Executive producer

Not to be confused with the co-executive producer, a junior, and not co-equal, title.

An executive producer is the head of the above the line talent on an episode, and, indeed, is in overall charge of any episode's production.

In the 1963 version of Doctor Who, executive producers were largely not credited, because the Head of Serials (or the Head of Series and Serials) was the un-credited executive producer of not only Doctor Who, but all programmes within the department. The only year for which this wasn't true was season 18. In this exceptional case, the incoming Head of Serials asked Barry Letts to do his job for him on Doctor Who and oversee John Nathan-Turner's first year as producer. (REF: The Fourth Doctor Handbook) Hence, for that year only, an executive producer was credited on BBC-produced Doctor Who.

Since the 1996 tele-film, however, executive producers have been routinely credited on all DWU episodes. Morever, there have always been multiple executive producers on each episode of Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, and K9 — except for the unusual case of the official BBC parody, The Curse of Fatal Death.

Different executive producers have traditionally had different production emphases. Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, for instance, have been primarily focussed on the writing, though they have been completely able to take decisions on any production matter they desired. Julie Gardner and Piers Wenger have held an executive producer credit largely because they held a senior position at BBC Wales. In this way, they weren't too different from the un-credited executive producers of the past, like Shaun Sutton.

However, they've been much more involved with the day-to-day production of the show than their BBC counterparts, and in some cases have made direct contributions to narrative and storytelling, as well. One well-known instance of Gardner's impact on narrative was when she overrode RTD and insisted that the Tenth Doctor should leave Earth for the last time from the Powell Estate, in order to narratively "bookend" his first appearance on Earth in The Christmas Invasion. (PCOM: The End of Time, part 2) The "BBC Wales executive producer" has also had an active role in major casting, as when Wenger was directly involved with choosing Matt Smith (CON: The Eleventh Doctor) or when Julie Gardner negotiated for the series 4 return of Catherine Tate largely without RTD's assistance. (REF: The Writer's Tale)

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