‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Confirms Upcoming Season To Feature Heavy Focus On Progressive Messaging: “If You’re Not Writing That In 2024, What On Earth Are You Doing?”
To the surprise of absolutely no one who has kept appraised of either the current media landscape or the content of the series’ recent specials, showrunner Russell T Davies has confirmed that the upcoming season of Doctor Who will feature a particularly heavy focus on both progressive messaging and sociopolitical commentary.
Davies provided this insight during an April 2024 interview given to Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall in promotion of The Doctor’s forthcoming return to the airwaves.
At one point pressed for his thoughts regarding actor Ncuti Gatwa’s casting as the first black actor to ever portray the series’ titular hero proper (actress Jo Martin previously appeared as a future incarnation of the Time Lord known as ‘The Fugitive Doctor’), Davies opined, “It’s about time.”
“Sometimes, big old terrestrial and streaming shows can be slow machines to catch up with the world,” he explained. “And I’m getting older now, so you become one of those gatekeepers of television, for want of a better word, and your job is then is to hold the gate open: ‘Come on, everyone!’”
Reinforcing Davies’ argument, the aforementioned Gatwa, himself being jointly interviewed alongside the showrunner, added, “That’s what the show does. It evolves and it regenerates. I feel like it’s about time, and I am here. For all you damners out there, I’m not going anywhere.”
On the topic of personal identities, Davies then addressed the fact that both he and Gatwa were themselves ‘queer’, telling Sepinwall that while many feared otherwise, their sexualities would have no undue or excessive influence on the season’s storytelling.
“I don’t walk around thinking all day about being queer, and, What’s my queer energy today?” explained Davies. “You’re talking to people who live a queer life. So this is completely normal. And where I’m slightly amazed is that anyone finds this different. Come on straight people, come and find out!”
To this end, Gatwa then noted that while many have taken to describing his version of The Doctor as ‘queer’, he himself was “reluctant to apply any human label to the Doctor because they’re an alien.”
“They’ve been with all sorts”, argued the actor. “That is label-less and limitless, and I think it represents our ability to be limitless and our ability to be anything. And that character can be anyone and played by anyone. I feel very, very honored that I get to be the first of a couple of things. Because I think if you’re a true fan of the show, you understand that. You understand that [Doctor Who] lends itself to inclusivity and to diversity and welcoming different people in. That’s what Russell has done. I’m very happy to be a part of that vision.”
From there, Sepinwall noted that while Doctor Who had always been a relatively progressive show, Davies’ upcoming run would lean particularly hard on such topics, as evidenced by the introduction of Donna Noble’s transgender child, the Doctor being chided over his pronoun usage, and an upcoming episode serving as a metaphor for women’s reproductive rights, to which the showrunner exclaimed in turn, “If you’re not writing that [in 2024], what on Earth are you doing?”
“I think our rights are in danger,” he posited. “I’m talking as someone who’s lived through gay liberation, all the way through the AIDS crisis, all the way through to the freedoms that we have now. I can see them spinning and being endangered, so there’s no choice in this. And if the most exciting and entertaining action-adventure show on television can also do that, I think that’s wonderful.”
At present, the next season of Doctor Who is set to emerge from the time stream onto Disney Plus on May 11th.
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