Tag: Russell T Davies

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

by Russell T Davies; dir. Ben Chessell (BBC, 2024)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord” by Russell T Davies; dir. Ben Chessell (BBC, 2024)

Maestro presents as a seriously deranged threat—albeit one that would have hit home harder had (a) Gatwa’s Doctor an established track record (beyond happy-go-running-away), and (b) they not been meekly sacrificed to a larger story arc (plus delirious show-choir song-and-dance routine).

Doctor Who: Space Babies

Doctor Who: Space Babies

by Russell T Davies; dir. Julie Anne Robinson (BBC, 2024)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: Space Babies” by Russell T Davies; dir. Julie Anne Robinson (BBC, 2024)

Part exposition for new watchers, part setup for the rest of the series, but mostly just the only story that Russell T Davies could come up with having pulled the title ‘Space Babies’ from a random text generator. Ebullient but rather forced.

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)

Davies scripts a bonhomous if heavy-handed, found-family Christmas special that rattles along while re-treading old ground (his own Whoeuvre plus a sing-and-dance tribute to Labyrinth). Ncuti Gatwa takes the Doctor’s zest for life and channels it into a more tactile, people-friendly persona.

Doctor Who: The Giggle

Doctor Who: The Giggle

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Chanya Button (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Giggle” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Chanya Button (BBC, 2023)

Neil Patrick Harris exudes menace as the Toymaker, yet the magnitude of his power (alluded to by the fate of the Master and the Guardians) is undermined by the utterly facile nature of the games chosen. Inexplicably, Ncuti Gatwa debuts without pants.

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Tom Kingsley (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Tom Kingsley (BBC, 2023)

A worthwhile experiment, Midnight-ish in nature with perhaps a spot too much ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ thrown in (the more grotesque shapeshifting tending to detract from the central concept). Not a lot of re-watch value except for the evil doppelgänger acting.

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Star Beast” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)

Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who as if on a season pass he misplaced for fifteen years, and brings David Tennant and Catherine Tate along for the ride, scripting a fun, tonally frivolous special that nevertheless checks assumptions at every turn.

The Black Archive #38: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords

The Black Archive #38: The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords

by James Mortimer (Obverse Books, 2019)

Mortimer_Sound Drums_Last Time Lords

Refreshingly, Mortimer doesn’t attempt to relate Series Three’s two-part finale to any particular body of theory, preferring to assess its dark themes as presented within the context of Russell T Davies’ helmsmanship. A short, accessible read, albeit occasionally gawky in its prose.

 

 

Prisoner of the Ood

Jenny: The Doctor’s Daughter – Prisoner of the Ood

by John Dorney (Big Finish, 2018)

Dorney_Prisoner Ood

John Dorney is perhaps the best of Big Finish’s regular writers. Prisoner of the Ood has a conspicuous Doctor Who vibe (Russell T Davies era) and an intelligent script, showcasing Georgia Tennant while using Jenny’s character newness to camouflage its in-premise artifice.

 

 

Doctor Who: Rose

Doctor Who: Rose

by Russell T Davies (BBC Worldwide, 2018); audiobook read by Camille Coduri (W.F. Howes, 2018)

Davies_Rose

As Doctor Who novelisations go, this one is quite special. Russell T Davies has an easy style and fleshes out his original story, adding considerable depth to Rose and also many of the minor characters. Camille Coduri’s audiobook reading captures the nuances.

 

 

Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse

Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse

by James Goss; ill. Russell T Davies (BBC Books, 2017)

Goss_Davies_Now We Are Six Hundred

By themselves Davies’ illustrations would make this a 4-star book, but the unmitigated celery stick of Goss’s verse (so-called) diminishes this to a dudgeon-inducing 1-star cash-in from the direst depths of e-space. Utterly unreadable to poets, Doctor Who fans and everyone else.

 

 

Derelict Space Sheep