THE BBC DOCTOR WHO PROBLEM: SHOWRUNNERS LIKE RTD HAVE TOO MUCH POWER COMPARED TO PRODUCERS LIKE JNT 

I look at russel now and see a pompus smug grotesque. He reminds me of baron Harkonnen from the 1984 Dune

RTD was gleeful when he got control of Dr Who. Full control! It’s his baby. To do what ever he pleases with and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Except not watch. Which is what’s happened. Russell has brought this all on himself. This is all his failure. Let him bathe it that failure.

Apparently the worst ratings in the programmes history are not a problem just because it crawls to 4.5m after a MONTH. RTD's been forced to admit the ratings aren't good and the BBC themselves have said Dr who under RTD is nothing but a vehicle for The Message. Cause and Effect but the showrunner's immense arrogance wilfully blinds him to this. He brought the show back for the masses two decades ago but he's returned to destroy that legacy.

Art least JNT had the decency to try to resign, several times. RTD thinks the sun shines from his arse and expects to be there forever.

*Disney Doctor Who has been a failure, it failed because it went full RTD, NEVER go full RTD!!!* 😂

I didn’t get a notification for this 🤷‍♂️. Bloody You Tube. Barry and Terrance - what legends ! They came across as nice people who loved what they did. I don’t want to hear the word “progressive “ - everything’s regressing.

If Terry Nation was still alive Rtd wouldn't be able to change Davros like that. As far as i know, the BBC pay to use the Daleks and Davros.

For me, Philip Hinchcliffe was the best custodian, he took on an enormously successful series and without resorting to plundering the past (beyond the transitional elements of season 12) built on the series, upped the atmosphere and the threat level, made the cliffhangers stronger hooks than they had ever been and explored - with Holmes - the sorts of stories from film history that could be moulded into Dr Who's unique format. Yes, season 12 features the return of Sontarans, the Daleks and the Cybermen, all commissioned before Holmes could stamp his signature take on the series, but the stories had that extra level of grittiness that Hinchcliffe and Holmes were refining at the time. From Terror of the Zygons onwards it's all new villains and settings that aren't overly concerned with harking back to all that has gone before. It's a mysterious time traveler and his companion out there making the most of the vast storylines offered by a time machine that can go anywhere in the universe and go to any point in time. It became broader in scope and grew a wider appeal. It's not rocket science to take the most open storytelling format ever devised for a programme and make the most of it - but perhaps when it's so masterfully done, you can lose sight of the fact that you don't need to reinvent the wheel to make Dr Who grab an audience.

Cancellation. That's what's best. It should never have "Come back" (because it never did, really).

The ratings might pull him back... if they get low enough and all the parties connected to Doctor Who can't find a new way spin low numbers as a success anymore. And if DIsney declines to continue it's association with Doctor Who. He needs people around him to question what he's doing with each and every script. The show (including the cast and the people behind the cameras), the fans, the BBC and Disney all deserve better than what he's been giving us. Look, I'm sure on a personal level he's a really nice guy. But for my own sanity, I had to stop watching twice in the last 2 years (once during Chibnall's era and now again with RTD2) because holding my nose and watching despite the fact I wasn't enjoying any of it anymore... was doing my head in. I work as a software developer. My employer goes through phases when they seem to think we don't need dedicated testers to make sure the product works the way we want it to before we ship it out the door. And when field issues emerge (as they sometimes do)... these same managers get upset because they're hearing not-so-great things from the customers. And we've been told many times that 1 bad interaction with our product can take as many as 12 positive interactions for them to forgive us and trust us again. That's where Doctor Who is now, IMHO. RTD needs the t.v. show equivalent of a software tester. Someone whose job it is to maintain the quality. Somebody who knows the show's history and who can speak "truth to power" (RTD) about what he's doing and what he wants to do. Fans are the customer in this analogy... and they're voicing their complaints to these guys. RTD, Ncuti Gatwa and Jinkx Monsoon's attitude has been (so far) to "touch grass" or "fine, we don't need you". Really? RTD has admitted the ratings aren't where they would like them to be... and still, his solution isn't to fix what's broken. He's content to push even more people away from the show rather than take a hard critical look at what he's been doing. At this point... since Series 2 is already in the can... it may already be too late for Doctor Who. The damage has already been done AND I can't see Series 2 being any better... because it was produced under the same conditions. It was all written and mostly already shot before Series 1 started airing. So the earliest things might change... would be Series 3... which he claims he's already writing... so maybe not even then. At this point, I'm not confident there will even be a Series 3. This is all on RTD. I don't know what's going on with him... but his ego is really seems to be getting in the way of making this show into the same sort of success it was during RTD1. It's sad... but as I said, for my own mental health, I've had to walk away... something I never did during or even considered doing during the classic era. And I still LOVE the classic era. Not every story is going to be my favorite... but I'd still rather watch "Timeflight" or "Timelash" than what we're getting now. Begging folks to come back for the Christmas Special isn't gonna cut it... if the quality isn't there.

I'm disabled i walk with a stick. and I don't find davros Unacceptable for Christ's sake it's his life support, I can't look at RTD smug face anymore, he's bringing his own agenda into my favourite show,

Been saying showrunner dominance is a problem for months. I'm glad it's finally being discussed by YTers. I don't actually like writers' rooms either - too many cooks is the opposite extreme. And I wouldn't put any faith in Bad Wolf providing oversight - Bad Wolf essentially IS Davies.

"Showrunner", the predictable US "season format" and "monster of the week" killed Dr Who. It just took a few years. It was better as a series of serials for multiple reasons.

A huge problem in modern entertainment, including music, is that producers and show runners are being put in as friends and "yes men." That isnt their job -- their job is to tell the writers actors musicians etc "no that sucks we're not doing that go back to the writers room." The example i like to give is Todd Rundgren producing XTC's album Skylarking. Andy Partridge notoriously hates Todd to this day because Todd did his job, which included cracking the whip and telling Andy and the band No. As Todd describes it, "my job isnt to cater to artist's egos. My job as producer is to deliver the best possible product to the record company. I don't work for the artist, I work for rhe record company." The result was XTC's most commercially and critically acclaimed album of their career. We need more Todd's in this world. Nowadays a crew sits around and praises each others "genius" while getting high on their own farts.

Has anyone brought up that if Davros was truly evil, he would have had his support unit armed with rockets?

If Davros is disabled then it follows that ALL Daleks are too. I somehow doubt RTD will be refraining from using them as is.

JN-T also thought of the idea of those dumb birds sitting on the Guardians heads. I did meet him in 1982 and 1983 in Chicago, and in 1985 in Philadelphia. I found him to be very amiable person.

RTD bragged about how there was no one telling him "No". Think he should have tried to hide that fact in retrospect.

completely correct more people need to call him out all the words you used about him are spot on , Hubris Ego and wanting to me make the show his wet dream. He needs to go

As the Doctor says in The Macra Terror: "Who guards the guards?"

The showrunner thing has been tired and done since towards the end of the Moffat era to be honest, when stories started to become more 'fan fiction' than original content, like the 'hybrid' crap, showing the true ego of the showrunner and his creative bankruptcy to just change the lore because he's run out of ideas and later chibbnall was the same with the 'timeless children '. Now rtd is showing his creative bankruptcy with the predictable and ridiculous finale and the whole bi gen thing, even brought back Tennant and Tate because that was the only way to draw new audience's back, which reeks of desperation

Moffat absolutely needed to be stopped from turning the show into 'Time Traveller's Wife'.

According to certain lady in The Guardian, N'cuti represents the "new golden age era of Dr. Who".

The other option to go forward with Davros (and I agree... retiring the character is a valid option, if people think he perpetuates a bad stereotype) is to use the canon that already exists to "regenerate" Davros for use going forward. Peter Capaldi's Doctor gave Davros some of his regeneration energy... so reveal that after the events of "The Magician's Apprentice"/"The Witch's Familiar"... Davros' body was rejuvinated back to a point before whatever events led to him being put into his life-support chair... and go forward that way. He'd lose a lot of his uniqueness as a character (pre-RTD2 Davros has a very distinct - I'll stop short of calling it "iconic" - appearance) as he'd just look like every other human white male villain that we've seen on the show over the years... but if RTD truly feels that Davros in the chair has unintended real world consequences for disabled people (which other than RTD, I've never heard anyone ever claim that people in wheelchairs are evil simply because they're disabled).. then IMHO that is a much better way to go. After all... changing it for that short doesn't change the reality that virtually every other Davros (excluding the little kid version from the Capaldi era) story will still have him in that life-support chair. He will never be able to undo that... and even if he could, he'll never be able to touch the millions of VHS, DVD and Blu ray versions of those stories out in the world on fan's shelves... where Davros looked the way he used to (the way a lot of fans think he should continue to look).

Wonderful discussion, I came to the same conclusion myself a while ago. It was weird hearing all my thoughts being echoed from different mouths. I do want to say that as much emphasis as there was about the need for someone to "push back" or constrain RTD, and this is absolutely true, I'm much more worried that there isn't an avenue by which new writers can cut their teeth on the material like there once was. Other than Moffatt, what writing superstar has the "showrunner" approach actually launched? I also want to say great job, really excellent work by the moderator, in keeping everyone on task.

We ALL need people to hold us accountable, perhaps even more so the higher you go. Power corrupts and RTD has become too powerful.

So much talent in writers is being missed due to this, effective, narcissistic approach. Give new blood a chance.

Yes for that reason heather he does need checks and balances to stop him from the wildest ideas

B-Hop - "They're not bringing in the next Mark Gatiss" Well every cloud...

Good point

I’m with Rachel, it has to be Verity Lambert and John Nathan-Turner as best producer.

Great to see you jazz

RTD has said i and the producers feel strongly about xyz, so either no one feels like they can call him out or they all feel the same way either way it cant be a good thing

Totally agree that episodic is best

Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner - what makes good Doctor Who? Indeed, the latter had not even watched an episode of classic Who before RTD showed her some episodes in 2003 before production of the new series revival. She is clueless.

JNT and RTD...both ruined doctor who. No more 3 letter names, please lol

RT D had too much power. Doubt that is true even now but major damage done and he has made his dollars

Finally. A CONSTRUCTIVE discussion about what's happening to Doctor Who. I only recently discovered Rachel's "Chat Don't Shout"s channel and I thought that it was such a refreshing change to everything else on RU-vid. Then you all came together and did it again. Hats off to all of you! (BTW it's Philip Hinchcliffe for me.) Cheers!

"Most watched BBC show in 2024 for under 30's" Translation - the BBC is dead and under 30s don't watch any of it

RTD with the “Emperor’s New Scripts”

A constant source of joy!

That’s very kind and I appreciate that comment. And you won’t believe how it was such good timing as I was hitting one of those flat points. I’m trying to advertise and repost like hell but just need a break through. Thanks for your support and thanks for your advertising

People are sick and tired of woke lunacy being forced upon them when all they want is some light entertainment. This show needs to be cancelled.

Stephen King …. Arguably the most popular modern author … never ever refuses to make changes and is reliant upon good editors to tell him when it doesn’t work