![]() ![]() His career origins in children’s television and soap opera writing meant that he began with character, and built from there. Harried mothers, bad boyfriends, everyday heroes and cowards. The world that RTD depicted in his first run on Doctor Who was our world, plus. That humanistic approach defined his era of the show, and set up NuWho (as fans call it) on the whole as a show that would have, as its heart, the personal. The whole time, every day, all these pages, all my life, means sitting here looking for something - some line, some insight, some microsecond - that makes me think: yes. ![]() “Truth, in writing, is the only important thing,” he told Cook, when asked about his writing process. ![]() In over 600 pages of late-night email conversations with Doctor Who Magazine staff writer Benjamin Cook, picking up in 2007 as he begins to write Series 4, he goes in deep on his creative philosophies, methods, and ideals. In his doorstopper book, The Writer’s Tale, Davies describes in exhaustive detail the process of scripting, filming, and releasing Doctor Who. It was RTD’s vision that helped the show regain its popularity and influence. When Davies relaunched the show in 2005, it was after nearly two decades of hiatus, during which Doctor Who had become consigned to the dustbin of - well, not history, but fan conventions and spinoff comics. Could it possibly strike the same chord again as it did when we were young? And what exactly was that chord, for that matter? Nostalgia is being used as a shameless marketing tactic, but it’s doubtful anyone will complain when longtime fans are being catered to so directly.Īs anticipation for this comeback grows, fans are wondering what to expect from the era being dubbed “RTD2.” Davies’ first era defined what Doctor Who could be in the new millennium. So it feels particularly notable that he’s bringing David Tennant and Catherine Tate with him, as the Fourteenth Doctor and crowd favorite companion Donna Noble. I may have begun watching the show as a teenager during the Eleventh Doctor’s first series in 2010, but Davies’ run from 2005 to 2010 is forever the era of my heart. In my head he tells the BBC, “You guys are in a crisis, I’m on my way.” The news that he would be coming back to the show in time for the 60th anniversary made many fans who had dropped off in past years perk up and begin to pay attention again - including me. That was when I imagine RTD went into Supernanny mode. While RTD (as he’s known by fans) saw further success with critically acclaimed shows like A Very English Scandal and It’s A Sin, Chris Chibnall’s tenure at Doctor Who was much less successful, and the show reportedly came close to being canceled as Jodie Whittaker’s run as the first female Doctor was poorly critically reviewed, and saw ratings go into free-fall. The show broke viewing figures in 2012, and also finally broke through as a bona fide phenomenon in America thanks to a heavily marketed partnership with BBC America. He left at the top of his game, handing the keys to Steven Moffat, who built up the show to a frenzied peak during Matt Smith’s run. Davies’ return to Doctor Who as showrunner is the kind of Hail Mary thrown out by a franchise dangerously close to drowning. ![]()
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