Verdict: Russell T. Davies

Russell T. Davies

So I was writing on the Hugo awards last night and I touched on my views on Russell T. Davies, and I realised that while I had easily ladled him in my dislike category I had never justified the decision, so in order to make you all understand and because it is my 50th post and thus special I'll now deliver my Verdict on Russell T. Davies.


History:

Considered one of Davies better shows... supposedly

Russell was born Steven Russell Davies on 27 April 1963 in Wales, his mother suffering a reaction to a morphine drip suffered a phsycotic episode not long after his birth and was institutionalised.  With a fairly normal drama childhood the young Russell moved into writing and penned the acclaimed Series Queer as Folk, Bob & Rose and The Second Coming. He is most known for helming the revival of Doctor Who in 2005 and creating the spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. At the beginning of 2010 he left Doctor Who  in the hands of Steven Moffat, he continues to watch over and write episodes for the spin off with his new series Torchwood: New World take up a fair chunk of his time.

Thoughts:

A terrible monster from new Who and a Pepperpot.

I'm not going to claim to have any knowledge of Mr Davies non-Who related work so it is entirely possible that Queer as Folk  is the greatest series in the history of mankind and it would completely change my views on the man if I saw it, but I'm here to focus on Who so here comes the pain. Mr Davies will always have a place in my heart for reviving Doctor Who and his over-watch of the seasons has maintained a fairly enjoyable experience all round. The problem I have is that his writing can be so brilliantly frustrating, so hit and miss that I can't in good conscious look forward to anything he does. While he has written some great episodes such as Midnight and Waters of Mars that look at the subject of unseen fear and horror and the inner-most psyche of The Doctor makes me marvel at the way that the subject matter can be twisted. The problem is that for everyone of those episodes there are two Journey's End and The Last of the Time Lords, episodes where not only does science fiction gain the level of magic but he takes to wanking off his fan base with such gusto that one has to wonder if he has missed out on his perfect career. To take The Last of the Time Lords as a demonstration of the first one, where the previous season ender Doomsday set up a good solid device to allow transport between realities and a marvellous use of 3D glasses in order to clear up the massive building mess that Russell had created but in The Last of the Time Lords, The Doctor is revived from a gollum like state by the power of thought...

David Tennat's audition for the role of Doctor Manhattan... to many clothes.

WTF? I get that the arch-angel network connects the minds but how can the Doctor draw power from that? He isn't The Destructor from Ghostbusters who became the 'Stay Puff Marshmallow Man', and so as far as I know The Doctor can't just click his fingers and find a plot convenient way to get out of the situation, a way has to be properly weaved in and made available to the audience whilst staying hidden from their sight, see Amy's Choice. The other major complaint is the excessive ammounts of fan wank, take for example the End of Time Part 2. Now the End of Time Part 2 had a total running time of  71 minutes, one of the longest DW episodes ever, but about the last 20 minutes of the episode isn't needed, after the Doctor throws his tantrum and rescues Wilf he could have just limped back to the TARDIS and regenerated, but no, Davies has to go back over each and every companion this Doctor has had and give them an unbearably happy ending, Martha and Mickey get married, Donna gets married and the Doctor gives her a lot of money and Rose gets a nice smiley moment with The Doctor, and for some strange reason we go to a descendant of Nurse Redfern, remember her she was in that 2-parter 2 bloody seasons ago! But to head back to the proper companions for a moment, there will be people out there who call me a bit of a Grinch because 'Doesn't  David, have my babies, Tennant deserve to have a nice ending', and yes I would agree with that and this episode would be fine to do it... if we hadn't had the same thing one and a half years ago! Seriously Journey's End ended with the same sort of all smiles ending as the companions (except Donna) all walked off happy and fulfilled, so what was the point doing it again?

"We've reached the Journey's End, Having a laugh inside the TARDIS, thought it didn't make much sense, It's always nice to see them Daleks" - Chameleon Circuit

That last part has reminded me of a single instance reason I dislike Davies, the retcon. At the end of Doomsday Rose and The Doctor were separated by dimensions and one could assume she was beyond return, but peoples hearts all over the world broke as The Doctor was unable to tell Rose he loved her. It was sad but poionient that as much as The Doctor is a necessary force of the world you must keep your distance personally because he just causes destruction. As sad as it was I respected Davies for doing it. But then he went and made it so Rose gets her own personal human Doctor because she is the bestest companion or something. And it destoryed the message he had conveyed so well in Doomsday.

Thanks Seduff for the image

Torchwood seems to deliver a different style, where people die and tragedy strikes often, for that reason I look upon Children of Earth as a better Who finale than any of his real Who finales.

Summing Up:
So what do I think? Well he isn't a bad writer if he lays off the fan love and was more reasonable in his endings, but because of the forced smile ending he seems so determined to strong arm into everything, I have problems with him.


Verdict: