bad Wolf to produce.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNRWSdLhSK/

SeaDevil wrote:

...from the BBC's Doctor Who Instagram page...

Russell T Davies to return as Doctor Who Showrunner to celebrate the 60th anniversary in 2023, and series beyond. BBC Studios are partnering with Bad Wolf to produce.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNRWSdLhSK/

 

Crazy. Thought he was off to do different things and many creative types dislike re-treading old ground. But it has been quite a while and perhaps he's recharged and has a list of things he forgot to do the first time around. Let's hope he'll get a handle on better story-telling rather than stories I've felt have been rather poorly edited the past few seasons. No more stories swinging between nonsense and heavy-handed yelling morals directly at the camera.

Time will tell if this is good or bad. He did let in a lot of needless smooching the first time around so it'll be interesting to see if he produces something similar to his 2005 works or wants to push boundaries with the Doctor further out this time.

Capaldi's Doctor staggers into the TARDIS. He's tired of the game, fighting the good fight, but now it is time to reset and start over again with the next regeneration. He collapses onto the floor next to the console. The regeneration has started, but he's holding it off. Suddenly, he dreams what would happen if he let go and let it take hold.....explosions all over the TARDIS....no, his ring...his ring falls....the doors open and he is blown out of the TARDIS...falling...falling. Suddenly he, no she is standing in a train. Things blur.....Missy, Missy made it off the ship. Wait, Missy is no longer Missy, but the Master!! Wait, what is this, Daleks can take over bodies of other people, manipulate them to do things by merging with the person. No...that isn't how the Daleks operate. What is going on? What is this, the Jadoon on Earth.....a TARDIS? A Police Box..my TARDIS? NO, it can't be. I never buried my TARDIS next to a light house. ANOTHER Doctor??!!! That's not me!! The Cybermen....the end of the Cyber Wars......the Master....GALLIFREY??? NOOOOO!!!! After all I did, he blew it up???!! NOOOOO!!!! Capaldi's Doctor awoke from the fever, shaking from the dream, hallucination, nightmare he'd lived through. No, this regeneration won't be like that, he won't allow it. He's been through too much to let things just fall apart like that.....his life, his planet, his people. Focusing, he concentrates as the regeneration energy to change things. He will live, he will be the Doctor, and he will fight for good. The energy wave takes over and he slips down onto his back. BONG....BONG....BONG....the Cloister Bells.....the TARDIS, she is singing to him. It is time, he is changing, the next Doctor is born.

Please RTD....make it all a bad dream......

Beamus wrote:

Capaldi's Doctor staggers into the TARDIS.  He's tired of the game, fighting the good fight, but now it is time to reset and start over again with the next regeneration.  He collapses onto the floor next to the console.  The regeneration has started, but he's holding it off.  Suddenly, he dreams what would happen if he let go and let it take hold.....explosions all over the TARDIS....no, his ring...his ring falls....the doors open and he is blown out of the TARDIS...falling...falling.   Suddenly he, no she is standing in a train.  Things blur.....Missy, Missy made it off the ship.  Wait, Missy is no longer Missy, but the Master!!  Wait, what is this, Daleks can take over bodies of other people, manipulate them to do things by merging with the person.  No...that isn't how the Daleks operate.  What is going on?  What is this, the Jadoon on Earth.....a TARDIS?  A Police Box..my TARDIS?  NO, it can't be.  I never buried my TARDIS next to a light house.  ANOTHER Doctor??!!!  That's not me!!  The Cybermen....the end of the Cyber Wars......the Master....GALLIFREY???   NOOOOO!!!!   After all I did, he blew it up???!!   NOOOOO!!!!   Capaldi's Doctor awoke from the fever, shaking from the dream, hallucination, nightmare he'd lived through.  No, this regeneration won't be like that, he won't allow it.  He's been through too much to let things just fall apart like that.....his life, his planet, his people.  Focusing, he concentrates as the regeneration energy to change things.  He will live, he will be the Doctor, and he will fight for good.  The energy wave takes over and he slips down onto his back.  BONG....BONG....BONG....the Cloister Bells.....the TARDIS, she is singing to him.   It is time, he is changing, the next Doctor is born.

Please RTD....make it all a bad dream......

0% chance of this. It's been widely reported what a good job RTD said Chibnall was doing. Those two are best buddies by all accounts. RTD is gong to take whatever you thought was controversial about the 13th Doctor and push it even further. The only bright side is that the stories will be more coherent and better edited. I don't think RTD is going to take 6 years to churn out 3 series all of which seemed to have been last-minute slapdash fumbles. He'll know how to produce the show, get workable scripts put together, and overall make things look a lot more competent. For good or bad I think RTD is gong to build on Chibnall's series and may even try to make some sense of what the heck the Timeless Child was supposed to be all about.

squishy wrote:

For good or bad I think RTD is gong to build on Chibnall's series and may even try to make some sense of what the heck the Timeless Child was supposed to be all about.  

Or he could take the approach he used with the McGann "I'm half human" thing, and completely ignore it.

I mean that silly thing WAS said ... in fact it was part of the tv movie plot.
But "being half-human" in today's Dr Who feels like it is legitimately NOT canon -- possibly because it was never addressed in the Eccleston series and beyond.

Kind of like the Morbius Doctors ... it was never ever again addressed, so it sort of fell into the "oh well kinda not canon" pile. It never bothered anyone. Except Chibnal.

Is David Tennant far behind?

digby wrote:

squishy wrote:

For good or bad I think RTD is gong to build on Chibnall's series and may even try to make some sense of what the heck the Timeless Child was supposed to be all about.  

Or he could take the approach he used with the McGann "I'm half human" thing, and completely ignore it.

I mean that silly thing WAS said ... in fact it was part of the tv movie plot.
But "being half-human" in today's Dr Who feels like it is legitimately NOT canon -- possibly because it was never addressed in the Eccleston series and beyond.  
 
Kind of like the Morbius Doctors ... it was never ever again addressed, so it sort of fell into the "oh well kinda not canon" pile. It never bothered anyone. Except Chibnal.

Ignoring the Timeless Child and just getting on with telling good stories would be fine with me. What my dream solution would be is a very clever scheme devised by a cameo return of Sylvester McCoy. The "dark manipulator" had a long-term goal to trick the Master into doing something foolish. Otherwise there is just a lot that doesn't make sense (one villain easily wiping out all the newly restored Timelords, again) and that some nameless guy walks in at the last minute to take responsibility for everything and dies in the Doctor's place.
But I think RTD is too smart to try and make a ret-con of a ret-con because he'd loose the general audience. The non-hardcore fans will be happy with exciting adventures with characters they enjoy which was what RTD did right the first time. I personally didn't like all of it (Slitheen humor and kissy-kissy Doctor got old pretty quick). Getting bogged down in trying to explain the faces from Brain of Morbius would likely turn a lot of viewers off.
And then there is still one whole season from Chibnall we have to suffer through. Who knows what state he'll leave the Doctor in by the time he's finished. Maybe RTD is already advising Chibnall on how to not bugger up the 60th and drop the Timeless Child now or maybe RTD will provide advice to try and shape things more to something he could build on. Don't know how often those two were talking before this recent announcement.

Because I'm not sure if the Timeless Child is the biggest problem, or how the narrative got to this point. I was never a huge fan of the Cartmel Masterplan or what Moffat did building the Doctor up into a "Super-Timelord" who was unstoppable rather than just the clever but daydreamy C student who ran off to explore rather than taking his education seriously as we saw a lot with the 3rd through 5th Doctors. Playing hooky and barely passing final exams is more my speed rather than an unstoppable, God-like being.

squishy wrote:

I was never a huge fan of the Cartmel Masterplan or what Moffat did building the Doctor up into a "Super-Timelord" who was unstoppable rather than just the clever but daydreamy C student who ran off to explore rather than taking his education seriously as we saw a lot with the 3rd through 5th Doctors.  Playing hooky and barely passing final exams is more my speed rather than an unstoppable, God-like being.

Oh I hear you.
Still I remember being really turned off by what RTD did in "Last of the Time Lords" as well, turning Tennant into space jebus!

It would be amazing if he decided to go back in time and show us what the 8th Doctor got up to!

We could side step the whole issue of "What happens next?" and visit what brought us to the point of the revival in 2005.

I know it will never happen, but for a show that has time travel as one of the main conceits, why not exploit it?