RTD On Doctor Who Cancellation: “Twitter would be set on fire”

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.


Former Doctor Who supremo Russell T Davies has been chatting to Radio Times about his new shows Cucumber, Tofu and Banana, two dramas and a discussion that examine gay life in modern Britain and launch later this month. Naturally, conversation has turned to our favourite show, which RTD spearheaded the revival of 10 years ago.


It’s interesting to see that Davies is still repeatedly asked to write an episode of Doctor Who by Steven Moffat. “The lovely Steven [Moffat] invites me every year to come and write one. And I love him and I love them and I love watching it, but here I am, moving on. I love Doctor Who with all my heart but nothing is more important to me than my own stuff.” Russell is certainly going to be busy with his own stuff over the coming year or so, but perhaps the next showrunner will get lucky and convince the “Man Who Revived Doctor Who” to say yes.


Amazingly, it has been almost ten years since Rose aired on March 26th; just over a decade since the first teaser trailer was played on BBC One.


While we here at Kasterborous are keen on the idea of a 10th anniversary of sorts (not least because it’s also our 10th anniversary) Russell is less keen, noting “Someone from the [BBC’s] branding team sent me a very lovely email saying do you want to do something. I don’t know what they imagined: a talk or a convention perhaps. I just said no, to be honest. A programme can’t have its fiftieth and then it’s tenth. I think that’s just confusing. It’s marvellous and glorious; let it carry on.”


You can see his point. Meanwhile, it also seems as though the BBC is undecided on how to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Doctor Who‘s return. We reckon the smart money is on a celebratory special talking heads complilation clip show of the sort previously seen on BBC Three, but released on iPlayer instead.


Perhaps more interesting, however, is Davies’ reaction to the idea that there could ever be another Doctor Who cancellation. “It’s now impossible for it to ever be axed. It’s certainly heading that way. Could you imagine if it was axed now? There would be uproar in the streets. Twitter would be set on fire.”


“Who would have thought? If you look at the last ten years: ten years of rock solid ratings! It’s bizarre to an old-school Doctor Who fan like me; it’s success continues to be extraordinary. Also, there is a current generation who will keep it alive in a generation’s time. As long as there’s an audience, that audience will grow up loving it and want to make their own and it’s self-perpetuating.”


What do you think? Could Doctor Who be axed again, or would its international ratings and the likelihood of a Ripper Street-style co-productions with online partners stay BBC One’s executioner’s hand should ratings and audience appreciation dip to unwanted levels?


The post RTD On Doctor Who Cancellation: “Twitter would be set on fire” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on January 07, 2015 07:40
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