We\u2019re back in August 2021, just a couple of weeks after Chris Chibnall announced he was departing the BBC series and with intense speculation raging about his successor.<\/p>\n
Ex-series boss Davies, meanwhile, had made a surprise return to the Whoniverse thanks to the production of a \u201clost\u201d script he\u2019d written in the 1980s, now turned into a Big Finish Audio Drama starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember being in my flat, in Roath \u2013 in Claude Road, in Roath,\u201d Davies told RadioTimes.com<\/a> and other press on a virtual press call for Mind of the Hodiac, coming to Big Finish this March. \u201cBut that was \u201985 and \u201986 and \u201987. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a blur. It\u2019s just me and my little typewriter, dreaming of making Doctor Who one day. Isn\u2019t that funny?\u201d<\/p> With hindsight, Davies\u2019 nostalgia may have had a deeper source. Just six weeks or so after this conversation, he was revealed to be returning as showrunner of Doctor Who on TV, flabbergasting fans who had waved goodbye to his era in 2010. Suddenly, Mind of the Hodiac\u2019s audio adaptation began to look less like a whim, and more like the harbinger of Davies\u2019 full return.<\/p>\n Certainly, the big announcement seems to have been on Davies\u2019 mind when we spoke, with the screenwriter apparently teasing journalists with the truth throughout the interview (which has been held under an embargo until this week).<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t at all, to be honest,\u201d Davies began to say when we asked about how the Hodiac script was changed for audio. \u201cI thought it was really important to\u2014 oh, can\u2019t we just talk about who\u2019s going to be the next Doctor Who showrunner?\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed, before (virtually) turning to Hodiac co-writer Scott Handcock.<\/p>\n \u201cI say Scott Handcock. Come on, Scott, you should do it. Yeah, wouldn\u2019t that be good?\u201d<\/p>\n Later, Mind of the Hodiac star Colin Baker may have picked up on some of the call\u2019s subtext, wondering aloud whether it was time for the Davies era of Doctor Who to be resurrected.<\/p>\n \u201cThe seeds of the future Russell T Davies that we all know [are in Mind of the Hodiac],\u201d the former (and current) Sixth Doctor said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all seem to examine what it\u2019s like to be on the outside, living as a stranger in a society that you have to live in. Which is what The Second Coming was about in many ways.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd this script as well is about an outsider trying to\u2014 I mean, he\u2019s a villain, so he\u2019s trying to do horrible things. But he is one person who is different. It\u2019s about difference. Sci-fi is always about difference in many ways, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n Davies said: \u201cMaybe that means Doctor Who came first in my thinking, though, because there I was, in the \u201860s, watching a show about an outsider coming in. So maybe that set the template. Maybe everything I\u2019m writing is Doctor Who. Oh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf only. If only, Russell,\u201d Baker laughed, asking soon after: \u201cIsn\u2019t it time you came back?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy popular demand,\u201d Davies laughed. \u201cBy popular demand! Silence. A tumbleweed just went past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot at all,\u201d added Bonnie Langford, back as companion Mel for the audio adaptation.<\/p>\n \u201cI was actually jealous when you were there on the show, running it, because it suddenly\u2014 well, you know, it made things make sense. When I did some conventions about \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 20 years ago or something, it was interesting to hear the other companions saying, you know, that the companions were sort of two-dimensional; we don\u2019t really want to know too much; it\u2019s a way to forward the story, or interject, or get in the way and create another B-stream going through it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018Oh, good, because I was looking for something all that time, and I never found it.\u2019 But when I saw the new Doctor Who, the way it is, I thought, \u2018Oh, there it is. There\u2019s the anchor on which to base yourself. There\u2019s your foundations there. That\u2019s all you need. You don\u2019t need loads.\u2019 But it was always something. And I think I was always busy trying to search for it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n And who knows? Maybe she already gave Davies his first idea for the 60th anniversary special.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s about time Mel hopped off that spaceship, and came back to Earth,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n Looking back, it\u2019s easy to imagine that it wasn\u2019t just Mind of the Hodiac that had Davies waxing lyrical about the magic of Doctor Who. This interview took place on 12th August, with the screenwriter\u2019s return to the TV show announced on 24th September, and the whole effort must have been on his mind as he worked on his first ever Who script with two heroes.<\/p>\n \u201cSeriously, what a joy, what an honour,\u201d he told Baker and Langford on the call. \u201cI wrote this for you two all those million years ago, when I was thin and ginger and gorgeous. And now I\u2019m just an old man.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I thought back then that this would ever get made\u2026 you know what? Life is terrible, and awful, and the world is burning, and we\u2019re all going to die, but sometimes the world is absolutely lovely.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd all these years later, we get to make this. And it\u2019s honestly a thing of absolute joy to do. I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019d have to agree \u2013 when it comes to Doctor Who, it\u2019s a good time to be Russell T Davies.<\/p>\n Mind of the Hodiac comes to Big Finish in March 2022, while Doctor Who returns to BBC One this spring with Legend of the Sea Devils. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi<\/a> page or our full TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Huw Fullerton Published: Friday, 25 February 2022 at 12:00 am Russell T Davies wants to talk about the next Doctor Who showrunner. We\u2019re back in August 2021, just a couple of weeks after Chris Chibnall announced he was departing the BBC series and with intense speculation raging about his successor. Ex-series boss Davies, meanwhile, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Huw Fullerton Published: Friday, 25 February 2022 at 12:00 am Russell T Davies wants to talk about the next Doctor Who showrunner. We\u2019re back in August 2021, just a couple of weeks after Chris Chibnall announced he was departing the BBC series and with intense speculation raging about his successor. Ex-series boss Davies, meanwhile,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Doctor\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/mindofthehodiac-c4120e2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C620"\" "\\"\"Doctor\\"\/")
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