Russell T. Davies on ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘Sarah Jane Adventures’

Rick Marshall

Rick Marshall was Online Managing Editor for ComicMix before joining MTV's SplashPage. Previously, he was Online Content Manager for Wizard Entertainment. He has written for several daily newspapers, alternative weekly newspapers, trade magazines and online media, and was named "Writer of the Year" by the New York Press Association in 2005.

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16 Responses

  1. mike weber says:

    "…all the science fiction producers making stuff in America, they are way too engaged with their fandom. They all need to step back."Oh, *that*'s going to go down well.Wonder what Lis Sladen thinks of that.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Well, having been part of the management team of two large Doctor Who conventions back in the early 80s, perhaps I can offer some perspective. Mr. Davies' predecessor, John Nathan-Turner, did a lot of the conventions. And I mean a LOT. Sadly, he was often in an obvious state of inebriation and was often quite cantankerous — if not outright abusive — to the fans. The BBC's solution was to discourage such participation on the part of some of their employees, although I am not aware of any such pressure being put on the performers or the writers. In those days, the BBC acted as though they were unconcerned about licensing, merchandising and even syndication revenues. Nonetheless, Mr. Nathan-Turner continued to stay in conflict with the fan presence.Mr. Davies, I think, adopts a more pure form of television storytelling, preferring to leave it in the hands of the producers and writers and declining to distinguish between the desires of the hardcore fans and the audience in general. Given his track record — and I've seen all of his episodes of Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood broadcast to date — I'm willing to give him the benefit of any doubt. He's hardly anal about it; as we know, he reversed his decision against doing Doctor crossovers.

      • Alistair Robb says:

        John Nathan-Turner single handedly destroyed the Dr. Who franchise as it stood then, not only with his policies on the series, but also with the way he appearted in public. if it hadn't been for the fanbase and pressure and support from the fan communities, I doubt if the good Dr would have ever been brought back. I think Mr. Davies is right up to a point, but I think he needs to recognise the fans that have stuck by the characters.

        • Mike Gold says:

          Maybe Steven Moffit will — he's been quite a fan of the series, and one of its best writers.

  2. Tom Fitzpatrick says:

    So, does anyone know when's the actual North American date for the new seasons of Doctor Who and Torchwood?

  3. mike weber says:

    "In those days, the BBC acted as though they were unconcerned about licensing, merchandising and even syndication revenues. Nonetheless, Mr. Nathan-Turner continued to stay in conflict with the fan presence."Umm, my first wife having benn quite active in NADWASback in the day, i can attest that the beeb was hardly "…unconcerned about licensing [and] merchandising…"; i also recall that Ms Sladen was quite happy to deal with fans.(We will *not* discuss rumopurs about Patrick Troughton's death, speaking of conventions…)

    • Mike Gold says:

      "my first wife having benn quite active in NADWASback in the day, i can attest that the beeb was hardly '…unconcerned about licensing [and] merchandising…'It's possible that we are talking about different periods of time. I'm referring to roughly 1980 – 1985; I know both first-hand and from others that the Beeb would take months responding to legitimate letters of inquiry, wouldn't return phone calls, and had a cavalier attitude in their negotiations once you got to them. The seemed really unconcerned about making a deal, that it really wasn't worth their effort. I'm not saying this was true of their U.S. syndicator (I THINK that was Lionheart International, but this was almost 25 years ago and I'm not absolutely certain), who would help cut through some of the red tape. John Ostrander had the rights to do a Doctor Who play around this time, and as I recall his negotiations with the Beeb were no less frustrating — although they were successful.And I believe John's late wife, Kim Yale, was one of the last people to see Troughton alive.

  4. Bill Spangler says:

    Tom, Season Two of Torchwood is running on BBC America now. The third episode of the run is scheduled for this Saturday, Feb. 9. And SciFi announced this morning (Tuesday) that it'll be running new DW episodes and "The Sarah Jane Adventures," starting in April.FWIW, I agree with Mike Gold's interpretation of Davies' comments about fandom. They may sound high-handed, but I think the principle behind them is right.

  5. mike weber says:

    "It's possible that we are talking about different periods of time. I'm referring to roughly 1980 – 1985; I know both first-hand and from others that the Beeb would take months responding to legitimate letters of inquiry, wouldn't return phone calls, and had a cavalier attitude in their negotiations once you got to them."No, that's about the time – what i meant was that they certainly seemed to be rather interested in making sure no-one did anything without permission; NADWAS ("North American Dr Who Appreciation Society" for those not familiar) was the Official BBC-Licensed American Dr Who Fan Club and no-one else had better even think of acting like a Real Dr Who Fan Club if they knew what was good for them…

    • Mike Gold says:

      Ah, now I understand. I was talking about merchandising and licensing deals, not fan projects. You did say NADWAS; I was referring to companies that wanted to produce or import toys and such. If NADWAS controlled, say, action figure merchandising right for the U.S., you'd think the Beeb's licensing department would have said so. Instead, they made legitimate (and in some cases large) American companies feel as though they were morons for lowering themselves to such a crappy show. That was 25 years ago. Clearly, their attitude has changed. Or at least their manners.

  6. Scavenger says:

    And while that's an official stance, a number of the Who team can be found at Outpost Galifrey (or whatever the new thing is)'s forum

  7. Tom Fitzpatrick says:

    Grrrrr, I guess I should have said Canada BBC, since obviously there's a difference in cable programming.

  8. Vinnie Bartilucci says:

    Davies seems to be cultivating a habit of saying things in interviews that he should have thought through juuust a tad more before voicing. There was that line about having Hitler on the show a few weeks back, and now this "step back" line. Both will be siezed by the easily offended and blown out of proportion. I get what he's saying, and there's a bit of sense to it (It's the producers he thinks should step back, not the fans) but it's too easily twisted into a "get a life"-like comment.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Too many people out there who are too easily offended. Some jerk interviewed the last living, talking Titanic survivor and asked her what she thought of the idea of a Doctor Who show set on the Titanic. Not knowing the story, this easily scared centurion said it was in horrible taste. Not only was her comment irrelevant, but the asshole who interviewed her didn't know what he was talking about and upset her needlessly.Screw 'em.