“It’s time for the new stage for ‘Doctor Who'”. With those words, Russell T. Davies, the new showrunner from the fantastic sci-fi series, let us know that you have plans beyond to do the sixty-anniversary specials and the new seasons. Its objective: make a whole franchise with new spin-offs.
This has been assured in an interview with GQ about his new premiere, ‘Nolly’. In the talk, the scriptwriter talks about his return after more than a decade to the franchise and how he would like to go back to that time when there were a couple of spin-offs going on.
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Something for which he was responsible with the premiere of ‘Torchwood’ in 2006 and ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ in 2007, both ended in 2011, shortly after Davies’ departure on the parent series. For the screenwriter, the problem has been the low budget, a situation that could change with the association of Disney+ as the international distributor of ‘Doctor Who’.
In this way, Davies ensures that one of the reasons why he returns to the series is because thought now is the time to raise what did not fully come out fifteen years ago and that it is clear that the model to follow is that of the great science fiction franchises:
«… the world has changed. And now we are in the age of the streamer. I view the Star Trek empire with enormous envy: the way it has turned itself from an archival series into something fantastic. The cast is very progressive, very good, very beautiful. And I sagaciously believe that Star Trek is looking to do about 52 episodes a year. There’s your annual series, genius. And there’s a problem with the BBC, it’s a public broadcasting service, so there’s a limit to what they can commit to.
So I thought – no criticism or whatever towards the people who were running it at the time, because they were running it within the BBC guidelines – it was time for the next phase for Doctor Who. I thought streaming platforms are ready, spin-offs are ready; I’ve always believed in spin-offs when I was there. I did Torchwood as a spin-off, The Sarah Janes Adventures as a spin-off. Those spin-offs waned when I left and I see why. And I pretty much left after 2008 when money got tight, I think it’s only fair for public television that the money is spent on other things.”
These statements are consistent with which he did a couple of years ago to Radio Times, where he stated that he was ten years ahead of time on the issue of spin-offs:
“You see those Disney commercials, all those new Star Wars and Marvel series and you think we should be sitting here announcing ‘The Nyssa Adventures’ or ‘The Return of Donna Noble’ and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor together in one series. of ten parts.