Russell T Davies

Russell T Davies, OBE (sometimes spelled Russell T. Davies, born Stephen Russell Davies, 27th April 1963) is a successful television writer and producer responsible for the revival of Doctor Who and the creation of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. From 2003 to early 2010 he was the head writer and one of the executive producers of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who.

His written contributions to Doctor Who are formidable. Davies is easily the most prolific writer for the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who. He has also written more televised stories than any other writer since 1963. Including material written for The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood he has also written more hours of television set in the Whoniverse than anyone else. However, unless he contributes to Doctor Who after 2009, he will remain second to Robert Holmes in terms of the total number of hours of television written specifically for Doctor Who. Between the broadcast of Midnight in 2008 and the final chapter of The End of Time (expected to air at the start of 2010), Davies has written or co-written 10 consecutive broadcast episodes (including one mini-episode, and not including Torchwood), an achievement without equal in franchise history.

Beyond televised Doctor Who, he has also written both fictional and non-fictional prose relevant to Doctor Who.

A Welshman himself, his commitment to producing Doctor Who in Wales has led to a massive expansion of the television production capacity of that nation. His deliberate inclusion of recognizable Welsh landmarks in Doctor Who has also notably increased tourism in the country. His net impact on the economy of Wales is therefore profound.

Biography

Previous work

Russell's first major success was the CBBC fantasy adventure serial Dark Season, which contained strong similarities to Doctor Who. Davies would go on to create a further children's supernatural drama series, Century Falls. He then went on to create the award-winning original Queer As Folk (later adapted into an American version) and an supernatural drama for adults entitle The Second Coming which starred the future Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston as a re-born Christ.

Doctor Who and related work

Revival and work on spin-offs

Davies' first proffesional involvement in Doctor Who was in 1996, when he wrote the Virgin New Adventures novel Damaged Goods. He wrote Rose, the debut episode of the 2005 revival, made him the first writer of original licensed spin-off fiction to also write for the official TV series and he would go on to commission other colleagues in this area to write for the show, including Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat.

As the newly revived franchise flourished, Davies created two spin-off series: Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, writing or co-writing the debut episodes of both, but unlike Doctor Who his writing involvement in these two shows has been minimal (in Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, however, Davies writes that he was to have written the opening episode of Torchwood Series 2, which he ultimately did not. Davies is also a regular contributor to Doctor Who Magazine, for which he writes a regular column in which he often drops hints about upcoming stories, usually in the form of random snatches of dialogue or listing words that will appear in the script.

Departure

On the 20th May, 2008, Davies publicly announced his departure from Doctor Who. He will continue to be Executive Producer for the 2009 specials before being succeeded by staff writer Steven Moffat for Series 5 in 2010. He is also executive producing the 2009 series of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. He has has stated that he will not write for Doctor Who again after the 2009 specials. However, at a Q&A session following a preview screening of one of the 2009 Torchwood episodes, Davies indicated that not only is he planning to stay with Torchwood for another decade if needs be, but the hopes to see further crossovers between that show and Doctor Who.^[1] His future involvement with future seasons of Sarah Jane Adventures remains unconfirmed. However, his biographical blurb in the Doctor Who Storybook 2010 indicates that Davies will be staying on to oversee both Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Inclusion of LGBT characters

With the exception of his work in children's television, he has written an openly and proudly gay character in all his work, and Doctor Who is no exception. He became the first writer to write about confirmed transsexuality (The End of the World) and confirmed male (Aliens of London) and female homosexuality (Gridlock), Steven Moffat holds the distinction of being the first writer to write about bisexuality (The Doctor Dances) but Russell T Davies was the one who created Captain Jack, the first openly omnisexual character in televised Doctor Who. Several episodes of both Doctor Who and Torchwood have featured same-sex couples, most notably Torchwood which established a relationship between Captain Jack and Ianto Jones in the second season.

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale

In February 2007, Davies and Doctor Who Magazine writer Benjamin Cook agreed to begin exchanging e-mails with the intent of creating a series of articles for DWM on the creation of select episodes from the then-upcoming Series 4. This correspondence soon grew well beyond the confines of a magazine and in the fall of 2008 the 512-page Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale was published. A second edition featuring some 300 pages of additional material covering production of his final stories for Doctor Who is scheduled for publication in January 2010.

Significant additions to the Doctor Who Universe

Russell T Davies came up with the concept of the Torchwood Institute, the Slitheen, the Judoon and the Cult of Skaro, and established a major piece of backstory, the Last Great Time War and the resulting destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lord race. He also created the Doctor's companions Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness (in conjunction with episode writer Steven Moffat), Martha Jones, Donna Noble and Mickey Smith. He devised the concepts, formats and regular characters (other than those originating in Doctor Who) for Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and also established the idea of producing canonical mini-episodes for special events. He decided on the casting of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant as the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, respectively, as well as their associated companions. Under his watch numerous original-series characters have been reintroduced to new audiences, including Sarah Jane Smith, K-9, The Master, Davros, the Daleks, the Cybermen, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT, and the Sontarans, among others. The Fifth Doctor made a return appearance in an episode produced by Davies, and his script for The Next Doctor incorporated a landmark sequence incorporating footage of all 10 Doctors to date.

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Other information

In 2008, Davies was awarded an OBE, the second Doctor Who producer to receive one (Verity Lambert received an OBE in 2002). ^[2]

In an interview he stated the Christmas episode slot was his favourite of the year.

Davies is also a skilled cartoonist, and many Doctor Who-related examples of his work can be found in Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale.

In 2009, Davies became one of the only Doctor Who-related personnel to be depicted in a fictional and non-parody context when Robert Degas portrayed him in the comedy Hudson and Pepperdine Save the Planet, an installment of Afternoon Play which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 19th August 2009.[1]

Selected credits

Writing

2008 Chrismas Special

The Next Doctor

2009 specials

Planet of the Dead

Co-written with Gareth Roberts

The Waters of Mars

Co-written with Phil Ford

Untitled Part 1/The End of Time (part 2)

Two-part special, airdate TBA. Part 2 title has been confirmed by numerous sources including Doctor Who Magazine; Part 1 title has yet to be confirmed.

Mini-episodes

Children in Need Special (2005)
Music of the Spheres (2008)
Tonight's the Night special scene (2009)

Torchwood

Series 1

Everything Changes

Series 2

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (uncredited contribution^[3])

Series 3

Children of Earth (with John Fay and James Moran)

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Premiere

Invasion of the Bane