With the rehiring of writer Russell T Davies for Doctor Who season 14, he has to avoid current showrunner Chris Chibnall's obsession with nostalgia if he wants to succeed. Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner has been incredibly controversial and his nearing departure has viewers focused on what direction in which Davies will take the show. However, reliance on nostalgia is a current problem with Doctor Who, and it would be all too easy for Davies to fall into the same habits as predecessor Chibnall.
Davies’ run as head writer arguably produced the show’s most popular era. From 2005 to 2010, he helped curate episodes such as “Turn Left” and “Midnight” and was there from the very beginning of Doctor Who’s modern reboot with “Rose," then introduced David Tennant as the wildly popular Tenth Doctor. His tenure as showrunner on the long-running show helped relaunch the series and expand it overseas to the U.S., where it gained a brand-new audience. Viewers are hoping he can take his talents and right the Doctor Who ship.
As with any show that is long-running or is being rebooted, however, the audience tends to base its expectations on what the show once was and Davies must avoid catering to nostalgia. The current writer for Doctor Who, Chibnall, has unfortunately not managed to avoid this trap. The most recent seasons of the show are filled with references to past storylines and characters, not bringing that much to the table other than fan service. Chibnall's storytelling abilities, even in the current season, Doctor Who: Flux, have arguably left much to be desired, and it’s become an expectation from episode to episode that there will be some callback to the past. While this can be enjoyable at first, over time it grows pandering. In taking the reins from Chibnall, Davies can and should avoid sharing Chibnall's obsession with nostalgia and classic Doctor Who.
It wouldn’t be difficult to rely on the elements of Doctor Who that Davies introduced prior to Chibnall, using their popularity to his advantage. The best thing might simply be to largely ignore what's come before, even before any attempts to "fix" what Chibnall broke, such as the Timeless Child retcon. Let any new characters and the new Doctor find their footing before considering the addition of nostalgia, in turn letting them gain favor in their own right. The long-term viewer knows that this is something Davies is more than capable of – the 2005 reboot was a reinvention of a forty-year-old show with countless aspects that could’ve been mentioned and built upon. But Davies kept it simple. The new characters and the new Doctor did find their footing and shone purely because they weren’t fighting with decades-old details for attention. References came later and, when they did, the nostalgia didn’t draw gazes away from the new storylines and lore. Davies created an era of Doctor Who that aged almost perfectly.
If Davies follows his own example rather than allow Chibnall's era to be his blueprint, it might just grant the audience a happy medium between the sentimental old days of Doctor Who and a new age altogether. In doing so, it can be a show that is loved by both the old audience of classic Doctor Who and the new viewership of the modern world. People are always going to love Doctor Who, but though Chibnall’s nostalgia obsession is understandable, Russell T Davies avoiding doing the same could create a version of the show loved by everyone.
Doctor Who releases new episodes Sunday on BBC and BBC America.
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