Double in fun and adventure
Let go of the gloomy and hard reboots of your favorite characters in the DC movies and get back to the roots of the program’s adventure. It was originally a show with action with Doctor Who, not for the character. We do not need to know that the Doctor is burdened with anxiety that he has lived for centuries – we just need to know that something, somewhere is wrong, and needs to be corrected, that the Doctor and their friends are in danger, and that they are going to get away with it using mind and not the mind.
Decide that less is more
Place it (mostly) in the past
Any science fiction franchise can create a multiverse or imagine future dystopias. But Tardis gives Doctor Who the perhaps unique opportunity to transport the viewer back into the past to meet key historical figures and watch key moments in the story – with an extraterrestrial threat. But why not go below? Take a partner from the 1990s or 1930s or 1880s and set a series mainly in that time period, exploring contemporary issues through past behaviors. Think Ashes to Ashes, but with monsters.
Guess the Tardis for a while
Alternatively, why not impose a huge change in the structure of the story on the writers? Jon Pertwee’s doctor has been exiled to Earth – mainly for BBC budget reasons – but a reversal in the form that has not been on television – for a long time – is a doctor looking for a lost Tardis. The time machine hunt would become the MacGuffin of the week and we would see a doctor hitchhiking through the galaxy in a constant search.
A “doctor of the week” every week
What if there was no new doctor? With a fast narration device to produce an unstable rebirth, you could have a new high-profile doctor every week. Suddenly it’s possible to hire Hugh Grant, Judi Dench or Riz Ahmed at Tardis when you only need to persuade them to shoot for a few weeks – instead of committing to three series. In addition, you have all the publicity of a new doctor’s revelation, over and over again.
Aim it without shame at 12 years old
The curse of a long-lived fantasy franchise is that you end up with big fans demanding more and more adult 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 older timeline, and ask a young Doctor with teenage companions to riot in space. Shows such as Sarah Jane Adventures, Creeped Out and MI High have shown that the BBC can produce adventure programs for older children, with enough nods to movie clichés, the wider world and moral lessons to lift an adult smile and provides that wider family appeal.
Do whatever you want – you are Russell T. Davis!
Davis once described Doctor Who as “the most difficult show to write on television”, but made its revival on the BBC in the early 2000s as if it were just for friends who have space adventures. Whatever form it takes in 2023, we can expect a surprise. He told the Radio Times in February that he had already written, and that “there are things that are brand new ways of telling stories that have never been done before, so it’s something new… It’s a self-renewing show.” Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils, starring Jodie Whittaker, airs on BBC One at 19:10 on Easter Sunday. The first episode of Russell T Davies as showrunner is expected to be for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who in November 2023.
