Doctor Who Series 13: 6 Big Reasons To Be Worried

2. The Fanbase Is Already Looking Past It

Doctor Who Series 13 Jodie Whittaker
BBC

The hiring of Russell T Davies to succeed Chibnall as Doctor Who showrunner felt like a real "break glass in case of emergency" move on the BBC's part.

As we've already discussed, the show is in a rough spot right now, and the fanbase is the most divided it's been in decades. So who else could the BBC get to not only unite said fanbase, but ensure that the show itself stands the best possible chance at being good? Aside from Steven Moffat, the only person who fits the bill is RTD.

This man relaunched Doctor Who in 2005, turning it into one of the most popular (and brilliant) shows of its time, a feat that many people considered impossible. He's a massive fan of all things Who, and, more importantly, he just gets it. Plus, outside the Doctor Who bubble, he's a respected, award-winning TV writer, having recently bagged Best New Drama at the NTAs for his Channel 4 series It's A Sin.

In other words, he ticks every single box.

So what's this got to do with Series 13? Well, because the return of RTD is such a massive moment that many fans wouldn't have imagined in their wildest dreams, Chibnall and Whittaker's next effort almost feels a bit... "eh" in comparison.

This is a tad anecdotal, but over on the official Doctor Who Twitter account, the RTD return tweet got over three times as many interactions as the Series 13 premiere announcement tweet. Sure, that isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, but it is a loose indication of where the fanbase's hype meter is pointing.

It was actually an odd move to make that RTD announcement so close to the start of Series 13. All the BBC has done is undercut the show by revealing that the really good stuff is coming in a couple of years. Maybe the higher-ups were worried that the news would leak - or maybe they were just desperate for some positive energy.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.