It is believed that Doctor Who is at a dead end. Ratings dropped and the show began to feel superior to science fiction contemporaries such as WandaVision or The Mandalorian. This is far from being the jewel of the BBC in the crown of family drama – as it was in 2009, when BBC One’s Christmas identities were based on David Tennant hooking his Tardis to a flying deer. But for his 60th birthday next year, renowned screenwriter Russell T. Davis is back as a showrunner – and hopefully revive the fate of the series, which once became a huge success. This is what he needs to do to revive the show.
Double your fun and adventure
Leave the gloomy and gloomy restarts of the favorite characters of DC movies and return to the adventurous roots of the program. Originally, it was a show involving an action with Doctor Who, not the character. We don’t need to know that the Doctor is burdened by the fear that he has lived for centuries – we just need to know that something is wrong somewhere and we need to correct that the Doctor and their friends are in danger and that they will get out of it using brains, not muscles.
Decide that less is more
The BBC budget for Doctor Who is minimal compared to the amount that Amazon, Disney +, Netflix and others. can give for episodes of their science fiction and fantasy shows. Instead of trying to compete week after week, the show may abandon the traditional format of the series and focus on making two or three special films each year. This will allow for an expansion of the production budget, while providing additional opportunities for publicity throughout the year.
Set it (mostly) in the past
Any science fiction franchise can make a multiverse or an imaginary future dystopia. But Tardis gives Doctor Who perhaps a unique opportunity to take the viewer into the past to meet key historical figures and witness key moments in history – with an additional alien threat. But why not take this further? Take a companion from the 1990s, 1930s or 1980s and set a series mainly in this time period, exploring current issues through the attitudes of the past. Think of ashes for ashes, but with monsters.
Throw away the Tardis for a while
Alternatively, why don’t we force the authors to change the huge structure of the story? John Pertoui’s Doctor has been exiled to Earth – mostly for BBC budget reasons – but a reversal in the form that has not been made on television – for a long time – is the Doctor Who is looking for the lost Tardis. The time machine hunt would become McGaffin of the week, and we would see a doctor making his way through the galaxy in constant search.
Doctor of the Week every week
What if there weren’t any new doctors? With a fast storytelling device to create unstable regeneration, you could have a new high-profile doctor every week. Suddenly, it’s possible to hire Hugh Grant, Judy Dench or Reese Ahmed in the Tardis controls when you just have to convince them to shoot for a few weeks – instead of committing to three series. Plus, you get all the publicity of discovering a new doctor over and over again.
Point it shamelessly at 12-year-olds
The curse of the long-running fantasy franchise is that you end up with grown-up fans who demand bigger and bigger stories, forgetting that they fell in love with the idea of the show as a child. Russell T. Davis could build a fan base for the next 60 years, with an earlier time interval, and include a young Doctor with teenage friends to fight in space. Shows like Sarah Jane Adventures, Creeped Out and MI High have shown that the BBC can produce adventure programs for older children, with enough nods for movie buffs, the wider world and moral lessons to make adults smile, and ensure that wider family attractiveness.
Do whatever you want – you are Russell You Davis!
Davis once described “Doctor Who” as “the most difficult show to write on television,” but described its resurgence on the BBC in the early 000’s as just for friends who have space adventures. Whatever its form in 2023, we can expect a surprise. In February, he told the Radio Times that he was already writing and that “things are coming up that are brand new ways of telling stories that have never been done before, so it just feels new… This is a self-renewing show”
Dr. Who: The Legend of the Sea Devils, starring Jody Whitaker, airs on BBC One at 7:10 p.m. Easter. The first episode of Russell T Davies as a showrunner is expected to be for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who in November 2023.
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