{"id":54262,"date":"2024-07-03T12:57:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T10:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2066483"},"modified":"2024-07-03T13:23:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T11:23:43","slug":"russell-t-davies-on-how-doctor-who-can-get-away-with-rewriting-its-own-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/russell-t-davies-on-how-doctor-who-can-get-away-with-rewriting-its-own-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies on how Doctor Who can get away with rewriting its own history"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 61 years of stories, the long-running sci-fi show has a habit of changing its history. <\/p>

By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 03 July 2024 at 10:57 AM<\/p>

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When a show has as much history, and features as many complicated timey-wimey shenanigans as Doctor Who<\/a>, it\u2019s unsurprising that it can sometimes throw up events and new points of canon which seem to contradict its own past.<\/p>\n

However, speaking at a recent BAFTA event called Russell T Davies: A Life in Pictures, Doctor Who\u2019s current showrunner Davies explained how the series gets away with this, and why he isn\u2019t fazed by any potential contradictions.<\/p>\n

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He said of the show: \u201cIt\u2019s destroyed Atlantis three times in its history and if someone came to me tomorrow with a great story about the destruction of Atlantis, I\u2019d do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1960s, with William Hartnell, they went to Troy and did the wooden horse\u2026 that so wouldn\u2019t stop me doing Troy and the wooden horse again now. I\u2019d do it again now. That\u2019s not a spoiler \u2013 I\u2019m not doing it! But you\u2019d just put in one line, \u2018Oh, a glitch in time, we\u2019re here again!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Just last year, Davies\u2019s episode The Giggle<\/a> featured a potential fix-all explanation for any canon discrepancies, with The Toymaker<\/a> telling David Tennant\u2019s Fourteenth Doctor that he had \u201cmade a jigsaw\u201d out of his history.<\/p>\n

\"Neil\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker in Doctor Who.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, the sixth episode of this year\u2019s season 14, Rogue, appeared to canonise the Shalka Doctor<\/a>, played by Richard E Grant in the animated web series\u00a0Scream of the Shalka<\/a>, who had previously been considered another take on the Ninth Doctor, and therefore not canon.<\/p>\n

At the BAFTA event, Davies also spoke about that episode, and explained how the concept of a regency era romance was pitched by writers Kate Herron and Briony Redman.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n