RTD: "Writing Is Revenge!"

[zarius]

So this time around, when I finally got into Crossroads, it was like an act of revenge — punching the air, finally got to do it. Writing is revenge. Discuss! [Laughs.] The more you think about that the more interesting it gets: you write Queer is Folk because you're fed up with every version of a gay man on television, you write Doctor Who because you think it's never been done properly, and now you're doing Nolly because you want to bring a bit of class back to an old soap. Is it revenge…?

www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/russell-t-davies-nolly-doctor-who-interview-2023?utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[UncleDeadly]

you write Doctor Who because you think it's never been done properly

Presumably then, he selflessly wrote his version in order to make the original appear markedly superior in comparison. In that respect, at least, it's been a remarkable success

Yes, that's right, Russell; you're the only one that ever did Doctor Who "properly".

f*ck Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, John Lucarotti, Dennis Spooner, Donald Tosh, Malcolm Hulke, David Whitaker, Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Don Houghton, Terry Nation, Chris Boucher, Robert Banks-Stewart, Douglas Adams, Stephen Gallagher, Christopher Bailey, Andrew Smith, Philip Martin, Ian Briggs, Marc Platt...

Crap c*nts the lot of them. Everything they ever imagined rendered redundant by the superiority of your neoliberal zeitgeist-pandering, dumbed down, soap-opera-drenched drivel for the masses.

If that's Doctor Who done "properly" then i'll settle for the improper version, thanks.

Honestly, someone stick a pin in this bastard and lets have wind power in the UK for the next 30 years; we can lose the crap version of Doctor Who and stop being reliant on war-mongering tyrants at the same time. Seems appropriate somehow...

[rushy]

I think this quote is taken out of context. RTD has praised Robert Holmes as one of the finest British writers who ever lived. He's more talking about how DW hadn't been taken to an international level, with spinoffs and media coverage and such.

[logopolitanicecream]

It's no wonder he and Moffat got along so well when we recall Moffat's infamous comments during a roundtable discussion with Andy Lane, Paul Cornell & David Bishop:

Don't you think it's fair to say Doctor Who was a great idea that happened to the wrong people? Most of the people working on it were on their way to do something else.

It's the kind of thinking that stems from a learned indifference to the show itself, but not the idea behind the show. Because that idea gives them greater and freer licence than most established shows in communicating their ideology. That's more true of RTD than it is Moffat, however. And that's despite the woke elements rapidly increasing during the latter part of Moffat's tenure. I don't know what caused him to employ those elements, because it's never seemed like it comes naturally to him as a person, IMO. With RTD and the way he expresses himself in interviews, though, you can tell the desire is fervently there.

The first time round, it was RTD's paramount goal to make DW a mainstream ratings phenomenon that incentivised him to rein in those aspects of his work as much as someone like him could. Very JNT of him, funnily enough. I can respect that part. It's a shame mainstream entertainment has deluded itself into thinking that people actually want the kind of thinking that Chibnall and the like have been pushing through their poorly written scripts, so much so that RTD now thinks he can also get away with it.

[UncleDeadly]

Jan 27, 2023 16:09:47 GMT rushy said:

I think this quote is taken out of context. RTD has praised Robert Holmes as one of the finest British writers who ever lived. He's more talking about how DW hadn't been taken to an international level, with spinoffs and media coverage and such.

So spin-offs and media coverage = "Doctor Who done properly" does it? Show me the context that indicates this is what he's talking about.

[rushy]

Jan 27, 2023 16:17:15 GMT UncleDeadly said:

Jan 27, 2023 16:09:47 GMT rushy said:

I think this quote is taken out of context. RTD has praised Robert Holmes as one of the finest British writers who ever lived. He's more talking about how DW hadn't been taken to an international level, with spinoffs and media coverage and such.

So spin-offs and media coverage = "Doctor Who done properly" does it? Show me the context that indicates this is what he's talking about.

RTD has talked quite a bit about how he feels DW should be more 'out there' during the Chibnall era. More specials, more shows to keep the franchise in public consciousness. He's very big on having as much promotion as possible. Spinoffs are already announced, and he's been much more open about how the production is going than Chibs ever was. 

[iank]

I'm sorry but the more he talks, the more of a c**t he seems. Always thought he was an overrated hack, but the more he opens his mouth the more of a complete twat he seems too.

[UncleDeadly]

Jan 27, 2023 17:44:52 GMT rushy said:

Jan 27, 2023 16:17:15 GMT UncleDeadly said:

So spin-offs and media coverage = "Doctor Who done properly" does it? Show me the context that indicates this is what he's talking about.

RTD has talked quite a bit about how he feels DW should be more 'out there' during the Chibnall era. More specials, more shows to keep the franchise in public consciousness. He's very big on having as much promotion as possible. Spinoffs are already announced, and he's been much more open about how the production is going than Chibs ever was. 

He talks about that in other contexts, yes. However that is not the case here. In fact, the quote doesn't even need contextualising as it speaks for itself. Take note of the wording:-

Yes! So this time around, when I finally got into Crossroads, it was like an act of revenge — punching the air, finally got to do it. Writing is revenge. Discuss! [Laughs.] The more you think about that the more interesting it gets: you write Queer as Folk because you're fed up with every version of a gay man on television, you write Doctor Who because you think it's never been done properly, and now you're doing Nolly because you want to bring a bit of class back to an old soap. Is it revenge…?

"You WRITE Doctor Who because you think it's never been done properly". WRITE is the key word here; he's not talking about bringing Doctor Who back to give it a better advertising campaign, he's talking about WRITING it himself because, according to him, it's never been done properly. So, if he's talking about writing it himself in order to, supposedly, improve it then there's only one aspect of the programme he can possibly be talking about; the writing. That being the case then, yes, he is stating unequivocally that he is a superior writer to all the afore-mentioned.

Is this a form of promotion? Well, yes. Self-promotion.

[rushy]

> Russell T Davies, head writer and producer for Doctor Who's 21st-century revival, stated Holmes' serial The Ark in Space as his favourite story from the original series. He said he considered Holmes to be comparable with the greatest screenwriters, describing the first episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang as having "the best dialogue ever written. It's up there with Dennis Potter... When the history of television drama comes to be written, Robert Holmes won't be remembered at all because he only wrote genre stuff. And that, I reckon, is a real tragedy"

I just find it very implausible that he thinks it's all crap until he came along, considering how nerdy he can get over it. You'd think his smugness would rub the classic era people the wrong way, but all of them (Graeme Harper, original stars) are happy to work with him. Bob Baker begged to be part of the New Who writing team. Terrance and Barry heaped praise on him. 

There's a thousand different ways to interpret what he said. Maybe he used 'writing' to refer to all of his work, producing included. Maybe he felt Classic Who missed oppurtunities by not having a contemporary focus, but otherwise still had great stories. Taking this comment at face value just seems very biased imo, and not representative of Russell's positive qualities. Namely that he DID bring the show back, and DID make sure it was canon to Classic Who, which the BBC clearly did not expect or care.

[iank]

What he really means, of course, is that he's writing fan-fiction. Which is what New Who has always really been. Least he's now being honest about it.

[cyberhat]

"you write Doctor Who because you think it's never been done properly"

Means hiring other people to write the best episodes

[Spark Doll King]

As I understood it, the Classic era had a thriving global fan base (and lets be real he means american) long befor the revival. I mean if it didn't they'd have never created the movie, bad as it was.

And what exactly did his grand ideas do for the show? A general watering down of stories that were confined to a single episode. And his spin-offs? Have we not learned with the MCU and Star Wars in recent years that constant spin-offs often do more to damage the brand then help it? Poorer and poorer quality products made just because. And have any of his showed stood the test of time? Torchwood barely survived two seasons, had a good mini-series, then fell flat on it's face in it's final one. It's over all quality was actually pretty poor, so bad that it had to practically re-invent itself with every season and is now just a novelty on big finish's store page for the few fans it's got. The Barrowman uproar has pretty much torpedoed the sub-franchise at this point and left a stain on RTD's era, disserving or not.

The Sarah Jane Adventures ran for longer but honestly I see none talking about this show on any forums not specifically dedicated to it. With Sladen's passing it was pretty much over, in fact no new material based on it has been produced since 2011.

So they got people talking for a bit at the time but for anyone outside of a very specific part of the fandom they are seen as flawed and pointless.