Spate

If only because, in my defense, I was getting to be so worn down lately by the constant rug-pulls, misleading mysteries, empty promises and ongoing drudgery of "iconic" "content" (2 of my least-favorite words EVER) in an era of Doctor Who which – full-disclosure – I had kinda burned myself out on and concluded wasn't really for me rather earlier than expected, that I'm sort of... "fine" with the plug being pulled on it now? It's probably for the best, so that we can all take stock and assess and hopefully let someone else have a go at Doctor Who in the future – whenever that day comes.

To be clear: I'm not angry, or resentful, or even "disappointed", really... Sad? Yeah, maybe a little bit. But it's more of a "resigned" sort of sadness, I guess. I was never fully onboard with the cavalier, vaguely-triumphalist "Let's get the old band back together!" approach to the show in the first place, post-Power of the Doctor, cos it couldn't help but feel like a definite regression after the promise of everything that came before. But that doesn't make me special. That's by the by. Maybe, that's just me.

And as they often say: this too shall pass. Doctor Who is like Scottish rain: wait 5 minutes (or in this case 5 weeks; 5 months; 5 years, who knows!), and something else will inevitably come along. It will. Even better, it might be just what you or I need! There will always be stuff to enjoy. The show's not going anywhere, neither are its fans; these things will ebb and flow like they always do, but Doctor Who simply makes too much fucking money nowadays. It's just having a little lie-down. Whatever shape it takes in the future, it's more or less "unstoppable" now.

Again, we can all hash out exactly What Went Wrong With RTD2 to our hearts' content going forward, but for now let it not be said that there isn't a fair share of blame to pass around; there absolutely is. Precisely how much and to what extent, we'll likely learn more and more about in the weeks and months and years to come. But for the record, right now I do put quite a large proportion of responsibility at the feet of Russell T Davies – who, on his first go-round, ran Doctor Who like everything was on the line (because it was – you just have to read The Writer's Tale for further confirmation on that); and who now, on his second go-round, appears to have run the show in a way that suggests he either (cynically) believed its best days were already behind it (they weren't) or just felt like he had nothing else to lose (he did). Neither of which constitute exactly a healthy long-term approach, if you ask me. And this isn't even getting into the quality of some of the scripts he wrote, or some of the casting choices he approved, or some of the people he surrounded himself with, or some of the statements and production decisions he made. A lot of that might be subjective, depending on who you ask, but at the moment I do believe each and every one of those factors absolutely played a role, in some way. But hey; that's for another day, another time.

I'm certainly not impressed by the frankly undignified way RTD has chosen to manage his recent departure: chucking in a nostalgia-baiting, now-forever-unresolved Billie Piper cliffhanger at the last minute as the final onscreen image to leave your audience with, which reeks of either purposeful sabotage, or creative desperation, or some kind of weirdly close-minded, pull-up-the-ladder-behind-you mentality that is thoroughly unbecoming of a veteran showrunner on their way out the door. Don't get me wrong, I fucking adore Billie Piper – but what exactly are we meant to get out of that ending? What are we meant to feel? Who is she meant to be playing? Rose Tyler? Is she the Doctor? Is she the Bad Wolf? Is this a second sequel to Doomsday? Perhaps a follow-on from The Day of the Doctor, or the Time War? Or is she even just playing herself, since, as we've come to expect in this increasingly meta, fourth-wall-shattering universe: There's Always A Twist At The End?

We don't know.

To be fair, I don't think even Russell himself knows. Maybe nobody will ever know. But that doesn't change the deeply unfortunate fact that closing out on such a hastily trotted-out tease of a regeneration (on the promise of a stopgap Christmas Special which was never meant to be) will inevitably put whoever is the next showrunner in the most profoundly unenviable, embarrassing position possible of either having to pick up the pieces of that cobbled-together debacle of an ending, or simply ignore it entirely and start afresh, with maybe a throwaway mention to the Doctor once having a different face. (I'm almost positive they'll ultimately go with the latter option, by the way; absolutely no one wants to usher Doctor Who into a brave new dawn with that still hanging over their heads...).

This has already been said elsewhere by many people smarter than me, but RTD's "tee-hee, bye-bye!" Instagram post announcing his exit from Doctor Who comes across as a bizarrely ungracious and/or passive-aggressive way to bid farewell to a show he professes to love, whomever he might be talking to in that instance ("You may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You’ll wait a lonnng time 🪑 Now I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next! Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?!" Like seriously? C'mon, man...). The terse, devoid-of-thanks official BBC announcement suggests that this might've been an acrimonious parting of the ways (if you'll pardon the pun), but it's regrettably indicative of a broader pattern of unprofessional behavior that you can't help but pick up on during a lot of Russell's second stint as showrunner – at least online. (What was he doing, barely a few days after that wonderful moment of collective celebration across Doctor Who fandom when those historic missing episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan had been found and put on iPlayer for everyone to enjoy? Sharing A.I.-generated slop of William Hartnell on a fake BBC set with the effusive caption, "THIS IS AMAZING!!" in a since-deleted post on Instagram. This coming from the guy who wrote Wild Blue Yonder (!). What was he doing, as executive producer and captain of the ship on Doctor Who in an official capacity, while everyone else was chiming in with friendly social-media posts or nostalgic announcements on "Doctor Who Day"? Sharing Instagram pics of his boyfriend on a birthday-visit to the TARDIS set, thereby encouraging a lot of tiresome "OMG HE SHOULD PLAY THE DOCTOR!!!" fancasting from people on social media. Um... priorities, I guess?).

For what it's worth, I bear RTD no ill-will (well maybe a little bit; but that'll fade with time). In fact, I genuinely wish him well. Now he's free as a bird, free to go off and do whatever he likes, ride the success of Tip Toe and his upcoming memoirs and shows and dramas and talks and interviews and public-speaking events and all the rest of it – leaving behind the ever-so-slightly unfortunate legacy of being remembered both as the writer responsible for bringing Doctor Who back to TV and also as the writer responsible for (pretty much) ending it – forever safe in the knowledge that he won't ever be in charge of the series ever again. (Nor will Steven Moffat, for that matter. I mean, personally I don't want either of them anywhere near Doctor Who for the foreseeable future, but that's okay; I'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual when it comes to the show). And you know what? Good for him. Good luck to him. Godspeed.

All this might sound like I'm being overly negative. So let me also say that, tempting though it may be to now retroactively, furiously disown or discard any affection I might've ever had for RTD1, which after all was my foundational gateway into the vast and wondrous tapestry that is Doctor Who, and declare something along the lines of, "RAH!! BURN IT ALL DOWN! IT WAS NEVER ALL THAT GOOD, ANYWAY!", the simple fact of the matter is... nope. Sorry. I still fucking ADORE it.

If anything, these last couple of years have only cemented and reaffirmed my love for those first 4-5 years of early-2000s RTD1 Doctor Who, warts and all. I now know that I can always look back with fondness on an era of the show which meant so much to me (and still does!!!) and see the clear distinction between RTD as a writer who brought Doctor Who back because he was hungry, because he had something to prove, because he had a proper, special, idiosyncratic vision for what the show could be and what it could do, full of care and heart and passion and creativity and fire and brimstone and vim and vigor and wonder and humanity, for the discovery of a brand-new audience who had never even heard of it before...

...and RTD as a writer who, to be kind, is no longer really the writer, let alone the person he once was 20 years ago (whether personally, politically or professionally, who knows? That's not for me to say); whose mind and creative impulses are evidently elsewhere, already looking ahead to other scripts, other shows; and who – at least as far as Doctor Who is concerned, anyway – simply has no more stories left in him to tell. A lot, and I mean a lot, can happen to a person in the intervening years, and that's OK; sometimes, that's just life. Nothing you or I can do about it. And I did actually find a lot to enjoy about the BadWolf era of Doctor Who. Personally, though, I just feel that RTD as a writer was so much more interesting, inquisitive, introspective and interrogative 20 years ago than he is now. (The same goes for Steven Moffat, by the way; as the ironically-titled Joy to the World will attest. But by all means disagree with me on this!).

That Billie Piper cliffhanger: sigh. Well, I guess since she's now been left as the lingering de-facto face (quite literally) of the Second Wilderness Years of Doctor Who (or is should that be the Wil-deux-ness Years??), those closing seconds from The Reality War are no doubt destined to live on in infamy – and will likely be mocked or ridiculed or laughed at or sighed about for years and years to come. (Looks like it'll be some tough times for us Billie Piper fans!) That's OK. That's fine, I guess. We'll all just have to make our peace with it somehow, one way or another, as we fans always do when a particular part of Doctor Who doesn't sit well with us – while Billie herself moves on to bigger and better projects (such as Big Finish, maybe...?).

All that being said...

There IS something good that can come out of that last image. At least, I hope.

I'm not just talking Big Finish Good, or Fanfiction Good, or Wilderness Years 2 Good. Because in its own weird, misbegotten way, that final beaming megawatt grin of a shot does actually send out a clear, resounding, and dare I say positive message – something which was already signposted across the last couple of Capaldi years, and a defining clarion-call throughout the Jodie Whittaker years of Doctor Who:

THE FUTURE IS FEMALE.

Now, to be clear, Doctor Who is for everyone! It always should be. Nevertheless, and again I might be speaking only for myself here, but it's not unreasonable either to point out that modern, forward-looking, 21st-century Doctor Who, much as we love it and adore it and cherish it, has so far been written predominantly by blokes (but crucially not just FOR blokes, thank goodness – which is an important distinction to make!). For good or for ill, yes; but also for the better part of 20 years now, if not longer. So I think it's about high time we now start dreaming BIG, about some of the things that are long overdue.

Like how a woman deserves to be the next potential showrunner of Doctor Who; or indeed how another woman deserves to play the Doctor, now that the likes of Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin and (maybe???) Billie Piper have paved the way; or how more women deserve to be directing Doctor Who, or how more women deserve to be writing Doctor Who scripts, or how more women deserve to be hired as Doctor Who script-editors; or perhaps how a simply greater effort is needed to invite more people onboard – of all creeds, classes, cultures, backgrounds, etc. – who have some fresh, alternative perspectives to offer on our silly old show that, after 63-plus years, is absolutely crying out for other, newer ways to tell a story (Another notably HUGE difference between RTD1 and RTD2, by the way? No Helen Raynor; whatever you might think of her nowadays).

The biggest lesson to be learned here – for me, at least – is that Doctor Who is desperately, desperately, desperately in need of some new blood, some new voices, some new creative talents who can steer the show to undiscovered places and exciting possibilities that it's never, ever explored before. Because as the latest stale and stagnant few years might've shown, to quote the words of Tony Soprano (hardly an ideal role-model for our times I'll grant you, but in this context it's the sentiment that counts):

"'Remember when...?' is the lowest form of conversation."

OK, I'm being a little bit facetious here. But it's getting harder and harder to dismiss the feeling that Doctor Who as a TV show has been having quite a lot of "Remember when" conversations with itself lately:

"Remember when Doctor Who came back in 2005? Remember when Russell T Davies was showrunner? Remember when we used to open a season with a light-n'-frothy RTD runaround, and then close out a season with a big blow-out blockbuster apocalypse bonanza of an RTD finale? Remember when Steven Moffat wrote for the show? Remember when David Tennant was the Doctor? Remember when he and Catherine Tate were the most popular Doctor-companion pairing on television? Remember when Eurovision used to interrupt our viewings of Doctor Who? Remember when Donna Noble lost her memory? Remember when the Doctor was so scared on the planet Midnight? Remember when the Doctor fell in love? Remember when Doctor Who had UNIT, and Sutekh, and Kate Stewart and Melanie Bush and the Rani and Omega and the Toymaker and the Sea Devils? Remember when, remember when, remember when...?"

And so on.

So maybe – just maybe – it might be the right moment for Doctor Who to try and start having another conversation. A different conversation. About how it can look forward to the future – instead of always looking back at the past. Of course, Doctor Who has always been a very difficult show to make, that goes without saying, but I'm confident that anyone with enough inspiration or creativity to think outside the (little blue) box can take us forward in such a direction. There are so many ways, so many possibilities! I think just a little more of that could go a long way, and would be more than welcome. The tagline for Series 12 said it best: there is Space For All.

AND FOR THE RECORD: I still love Doctor Who. I still love RTD1-era Doctor Who. I love Classic Doctor Who. I love Modern Doctor Who. In fact, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE DOCTOR WHO – in all of its forms and formats (yes, even that one!), and a lousy (IMHO) couple of years of the modern TV iteration of the show aren't gonna change any of that, not for a single second. The real gift, for me at least, has been all the wonderful people and fans I've interacted with, all the laughs and jokes and posts and memes and podcasts and fanfics and thoughts and essays and artworks and stories and characters and adventures and debates and arguments and discussions I've been so lucky to be a part of, online and offline, for over 20-plus years now and hopefully for many, many years to come. (Or to put it another way, and adhering to a repeated meme: "The REAL Doctor Who was all the friends we made along the way...!")

Nothing and nobody can take that away. Long may it continue.

Doctor Who will live forever, on telly and in our imaginations. And I can't wait to see what it does next.

"It's FAR from being all over..."

❤️❤️