Following his exit as Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies has reacted to fan criticism of his latest era of the show.
After rebooting the beloved sci-fi series in 2004, Davies returned as showrunner in 2023 until earlier this year, when it was announced that the show was being put out to competitive tender.
However, Davies's recent run faced some criticism from fans, with viewers complaining about the series arbitrarily bringing back classic characters and villains without the storylines to back up their returns, and anticlimactic plot resolutions.
Speaking to The Guardian, Davies said of the criticism: "I’m not personally wounded by that. I thought it was a shame. And maybe I wonder if I should have done something different. Except I f**king love what I did!”
Meanwhile, in an extract from his new book, The Queerest of Folk, Davies went on to detail how he dealt with "ferocious" online leaks about the show.
Davies said: "The BBC managed to track down the person who was putting the information online, but it was a member of the public. They were probably friends with someone at some point in the delivery chain of Doctor Who, and we simply didn’t have the legal right to seize that person’s emails. I wish we did."
He went on to add that the leaker's identity is still not known, "which made us suspicious of every single person we worked with."
Davies added: "Fortunately, contempt is essentially uncreative. Those people will run out of steam. And look at how long I’ve been having ideas; I’m way ahead."
The BBC declined to comment when contacted by .
The Reality War, the final episode of Doctor Who season 15, ended with Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor regenerating into Billie Piper. It was never confirmed at the time whether Piper would be playing the next Doctor or not.
It was later announced that the deal with Disney was over – but there would be a 2026 Christmas special.
However, in June this year, it was confirmed that the Christmas special had been cancelled, and that the show would be put out to competitive tender, with Davies stepping back as showrunner. Bad Wolf would also no longer produce the series.
In recent weeks, the invitation to tender has been published, with the BBC aiming for a 2028/2029 transmission for the next season. But, as for what the next chapter of Doctor Who will look like and, crucially, who will play the Time Lord, only time (and space) will tell.
The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television by Russell T Davies will be published on 8 October and is available to pre-order now.
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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