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"Queer as Folk" creator Russell T. Davies announces plans to leave "Doctor Who"
All good things must come to an end, as the cliche goes, and yesterday gay writer Russell T. Davies announced that he would soon be stepping down as Executive Producer of Doctor Who. Davies will step down after the series of specials that will air next year and another acclaimed writer, Steven Moffat, will take charge of the show for its fifth season. Under Davies, the long-running series managed to reach new viewers, as well as reconnect with those who had been Who fans throughout the decades. Davies added some gay inclusiveness to the franchise, most notably by introducing the first bisexual companion for The Doctor (Captain Jack Harkness) and making the character (played by the openly gay John Barrowman) the lead in his own spin-off series. Davies' run has also seen gay characters pop up every so often and has given roles to openly gay actors like Andrew Hayden-Smith and Russell Tovey as well as actors best known for playing gay like Coronation Street's Bruno Langley and Ryan Carnes of Desperate Housewives and Eating Out.
Davies also gave Who a gay sensibility. Under Davies, The Doctor's companions have included gay icons such as British pop diva Billie Piper, comedienne Catherine Tate and pop legend Kylie Minogue. Davies' Who run also saw parodies of British reality TV (including gay fave Big Brother), sonic weaponry disguised as lipstick and last Christmas' special, "Voyage of the Damned", which was heavily influenced by The Poseidon Adventure. What's next for Davies isn't clear yet. He will be working on the second season of Doctor Who's kid-oriented spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, but fans of Davies' other Who spin-off, Torchwood, are still waiting to hear the details of the third season (though there will be one). Last October, Davies announced plans to develop a series about the experiences of fourtysomething gay men, but Davies warned that show was "years away," citing his busy schedule. Will quitting Who give Davies time to focus on this new project?
His battle-of-the-sexes comedy Coupling comfortably touched on queer issues frequently, especially with the scene stealing character of Jane, who identified as bisexual while demonstrating complete cluelessness to issues of sexual orientation. In Jekyll, an update of the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a detective lesbian couple played a prominent role. Considering Moffat's tendency to use performers he's worked with in the past, I think I'm going to start a letter writing campaign to get Gina Bellman as a Doctor Who regular. Submitted by on Wed, 2008-05-21 14:10. |
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As for the new man in charge of Who, Moffat is a promising pick. Not only has he written some of the most popular episodes of the new Who run, including the episode that introduced Captain Jack ("The Empty Child"). Moffat's history includes a bit of gay inclusiveness as well.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
It's inevitable. I like Moffat's episodes for Dr Who. He won a BAFTA (British Academy for Television Arts) for writing"Blink", the episode with the scary angels.
There's an article about this on BBC News with quotes from Davies and Moffat. They seem to have the same sense of humour, so I think Dr Who will be left in very capable hands.
Peace
"It all changes in the 21st centruy and we have to be ready."
Capt Jack Harkness
"Blink" is one of my favorites....
Which reminds me, the new Doctor Who so needs to do an episode with an evil dolly...
I agree, Moffat's
Change Is Good
Russell was fantastic, and he got me hooked on Who/Torchwood, but Steven Moffat's episodes have been consistantly outstanding. He wrote my personal favorite "The Girl in the Fireplace". He also wrote "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances", "Blink", "Time Crash" & the soon to air "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead". :-0) His first 2 stories have won the Hugo award, while his third is up for the award again this year.
I do love how inclusive the series has been since it's return to television though, and I hope this changing of the guard won't diminish that trend. I think it will likely continue to impress. At the very least know that Captain Jack will be around for a very long time, even if Torchwood were to end after Series 3. But even if he were to never show up again, they can't take away what has been shown in the last 3 years. Different orientations have now been established in the Whoniverse, and can no longer be ignored. Kudos!
Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat and Doctor Who
Russell's contributions to and influence on the world of Who has been huge. He's definately the one who established the feel of the new Doctor Who. He made the show more character-driven, made sure the characters got the kind of depth they kinda lacked in the classical series (in the new Who the central characters really seem like living, breathing people who really reflect on the things they've experienced). Russell turned DW into a full-fleshed drama. He added LGBT characters (something that was much overdue). But he's also been great at writing for female characters (both the companions and supporting characters). The female characters have been important players in the stories every bit as much as the male characters, and the result has been a show that actually reflects the fact that women actually make up about half of the population of the human race (where so many other shows have treated women as a "minority").
His other important contributions to the world of Who have also been the creation of the two spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, the former of which has proven that queer lead characters can be immensly popular even among straight audiences and the latter is a great example of why the talents of more experinced actresses should not be overlooked just beacuse they are no longer young.
My only big complaints about the new Doctor Who is that most stories would work better if they were two-parters instead of being one-episode stories... and that the shows been needlessly Earth/human-centric. Some of the plots could also have used a little more depth and a little bit more scientific believability. This is perhaps something we can look forward to in the upcoming Moffat-helmed era?
I'm hoping that Moffat will make the show a bit more "spacey" (with more visits to alien worlds) while at the same time maintaining the same level of drama and character complexity as that found in the seasons Russel helmed.
Cherry / Torchwood_Operative
Click here for an episode by episode list of Torchwood elements in "Doctor Who".
Davies Tenure with Doctor Who
Overall I think that Davies did a fantastic job with his revival of Doctor Who. The Sixth and Seventh Doctor periods had tried perhaps a bit too hard to make Doctor Who a kid's show, to the point that older fans found it largely unwatchable.
Two words: "Happiness Patrol"
Also, the increased emphasis on characters was really key as well. The Doctor and his companions became more real. As you said, women became more visible. Non-white people became more visible. And yes, we became more visible as well.
Of course, there were plenty of people unhappy that any references to sex of any kind had made it into the sanctified halls of Who. The orginal series had been rather studiously virginal for the most part. But we knew things were going to be different in the very first new episode when Jackie blatantly propositioned the Doctor (Jackie: "There's a strange man in my room. Anything could happen...." The Doctor: "No.") to the Doctor browsing through a tabloid ("It'll never work. He's gay and she's an alien!").
Captain Jack really broke the doors open though. If nothing else Davies should be a hero of the gay community for this one. The first major non-straight action/sci-fi hero that I can think of. Aside from skyrocketing the very deserving John Barrowman to mainstream fan fave it also put positive role models out in both the fictional (Jack) and real (John) worlds. I can only imagine the solace this has provided to many bi/gay kids in the UK and elsewhere. To have a bisexual action hero played by a real life gay man is pretty much unprecedented to my knowledge.
Plus the new series has just been a lot of fun. I can only hope it will continue to be. I suspect so. Moffat has long been an excellent writer. I agree though that they need to get away from Earth. Nine and Ten have spent as much time there as Three it seems. But I have high hopes for the future.
Diversity in RTD's legacy
Also, the increased emphasis on characters was really key as well. The Doctor and his companions became more real. As you said, women became more visible. Non-white people became more visible. And yes, we became more visible as well.
Whovians will debate anything
That's nothing compared to the often vicious debates that have raged about whether the Doctor is a virgin (preferred by some weirdos with a quasi-religious veneration thing going on) or if he was in fact once in a relationship (as implied by his possession of a grandaughter and remarks about having been a parent).
In Mickey's case I guess the debate seems to rage over the question of whether he was really a "companion" or just an extra attached to Rose. Maybe there's some urge to qualify whether Mickey or Martha was the first black companion.
Similiar debates do actually exist over Captain Jack being the first non-straight companion, with some arguing that Mike Yates, a UNIT officer from the Third Doctor's time, is gay (and a companion) based on novels that suggested he was gay.
I prefer to steer clear. These arguments can get heated.
Consider Mickey groundbreaking at least in that he and Rose were an interracial couple in the formerly lily white world of Doctor Who.
On sexuality in Doctor Who
When it comes to the way sexuality is handled on Doctor Who, I think some people are overreacting. I suspect that most of the references just fly completely over the heads of kids anyway. For example when the Doctor, Rose, Jack and Mickey emerged from the TARDIS (when they were refueling it on top of the Rift in Cardiff), Mickey remarked:"That old lady's staring!" To which Jack replied: "Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box." To teenagers and grownups that's an obvious sexual reference... but for kids who are too young to have any kind of grasp of the concept of sexuality, those same lines would probably just seem more like a variation of the good old TARDIS-being-bigger-on-the-inside joke. Or this is at least how I would have interpreted those same lines if I were eight or nine years old. I'm saying that because at that age the meaning of the phrase to "sleep with someone" eluded me completely. I took the phrase quite literally and always found myself wondering why so many characters in so many movies made such a fuss about who was lying snoring next to whom. It never accured to me at the time that the phrase meant something completely different.
If kids today are anything like the kid I was, then those references shouldn't be a problem. The kids will just laugh at them too, but for completely different reasons.
Cherry / Torchwood_Operative
Click here for an episode by episode list of Torchwood elements in "Doctor Who".
Sexuality on TV period
Let's be honest here. Even things like the Looney Toons cartoons from way back in the 40's and 50's contained an astounding number of innuendos and adult-targeted humor. One of the fun things in life is to watch those cartoon over again as an adult and appreciate some of the things that sailed right over our heads as children.
Parents are sometimes over-sensitive on this issue, because they do tend to forget that kids don't see the world the same way that adults do. My all-time favorite was when the Religious Right was in an uproar over the movie poster for The Little Mermaid because they had decided that the towers of the castle in the background "resembled penises"!
Needless to say this is an association that only a paranoid person who is obsessively searching for sexual symbolism would possibly make.
Now kids do get sometimes that someone is saying something "naughty". For them it's usually a source of humor however rather than sexual excitement. So I would agree that most of the references that are present in the new Doctor Who are far less interesting to kids than whatever alien is on that week.
Torchwood for it's part is a bit more explicit, but not as much as the hype would suggest. I definitely wouldn't say it's HBO or Showtime grade explicit. The fact that it has many onscreen same-sex kisses is probably the real basis for it's risque reputation. And this last season we did actually see Jack and Ianto shirtless and going at it. But overall it's not that extreme at all. I think that there's a real message to the fact that the edited pre-watershed version supposedly involved trimming out the violence more than the sexuality elements.
Can anyone even imagine an America where parents found violence on TV more offensive than homosexuality?
The power of Gina Bellman's crossed legs in Jekyll.
The power is tangible, even to me who likes his legs hairy and thick (and a li'l somethin' somethin' in between, too).
So bring on Gina Bellman, but as something sexily sinister.
I still think Richard Coyle would make a great Doctor. I don't think it's gonna happen, but I love how he chews on his dialogue for a second or two before he opens his mouth to speak. And, I have a thing for crazy hair.
I'm the guy who blogs at http://IAmATVJunkie.com, and I would love for you to visit.