10 Ways Russell T Davies Will Save Doctor Who
The main man is back to save Doctor Who, but what is it we want him to do?
Consider this: it's 2005, and you hear that the silly show about a face-changing alien - one who flies an old police box, of all things - is coming back to the BBC. You're happy that there's new sci-fi on the air, but you're a bit confused as to why your parents are worried. "Really?" they say. "The guy who made Queer As Folk is resurrecting Doctor Who? What a disaster!"
In every revival or reimagining, there are those who are worried about what's to come. This often happens with Doctor Who itself, like when Steven Moffat took the reigns from Russell T Davies. People decry the idea that another showrunner could ever hold a candle to their predecessor, but more often than not, these worries end up being for naught.
And now, we come full circle. RTD - he who so successfully revived the show in 2005 - is returning in 2023 to breathe new life into the franchise which, admittedly, started to feel a little stale during the Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall years.
But with RTD at the helm, the future of Doctor Who looks brighter than ever - and here are some of the ways he can restore Doctor Who to the pop-culture juggernaut it deserves to be...
10. Familiar Faces
It's now old news that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be returning to Doctor Who, with Tennant already having appeared in the final episode of Jodie Whittaker's run - as the Fourteenth Doctor. The task that Davies has is to prove why this rather obvious attempt to evoke nostalgia and win viewers back is anything other than simply that.
Did the Doctor choose this face for a specific reason, as was the case with the Twelfth Doctor reusing Peter Capaldi's attack eyebrows? The Doctor has reused faces a few times now, with Sixth Doctor Colin Baker having a supporting role in the show before taking on the title role.
The Day of the Doctor also introduced the idea of the Doctor revisiting "the old favourites", as it was heavily suggested that the Curator - played with glee by Tom Baker - was a future incarnation of the Doctor. Bringing familiar faces back is hardly a new idea in Doctor Who, and we encourage it, as long as it's given more than simply a fan service reason.
Still, even if this does end up feeling like cheap fan service, there's no doubt that Tennant's return will bring many people back to Doctor Who - specifically, those who may have lost interest over the last few years.