Russell T Davies and his work with Doctor Who
Saturday, March 1st @ 12:02 AM
Doctor Who and spin-offs
Davies had long claimed that, independent productions such as his episode of Linda Green aside, he would only return to working for the BBC if he could be placed in charge of their famous, but then out-of-production, science-fiction series Doctor Who, of which he had been a fan since childhood. He had in fact been sounded out for such a venture by the BBC One Controller of the time, Peter Salmon, in 1999. Although nothing came of this due to BBC Worldwide's desire to make a film version of the programme, by late 2003 the new Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey, had persuaded Worldwide to surrender their film ambitions so that she could commission a new television version.
Davies was approached to head-up the revival by Heggessey and the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter in early September 2003, and an official announcement of the programme's return was made on the 26th of that month. A BBC Wales production for BBC One, Davies is executive producer and chief writer of the series, which is produced in Cardiff. The new series began on March 26, 2005 and was an immediate ratings success. A second and third series were announced mere days later with a fourth series, three 2009 specials and a fifth series also commissioned during his time with the show. Davies is confirmed to work on the show until at least the 2009 specials.
Davies said in an interview with BBC News in June 2005 that he was initially concerned about producing the new series of Doctor Who because he believed that, after the series' absence from television since 1989, it was considered "a joke" with its budget special effects. However, they now had the budget to match the imagination of the writing. Davies has since stated that most of the new Doctor Who stories are set on Earth because the cost of creating alien worlds is too high and ratings demonstrate that audiences have not responded as favourably to the space-set adventures in the series.
Davies has also defended his decision to cast Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor for a single series with reference to the casting of his successor, David Tennant, stating that an actor of Eccleston's calibre had salvaged respect for the role and made it possible to attract good actors like Tennant to the part. In addition, Eccleston's departure made it possible to present the concept of regeneration to a new generation of viewers.
Davies has garnered awards and acclaim in connection with his work on Doctor Who. In April 2006 he was given the Siân Phillips Award for Outstanding Contribution to Network Television at the BAFTA Cymru Awards, the premier industry awards for Wales. The following month, at the main UK-wide 2006 BAFTAs, Davies received the Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Writing for Television, for his work including Doctor Who; the programme also won "Best Drama Series" and the Pioneer Audience Award, the latter voted on by members of the public. Davies was also nominated for "Best Writer" in the BAFTA Television Craft Awards, but did not win. In the wake of the critical and popular success of Doctor Who, The Independent named Davies "the saviour of Saturday night drama". In August 2006, Davies was named "industry player of the year" at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
In October 2005 it was announced that Davies would write and produce a spin-off from Doctor Who for the BBC, a more adult-oriented sci-fi drama called Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who). The programme, the second series of which is currently being aired (see List of Torchwood episodes), follows the exploits of a team of investigators in modern-day Cardiff, led by Jack Harkness, ex-companion of the Ninth Doctor and Tenth Doctor. "Separate from the government, beyond the police and outside the United Nations", their mission is to look into alien threats and salvage their technology. The series runs for 13 50-minute episodes. Davies has described the programme as "a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour — The X-Files meets This Life." The series eventually premiered on digital channel BBC3 in October 2006 (with a repeat showing on BBC2 later in the week). It garnered impressive ratings for its first two episodes (which were shown on the same night), though they fell as the series progressed and reviews were mixed. The second series began screening in early 2008 - this time shown first on BBC2.
Davies and Gareth Roberts have co-written another Doctor Who spin-off for CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen as investigative reporter Sarah Jane Smith. This programme, The Sarah Jane Adventures, debuted with a 60-minute special on 1st January 2007, and a full series followed in October 2007,[9] garnering record ratings for the CBBC channel, and receiving many positive critical reviews. Davies has written the following episodes of Doctor Who:
* "Rose"
* "The End of the World"
* "Aliens of London"
* "World War Three"
* "The Long Game"
* "Boom Town"
* "Bad Wolf"
* "The Parting of the Ways"
* "The Christmas Invasion"
* "New Earth"
* "Tooth and Claw"
* "Love & Monsters"
* "Army of Ghosts"
* "Doomsday"
* "The Runaway Bride"
* "Smith and Jones"
* "Gridlock"
* "Utopia"
* "The Sound of Drums"
* "Last of the Time Lords"
* "Voyage of the Damned"
Davies is an outspoken fan of the Ice Warriors (as he stated before adding they would not appear in Series 3,
contrary to tabloid rumours), the Zygons (he has said he would want to bring them back in the revived series, and
already a 10th-Doctor novel has featured them) and the Yeti.
Included are 2 interviews he recently had concerning his Torchwood project
