Russell T. Davies is enjoying being back on Doctor Who

Russell T. Davies says he’s “loving” and is “thrilled” to be back in the world of ‘Doctor Who’ after returning to the hit BBC TV show.

The writer/producer has been credited with reviving the BBC series back in 2005 during his tenure as head writer and producer but exited in 2009 to work on other projects before announcing he would return as showrunner to look after the 2023 run.

Russell admitted he’s thrilled to be back working on his beloved series, saying: “I am loving it, loving it so much. We’ve three specials and then a brand-new doctor, who is amazing.”

Russell’s latest project is a new three-part series for ITVX called ‘Nolly’ which stars Helena Bonham Carter as ‘Crossroads’ actress Noele Gordon.

He said: “The first thing I ever wrote was a script for ‘Crossroads’. I sent it off and they invited me to Birmingham. I was so excited to be there because I loved it so much, but I could see the fear in their eyes when they realised, I was a super fan. I went away and wrote a proper script and sent it off. Five days later the show was axed. I waited 40 years and finally got to write it so got there in the end!”

Doctor Who: Which Whoniverse Spin-Offs Do We Want to See?

Tales from the Black Archives, named for UNITs secret Raiders of the Lost Ark–style warehouse of captured goodies, would be an anthology like Rod Serling’s The Night Gallery, which each episode focusing on a different alien or unexplained artefact, and the terrible fates that befell the ordinary people who encountered it. SCP with a Doctor Who twist.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

If I were Russell T Davies, watching telly in 2022, and I saw Andor while seeing what this “Disney+” service was like, I expect I would think two things. The first of those things would “I want one”. The second would be “Hang on a second! Doesn’t this smell a bit… Terry Nation-y?”

Andor’s story of a resistance fought by ordinary, flawed, disproportionately British people, against villains that were more likely compromised collaborators or petty jobsworths than full on cartoon villains, owed a huge debt not only to Blake’s 7, but also The Survivors, and both those shows carried on themes that Terry Nation took for a spin in one of the first great Doctor Who stories, ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.

Now, Russell T Davies, being Russell T Davies may be already thinking “This sounds a bit prequel-y, and I’m not really a prequel sort of a person. Does it have to be that Dalek Invasion of Earth?” and no, it doesn’t, but it should be. First, the ending of the invasion does not need to be predetermined – there’s been a whole Time War, remember?

Secondly, as Star Wars has aptly shown time and again, knowing the ending doesn’t have to ruin the story. We will still watch films set during World War II while knowing how that turned out, won’t we?

So do it. Give us the story of the rag tag, fleabitten, morally compromised resistance of Earth, 2063. Humans wiped out by plague, hunted by robomen, knowing that even their supposed allies might sell them out for some extra food rations. Terry Nation’s moral pessimism, mixed with the Russell T Davies who wrote “Midnight”, “Children of Earth” and Years and Years, would be a powerful cocktail.