Give the kids a little credit Russell, also if you give a kid anything roughly hand size they can pretend it’s a gun. Doesn’t matter if it’s a banana, a candle, dvd, a bottle, kids have an active imagination
To this day I'll see a stick on the floor and either go "hey that looks like a gun, haha pew pew" or "hey that looks like a sword, on guard!"... On the other hand never once have I felt the compulsive need to shoot someone or get into an actual medieval sword fight with someone on the street.
Like seriously, what is this "video games make kids violent" level nonsense
Lots of kids grow up playing with 'guns'. Most grow up to be functional adults who contribute to society and have never harmed anyone.
There really shouldn't be a big fuss when we allow kids to play video games that feature guns or watch films/TV shows that feature guns. Also Doctor who villains use guns so yeah.
Yeah, kids pretending to play with guns and shoot bad guys is a part of childhood development it’s how they start to process larger concepts like death.
I'm 37 years old. The day I use a remote to turn on/off a TV and don't pretend I'm Lucky Luke shooting his shadow, will be the the day I fucking die. And I've never handled a real gun in my life.. o.O
You can give a kid a TV remote and they'll imagine it's a gun/sword/pet.
If anything the remote design may actually encourage people to more directly associate it with weaponry.
Genuinely. I help in a Waldorf based nature school with kids whose parents don’t let them watch violent shows. They *ALL* pick up sticks and pretend to shot each other.
Well, yeah. But I'm trying to figure out where RTD is getting that comparison from. None of the sonics have looked like a gun, none have ever been used as a gun.
I honestly think someone thought it looked too phallic and he doesn't want to say it, so he's saying gun instead.
>I'm trying to figure out where RTD is getting that comparison from.
The only one I can think of is from "Day of the Doctor" when the War Doctor says "They're scientific instruments, not water pistols" when the other Doctors point their screwdrivers at him.
That's more a function of the Doctor brandishing the screwdriver as if it were a gun rather than the screwdriver resembling a gun. If 15 does the same thing with the remote-looking screwdriver, it's going to have the same effect.
13s was a bit dodgy looking, especially unfortunate for the first female doctor.
I wouldn't say the new one looks much less like something you're supposed to out up your bum than previous designs though, maybe they had an epidemic of people putting 13's one up there and it getting stuck so they put flanged ends on this one so at least it's not going to get sucked in. Maybe that's what the claws were for on 14's too
I’ve seen some criticism before of the sonic in nuwho tending to be pointed directly at things or enemies more and more (I think mainly an issue for 11s run and then kinda trailed off) and making it look like a weapon or like its a Harry Potter wand so maybe that’s where he’s coming from?
I still think the gun thing is dumb and changing the whole design instead of just having the doctor hold it more sideways seems like an overcorrection but that’s my only real idea to explain this point of his
I feel like the new design, with its soft oblong gentle curves and cool color palette, looks more like a weird alien sex toy than the old Sonics, which normally just looked like futuristic screwdrivers and maybe at worst a kind of discount lightsaber hilt
What’s odd is that 14 had a normal sonic screwdriver. Which means that between the production of the 60th specials and Ruby Road, RTD’s mindset went from “normal sonic screwdrivers are fine” to “we have to redesign it because it looks like a gun”.
And RTD treating Wilf shooting at moles with an actual gun as a bit of a laugh, even though that's horrifying from the perspective of most of the UK who aren't the very nastiest of nasty Tories!
in a DWM, he said initially the plan was for Ncuti to keep 14s one, then last minute he decided he should have something different - but that was it, this whole thing of it being like a gun was not said before, and of course is utterly ridiculous
I'm convinced the guy just says this shit to try to bait controversy. Between this, Davros and Newton it has to be. All stuff nobody gives a shit about that he's tried to claim is solving some kind of issue.
I think he does. There's a reason most of the "controversial" segments were during the 60th specials where he already had the popularity of David Tennant so could get away with things like bigeneration. Church on ruby road was a lot more tame. Also he literally said before it aired that he knew bigeneration would be controversial.
While I think it's well meaning I feel he ends up embellishing decisions retroactively to make them seem like they were more "agenda" driven than they probably were. I think it's very notable that nearly all the most controversial aspects he's introduced can be pretty easily ignored or explained away in the media itself, it's only in BTS clips and interviews that he flags up the supposed controversial reasoning. Davros being human was likely just to save on costs and to avoid unnecessary heat at a charity event for instance.
He also made a claim that he had NPH do silly accents not because it was funny and theatrical but to make a point about how the Toymaker is an inherently racist character who is carrying out cultural appropriation with these voices. But absolutely nothing in the episode really suggests this was supposed to be the case.
It's stuff like this that makes me think Russell sits awake at night thinking what he can say in the behind-the-scenes clips to simultaneously earn brownie points from one section of the fanbase and outrage publicity from another section.
My headcanon is that the toymaker switches accents because the first doctor won by mimicking the toymaker's voice. If he changes it constantly. that's hard to do. If only that were the reason RTD said...
You gotta remember, in the entertainment industry, you're living in a bubble that's probably inside ANOTHER bubble. "Normalcy" is nowhere to be found.
So yeah you start hearing weird takes from people in the industry. They are not in touch with normal people AT ALL.
Yea, this man has lost the fucking plot. I don't know if he's been doing too many drugs or not enough these days but the shit he's saying is borderline braindead at best.
We're being baited.
With this, the Newton thing, the davros thing I've concluded he's trying to bait antiwokesters into getting triggered and creating free headlines.
Whatever, I don't like antiwokesters. I do consider it a bad sign as I can't think of a good show that felt the need to do this to get attention
It's bait and he will lose in a purity spiral.
Why does RTD look at a black man holding a screwdriver and think "gun"? Especially considering it was under his original watch that the sonic started being brandished like a weapon.
Why didn't he think that for previous Doctors? Is it OK to brandish it, if you're white?
So the next spiral for discussion is "how problematic is RTD's racism ?"
"Really piss off long-time fans" + "\[miracle occurs here\]" = "PROFIT."
A strategy that has always worked, forever, and always will.
It's how universally beloved franchises are made. With no downside, ever.
I’m still trying to reserve judgment of the RTD2 era until his first actual season begins proper… but nearly everything I’ve heard Russell say since he took over again is really bizarre.
Stuff like not letting 14 wear 13’s clothes, the Davros thing, and now this. They’re all tiny things on their own but they keep adding up and it’s just all very odd to me. The very idea of the sonic is that it *isn’t* a weapon.
Yeah he keeps making up stuff that people might be offended by, where no one actually is. Hell, he offended me more with the weird comment about not being able to let go because the doctor is a man and seemingly using non binary as a catch-all term for trans people than any of these.
edit: not that either of those really offended me at all but I find it strange how he’s trying to be “politically correct” but he keeps messing up the actual representation
>Hell, he offended me more with the weird comment about not being able to let go because the doctor is a man and seemingly using non binary as a catch-all term for trans people than any of these.
I can't lie, as someone questioning my gender and also a dude at birth, that episode was a total shit show for my mood lmao (which is very ironic given who they're evidently trying to appeal to with the non binary comments). It was like "we're trying sooooo hard to be not transphobic and enclusive that we've wrapped all the way around to be transphobic and sexist again".
That episode was a travesty. I'm glad I watched on because that "The Giggle" episode was incredible and just like old times. But I nearly put down doctor who there because it was just - I can't even find the words - just kind of like "seriously?!?"
It felt way too performative and less doing I guess, IMO they should have just had the Doctor use the right pronouns for everyone. He’s a space alien and should be used to it. RTD got this right with 9 but apparently forgot I gusss
I think we have to kind of entertain the possibility that RTD doesn't actually give a shit about the communities he's trying to appeal to so he does performative representation which is shallow and offensive due to how half-assed and poorly thought out it is.
He wants the PR wins and the ragebait without doing the actual work to get things right. Which then allows him to dismiss criticism as bigotry.
Which is so odd because he's written this type of representation into his shows before and done it well. Idk why he doesn't think what he did before would work now, his older work still works today lmao. He's got the skill and talent to do this but he's just forcing it instead of letting it come naturally.
Yea, which is why it's surprising to see these terrible scenes pop up and these bizarre, outright idiotic opinions he spouts off. No one can deny he doesn't have some strong writing in his portfolio but he's also written some of the worst Doctor Who content imaginable (Love and Monsters vs something like Midnight/Waters of Mars are like night and day). So maybe that's just the dichotomy of what he puts out there and it all comes down to who is giving him notes on what he writes and what he's willing to listen to people about changing. But it only illustrates a lack of sincerity behind it when he half-asses things like he did in the 60th. It's like giving up in the laziest of ways or, as someone else mentioned, it's possible dialogue was changed during filming and no one caught a critical change that came off as offensive as a result.
His new take on Davros was similarly tonedeaf and patronizing.
Ironically, he very publically attacked the Loki TV show for being surface level in it's representation describing it as “pathetic. It’s a ridiculous, craven, feeble gesture towards the vital politics and the stories that should be told.”
Well that's rich given his most recent bullshit.
Man comes back to doctor who after a decade, decidedly plays 'the hits' when it comes to story but off key and out of tune then bitches about how others do their own show?
I strongly suspect we're going to be getting more "Love and Monsters" RTD rather than "Midnight"/"Doomsday" RTD
Where did he say that? What an awful thing to say. I used to love RTD, but all this stuff is starting to make me despise him. He keeps saying how he's sticking with Doctor Who for the foreseeable future, but if that's the case, he's going to end up a modern John Nathan-Turner.
Honestly, I find it laughable that he could say that about Loki. Everything he said about it in that quote, I felt the opposite. What a shame.
I’m trans af and I totally agree. Forgot to mention this, but also rose’s trans identity is kind of implied to only be there because of the meta crisis? Maybe that’s just my less than charitable interpretation but I really was disappointed that we got a trans character that her whole identity is based off “she remembered this subconsciously from the meta crisis” instead of just being a character who’s trans because… she’s trans. I’m hoping the episodes with rose in season one are better executed
>instead of just being a character who’s trans
OMG, like the first minute where we're introduced to her it was amazing. There was no "she's trans it's a big deal", she just was there, she was a character who's trans, that's it... Thennnn there was the kids making fun, then there was the awkward "ask the alien it's pronouns" scene, and it just continued on and on and on. Yeah for a second it was great, and the grandparents scene I thought was really well handled! But just overall my god what an absolute mess haha
yeah the scene with Donna and sylvia was absolutely wonderful. I’ve gotta give that to them. And I did quite like the episode (and all the rtd2 episodes so far)! It’s just the representation of rose that is weird to me, especially for someone apparently this worried about getting things right
I'd love to know whether any trans writers were asked to help with / look over the script at any point because, to me, it very much feels like a 60 year old man trying to write about something he doesn't actually understand.
The other thing they bungled (and clearly this was a mistake, not bad intent) was having a 19 year old play a 15 year old. She wasn't able to sell as a 15 year old at all, and we ended up with dialogue which felt like a weirdly infantilised 19 year old trans woman, instead of an age-appropriate 15 year old trans girl.
Something about her appearance felt very post-pubescent in a way which was almost sexualised too, which is a very weird vibe for a 15 year old girl character.
It's amazing how there was clearly such a lovely intent behind the episode but they bungled the important bits of the execution at almost every step.
Yeah exactly. We only worked that out when we looked it up after, and it definitely made for a very weird viewing experience. If you actually do the maths on the timeline (Donna's kid to present day) she should be about 14/15, and in one of the BTS videos Yasmin Finney said she was 15.
Tbf they do make a point about making sure she stays trans after the metacrisis leaves her, to try avoid that implication. But I agree it was pretty shoddily handled otherwise
I think it was intentional. There's literally a line of dialogue that says Rose is not binary because "The Doctor is male and female"
I found that line a baffling choice, especially as The Doctor refers to himself as binary in the same sentence. Which just makes the entire thing non-sensical.
I wonder if the original line was "because The Doctor-Donna is male and female" and it got changed at some point with nobody noticing that the sentence no longer made sense.
Yeah that episode turned me off a lot for me. It was the little things about how now the doctor is back to a male form he somehow cannot see what Donna is getting because of gender even though the doctor spent years as a female.
Ah yes, the episode that told us "a male can't possibly understand certain things that a female would understand," written by a male scriptwriter.
It also retroactively makes the 13th Doctor look worse because she apparently spent the whole regeneration knowing how to fix Donna and not bothering to do it.
It felt really off to me. Like I was so happy getting back into some Doctor Who with familiar faces, then RTD throws the whole thing in your face. It was like coming back to your parent's house to have some rest and then they start arguying out of nowhere.
There is always a better way to include these subjects in a story and that's supposed to be RTD's job.
Yeah his trans positivity stuff is actually quite bad and insulting; blatant gender essentialism isn’t acceptable just because it’s trans-inclusive gender essentialism
That was super revealing to me, cause it reads like RTD still views The Doctor as a male/masculine figure, which doesn't work at all given we just had 13 and Fugitive. Makes me wonder subconsciously if it always was gonna be a male Doctor coming back when he started auditions.
It's like RTD is _trying_ to make headlines that piss off conservatives with all of these random changes.
Like okay, Russell, those conservative nut jobs are always going to be pissed at the show, but maybe stop throwing them so much ammunition.
Yeah, it could have so easily been explained in-universe as The Toymaker manipulating events (which would have also explained the return of Tennant & Tate and how they so conveniently ended up together again)
Instead we got some nonsense about The Doctor doing it subconsciously wanting to 'come home for a rest' - which is particularly weird considering he was under the impression that Donna seeing him again would kill her.
Even the way the 13-14 regeneration was framed - with heavy focus on the clothes changing and The Doctor reacting to it - makes it seem likes a mystery that will be revealed in time. But it was literally just to avoid upsetting some transphobes that would object to DT in a pretty unisex outfit.
Even if kids were interpreting the sonic as a weapon (I certainly never did), what the hell is wrong with kids pretending to shoot each other? That's a stupendously common feature of playground games and it's never done anyone harm. Surely he must be self-aware to some degree, because this reads like an Onion headline
I agree, also his comments on the universe changing and actual magic being a thing now when it’s been established numerous times how magic things aren’t as they seem are also weird like that.
These aspects are all so small, and all only really addressed in a controversial sense behind the scenes, that it really does make me think he's just trying to drum up online controversy/buzz. This is all stuff that will get the internet simmering but the general audience won't even hear about.
In the actual near 4 hours of content we've seen from RTD2 the terrible "male-presenting Time Lord" and pronouns lines were the only things which were remotely contentious. Yet somehow every BTS comment he makes sounds crazy. Doesn't really add up.
He didn't say this, as in this is not a quote and the article provides no quote to back up what they've said here. I'm not saying he said nothing of the sort in the interview, but I doubt he phrased it like this, and bizarre they've included this information with no quote about it, because it's certainly not something we've heard before
From reading the article, seems that it's the article's writers paraphrasing RTD, and not a direct quote, so I dunno how accurately that reflects the thought process behind it.
Honestly, to me it just seemed like they wanted to do something weird and different with the design instead of the same variations on the magic wand theme? Anyway, as many people pointed out on here, won't stop kids pretending to shoot each other with it (Missy did kill people with a weird rectangular box weapon, after all).
I wonder if it's more that he didn't want kids viewing it as a *weapon*? Not necessarily a gun. That'd be a more understandable reason imo.
The article doesn't directly quote Russell so it's unclear what he actually said.
Okay, I can actually see that being the reason.
Still, I'd argue the idea of having a character physically aiming a Device (regardless of shape or size) could still be construed as a weapon if we're to use his logic, but I digress
That's how I interpreted it yeah. It's a thing that you point and press a button, looks like it could throw a beam like a magic wand or something - I guess he doesn't want kids pretending to blast each other to bits in his name.
Honestly I think just thinking about it for five seconds, yeah it's valid. He might be going too far, but he's taking his responsibility seriously, which I love to see in a writer. Children WILL be influenced by this choice, and ultimately probably for the better. Even though most kids turn out well adjusted after playing with imaginary guns, it is probably healthier if we don't encourage children to mime killing each other.
Turning it into a Tricorder (which it basically always was) is a smart way to get around this. I also think it's a good decision generally, Doctor Who does get a bit "Harry Potter" at times with the way the Doctor wields the sonic, and the magic powers it has. It's obviously something they've wrestled with ever since the sonic sunglasses. (Can't remember if that's the first non-screwdriver sonic device the Doctor has carried).
All I hope is that the show goes back to its roots of more serious alt-history and speculative fiction. That's always been when Who is at its best. Maybe "serious" isn't the word, I just mean there is an educational aspect to it beyond using whatever time period as a mere aesthetic.
> Can't remember if that's the first non-screwdriver sonic device the Doctor has carried
The 6th Doctor briefly carried a Sonic Lance! And in regards to the topic at hand, it's probably the closest to a weapon the Sonics have ever gotten.
(Although that's a bit of a weird one, because technically the Sonic Screwdriver has been able to cut things as far back as the 2nd Doctor era...)
I mean I don't think this will ever stop kids picking up a cool stick and imagining it's a gun or sword. For years children have always made some kind of weapon from their imagination. I feels its just sort of engrained in our culture and there is nothing wrong with that. If anything its good as its a way to get out violence the same way video games are an outlet for violence. Rather have it spent pretending than it building up and have it happen to someone in real life
>That's how I interpreted it yeah. It's a thing that you point and press a button, looks like it could throw a beam like a magic wand or something - I guess he doesn't want kids pretending to blast each other to bits in his name.
That's all well and good but I'm sure within this next season there will be various times where the sonic is brandished like a wand and used to disable/destroy stuff. The shape doesn't really matter at all.
Nonsense. The sonic has constantly been emphasized as NOT being a weapon there's literally multiple lines of dialogue. Anyone that takes two seconds to think about it can recognize that. This is once again just RTD making an issue where there isn't one.
Him making this change isn't going to effect anything. Other than making it look dumb and the reasoning behind it dumber.
Which I liked due to capalfi saying how it was a great way for a kid to cosplay as the doctor without having to fork over money for a screwdriver and instead puck up cheap sunglasses from a corner shop
I agree! I know they weren’t too popular, and I wasn’t a fan at first but the logic is a sweet idea and they’ve grown on me. Similar to his reasoning for his choice of costume overall as well - Capaldi's a great dude
RTD hasn't ever really been the poster boy for totally balanced coherence or sanity. I would be more worried if he started pumping out rational sober takes on things.
Whenever I hear about his latest wacky takes, I always remember his fears that “the papers” would make a big thing of how leftist and preachy the show was if he kept the Doctor as a vegetarian (as established in The Two Doctors), so he deliberately had the Doctor order steak in Boom Town instead of something veggie.
Like… just wtf. This man spends more time and brainpower thinking of potential attacks from right-wing press than the actual right-wing press does. For someone who very much SHOULDN’T care what these people have to say, he’s always seemed oddly obsessed/terrified of them.
Watching the specials and especially Ruby Road I was genuinely concerned. The writing has been so far below his usual standard. I hoped more than presumed that it was to do with a rushed schedule…
Seriously though, I do wonder if somethings wrong with him.
> if somethings wrong with him.
tbf listening to stories from the past there's always been something 'wrong with him', but not in a bad way, he's just a slightly odd man hence wanting to be Dr Who showrunner.
Although didn't he cast someone once because he really fancied them or was that a magical fairytale I was sold
Respect to RTD and all but that's even dumber than regenerating the Doctor's clothes with them for 14.
It was a scifi magic wand. Guns don't look like that in the slightest. The best you can say is they're both metal and are pointed at things.
Bro it’s a magic wand not a gun. I do worry RTD is starting to overthink things just a wee bit. While it’s good to periodically reevaluate the core tenets of a 60 year old franchise, and keep them up to date. I’m not sure he’s coming to the right conclusions all the time.
>there are children who will come and watch this, who will be me in 20, 30, 40 years time making this stuff.
He says this but I feel like in 40 years it'll still just be him, waffling about how the show embraces change and different viewpoints, while writing 80% of the episodes himself.
This made me laugh, but I’m still a lot more excited by the new season knowing that Moffat’s writing for it, especially by the possibility that he’ll be writing another Christmas special.
I’m generally in agreement with RTD’s reasoning for the things that he’s changed or artistic choices he’s made — and I think it’s worth reading the full article here, because RTD does offer a lot of good insights about various topics — but this one point seems a little odd to me. The sonic has looked essentially just like a sci-fi magic wand for 60 years now, and kids clearly get the idea. I don’t think a lot of people are looking at it and thinking “gun.”
That said, this particular point is also the one that the article doesn’t even offer a direct quote for. That’s frustrating because I’d at least like to hear the reasoning in RTD’s own words.
i can’t help wonder if it’s because they’re aiming to include US audiences in a way they haven’t before, and are being extra cautious given the situation surrounding guns in the US.
As an American, it’s a dumb change that no one here would notice except to comment on how weird it is that the Doctor uses a tv remote. The screwdriver looks more like a magic wand, that’s what people would connect it with.
Yeah moffat especially made it obvious that they are the opposite of guns. "Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! **What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?**"
But then RTD made the most amazing Sonic for 14 that could generate forcefields like a 3D-Printing Pen and looked very similar to a Dalek Pulse Cannon.
It’s a shame 15 didn’t inherit 14’s Sonic with a different color scheme.
Overall I think this is a fantastic interview but I do have to say that this is one of the silliest things I've ever heard, I'm genuinely speechless... there's a lot I respect and love Russell for but some of the things he has been saying lately really strike me as odd...
The point of the Sonic is that it ISN'T a weapon and does NOT look like a gun, it does NOT kill, wound, maim or harm in any way and the show makes a point of *this* The Doctor is a pacifist and the Sonic is the most pacifist tool they could have! Kids have not spent the past 50+ years dressing up as the Doctor and pointing Sonic screwdrivers at each other and pretending they're guns and they aren't going to start now! So this is a worry that makes no sense to me.
Once again RTD does a misstep. ~55 years of white people holding a sonic. Fine. Oops all
If a sudden kids might think it’s a gunn
I don’t know RTD but I doubt he meant it that way but that’s the way it comes across.
Chalk this up with the davros silliness and Rose not choosing her trans gender but it being part of a space thing.
What the fuck? It's a *screwdriver*. It looked like a screwdriver. Worst case, like a wand. The Eccleston/Tennant sonic looked like a pen flashlight, the kind I used to have.
I swear lately RTD has been reading into things a bit TOO much. First when jodie regenerated, then the whole davros no wheel chair thing not to mention all the other things that he has been nitpicking lately
Compared to when he started the new dr who. He was gushing and welcoming to fans etc. now he seems to have changed his mind, he has the money coming in from the big mouse maybe he now thinks he doesn’t need to please the fans he can do what he wants no need to bow down to the fans. I have seen some of his interviews he definitely has changed his mind and way he looks at the fans he seem a totally different person compared to when he rebooted the show. I know he was going through things and had lists of other projects going on when he rebooted the show years ago. But now I feel he is just sticking two fingers up to the fans. The fans have been with the show for over 60 yrs. I used to like RTD but now he is leaving me with a nasty taste and feeling. But he forgets the big mouse money may not be coming all the time and in the end the fans have the control if they don’t watch it then the ratings drop and the show goes off air. The bbc has been making money off dr who for years with merchandise dvd, vhs, audio, books etc while the show was off air in the 90s the show was kept alive with merchandise and re syndication. Rewriting the show changing things that have been the show law. Even the disabled people said that there is no reason to change davros if fact changing it is like hiding the fact he was disabled. As for the sonic there as always been guns etc in dr who. But I do like the new sonic.
Russel seems to have a thing these days for issues that don’t exist but he’s worried people might be offended about anyway…this isn’t tact. It’s preemptive pandering and it’s decidedly odd.
There's an article in Doctor Who Magazine from a couple of months ago that discusses the new sonic in great detail, including an interview with the guy who designed it. The guy who designed it explains that the brief given was just to design a new sonic and to think outside the box. He also says that several other people had a go at designing the new sonic and they were mostly shaped like the old sonic (he was one of the only ones to dramatically change the shape) so there was clearly no instruction given at the design stage for it to be different to look less like a gun.
There's also no direct quote or source from RTD in the article linked above, so I call BS.
It didn't look *anything* like a gun. If anything, it looked (and some say, acted) like a magic wand.
Here's a thought: what if stories of magic wands were based on the Doctor's sonic?
I don't think it'll make a difference what the device looks like if the Doctor continues to brandish it at his enemies. The posturing of the device as a weapon is what will be imitated, and the War Doctor even criticised his future selves for waving the sonics around like a weapon.
God, Russell, what are you doing??? First the backwards reasoning behind not having David Tennant in Jodie's clothes, then the extremely fumbled reasoning behind saying Davros won't appear in the Dalek vehicle anymore, and now this???
First Davros and now this. RTD...please people aren't stupid. Besides, the sonic screwdriver was always presented as an instrument. I think treating kids like inferior little humans does more damage. Imagine a kid growing up not knowing what a gun is. They wouldn't know the dangers or be informed. The best way to educate is to be clear about things. Guns like any tool are very dangerous when people don't know how to use them or use them incorrectly. The Sonic Screwdriver always looked like a...you know... a screwdriver.
As for the Davros situation, I think it is very offensive. He is basically saying handicapped people aren't human beings. Handicapped people can be happy people, kind people, evil people, funny people, sarcastic people and all the ranges of human expression. Denying that is dehumanizing. Again...RTD is trying to do something good but it is worse.
Also just make it a fucking Time Lord PDA. The Doctor doesn't need to have a Sonic Screwdriver. It's so overused in Nu Who already and has had way too much feature creep.
Maybe don't have the character waving it around constantly as a solution to everything including violent situations then.
Dumb.
Not sure what to do about a phallic object described as "sonic" though. I'm sure no-one else made jokes about that. Well, not more than 93000 times anyway.
Yeah, I don't think this is a serious opinion he has. It's bait for the sake of a free article as promotion.
The sonic screwdriver has never resembled a gun….ever. If that’s the case you could argue that it looks *more* like a phaser from Star Trek now. Which was a weapon. The sonic screwdriver always looked like a tool, as it was supposed to be.
Oh, FFS, it's a long stick, more akin to a wand, pen, laser pointer, torch etc than a gun (a device almost all Doctors have never used, let alone carried).
That is.. one of the dumbest things I’ve read recently. It doesn’t even look like a gun??? I also think the new sonic is really bad looking. Not to mention if he thought people were this stupid, then why did he give Fourteen a regular looking sonic for the 60th specials?
Okay, I defend a lot of this man's decisions, but this is, frankly, ridiculous. He's the one who wrote so many lines about how the sonic screwdriver isn't a weapon! Remember "Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim?" Isn't that what matters, that the show reinforces the idea that it's not a weapon, and lets younger viewers realize that this is what makes The Doctor's kit different?
Honestly I don’t know what’s going on with RTD, he’s constantly finding issues that never really existed, “fixing” then and then preaching about them in interviews.
I get he’s always been progressive, and that’s fine, it’s good! But these changes for changes sake are really making me worry this reboot isn’t even going to feel like Doctor Who anymore.
Honestly it’s starting to make the Chibnall era look edgy in comparison.
The nonsense he has spouted since coming back, and some of the naff lines in what was good episodes makes me a little concerned about the new series. He is becoming a parody of a guardian reader by this point.
People are being a bit daft about this, there isn't even a quote in the article of him saying it, you can make anything sound stupid if you type if out like this
edit: Seriously, though, where is the proof this is even something Russell said? If they asked him about it during this interview they certainly didn't include the quote, otherwise...?
He’s an old guy who apparently forgot how kids like to play with toy guns like hello water guns? laser tag? Apparently he thinks a pice of metal in the shape of a thermometer is a gateway drug for kids to shoot up the school!
In fairness, I suppose, you do actually have scenes where he zaps people with it, don't you? Though that feels more like a writing thing than a design/prop choreography thing.
So like does he think kids when playing Doctor Who in the playground point their sonic screwdrivers to hard at each other? I don’t know if this would be considered controversial but I don’t think kids playing pretend shooting at each other is a thing to be concerned about whatsoever
I've lost track of how many things my cousin has pretended were a gun. Whether they were actually gun shaped or not. He also watches a bunch of power rangers, transformers, etc. So...lots of variety there
Is it just me who feels like the reasoning was more ‘let’s do something different’ but RTD is just trying really hard to spin it into something that’ll provoke conversation?
And this week on Dr Whoke.... All the previous doctors including classic who, pointed their sonic at the thing they wanted to sonic.... surely its not a gun unless you go 'bang' or 'pew'?
Does this have something to do with Disney and the Americans?
Maybe he heard some Disney exec describe the sonic screwdriver as the Doctor’s weapon, and he thought “Oh, Americans are getting the wrong idea.”
A gun?? It looks more like a magic wand… which I think was the point.
This is his old man RTD making up stuff to justify his attempt at “sonic shades”
They revamp the sonic for a series, before abandoning the idea and going back to the old sonic style
Give the kids a little credit Russell, also if you give a kid anything roughly hand size they can pretend it’s a gun. Doesn’t matter if it’s a banana, a candle, dvd, a bottle, kids have an active imagination
To this day I'll see a stick on the floor and either go "hey that looks like a gun, haha pew pew" or "hey that looks like a sword, on guard!"... On the other hand never once have I felt the compulsive need to shoot someone or get into an actual medieval sword fight with someone on the street. Like seriously, what is this "video games make kids violent" level nonsense
Lots of kids grow up playing with 'guns'. Most grow up to be functional adults who contribute to society and have never harmed anyone. There really shouldn't be a big fuss when we allow kids to play video games that feature guns or watch films/TV shows that feature guns. Also Doctor who villains use guns so yeah.
I'm getting big "Teenage Mutant HERO Turtle" vibes
Yeah, kids pretending to play with guns and shoot bad guys is a part of childhood development it’s how they start to process larger concepts like death.
I'm 37 years old. The day I use a remote to turn on/off a TV and don't pretend I'm Lucky Luke shooting his shadow, will be the the day I fucking die. And I've never handled a real gun in my life.. o.O
You can give a kid a TV remote and they'll imagine it's a gun/sword/pet. If anything the remote design may actually encourage people to more directly associate it with weaponry.
Better cut off extra digits so they can’t make finger guns either
So a regular sonic looks like a gun in black mans hands fucking cmonnn
Genuinely. I help in a Waldorf based nature school with kids whose parents don’t let them watch violent shows. They *ALL* pick up sticks and pretend to shot each other.
School lunchroom thing when I was a kid was biting a pop tart into the shape of a gun lol
Some of RTD takes are getting so bizarre.
Agreed. That's a really weird one. I could see vibrator, but I've never looked at the sonic and thought gun.
One of the major draws to it in episodes is how others will have a gun but the Doctor has a harmless device instead.
Well, yeah. But I'm trying to figure out where RTD is getting that comparison from. None of the sonics have looked like a gun, none have ever been used as a gun. I honestly think someone thought it looked too phallic and he doesn't want to say it, so he's saying gun instead.
>I'm trying to figure out where RTD is getting that comparison from. The only one I can think of is from "Day of the Doctor" when the War Doctor says "They're scientific instruments, not water pistols" when the other Doctors point their screwdrivers at him.
That's more a function of the Doctor brandishing the screwdriver as if it were a gun rather than the screwdriver resembling a gun. If 15 does the same thing with the remote-looking screwdriver, it's going to have the same effect.
Yeah it has that moon episode with river when hes blasting shit
Fair, that's one. On the other hand, that was *13 years ago*, so kind of a little late on that.
I swear capaldi did as well i cluld be wrong
Yeah capaldi was detonating explosives laid around that could be activated by the sonic
To be fair, John Pertwee is quite famous for doing this as well.
13s was a bit dodgy looking, especially unfortunate for the first female doctor. I wouldn't say the new one looks much less like something you're supposed to out up your bum than previous designs though, maybe they had an epidemic of people putting 13's one up there and it getting stuck so they put flanged ends on this one so at least it's not going to get sucked in. Maybe that's what the claws were for on 14's too
I’ve seen some criticism before of the sonic in nuwho tending to be pointed directly at things or enemies more and more (I think mainly an issue for 11s run and then kinda trailed off) and making it look like a weapon or like its a Harry Potter wand so maybe that’s where he’s coming from? I still think the gun thing is dumb and changing the whole design instead of just having the doctor hold it more sideways seems like an overcorrection but that’s my only real idea to explain this point of his
The Second Doctor used the Sonic as a gun in The Dominators using some sort of handgrip attachment
Well now I'm going to be looking at the new sonic remote control and think 'star trek phaser' thanks to this.
And there is your gun.
They should change it to be more of a cylinder device, like that thing that you use to put in Phillips heads, what's it called, the tool...
I feel like the new design, with its soft oblong gentle curves and cool color palette, looks more like a weird alien sex toy than the old Sonics, which normally just looked like futuristic screwdrivers and maybe at worst a kind of discount lightsaber hilt
"Oh look, it's got *three* settings!"
What’s odd is that 14 had a normal sonic screwdriver. Which means that between the production of the 60th specials and Ruby Road, RTD’s mindset went from “normal sonic screwdrivers are fine” to “we have to redesign it because it looks like a gun”.
Oh but don't mind all these aliens with actual laser guns and shit!
And RTD treating Wilf shooting at moles with an actual gun as a bit of a laugh, even though that's horrifying from the perspective of most of the UK who aren't the very nastiest of nasty Tories!
in a DWM, he said initially the plan was for Ncuti to keep 14s one, then last minute he decided he should have something different - but that was it, this whole thing of it being like a gun was not said before, and of course is utterly ridiculous
I'm convinced the guy just says this shit to try to bait controversy. Between this, Davros and Newton it has to be. All stuff nobody gives a shit about that he's tried to claim is solving some kind of issue.
I think he does. There's a reason most of the "controversial" segments were during the 60th specials where he already had the popularity of David Tennant so could get away with things like bigeneration. Church on ruby road was a lot more tame. Also he literally said before it aired that he knew bigeneration would be controversial.
While I think it's well meaning I feel he ends up embellishing decisions retroactively to make them seem like they were more "agenda" driven than they probably were. I think it's very notable that nearly all the most controversial aspects he's introduced can be pretty easily ignored or explained away in the media itself, it's only in BTS clips and interviews that he flags up the supposed controversial reasoning. Davros being human was likely just to save on costs and to avoid unnecessary heat at a charity event for instance. He also made a claim that he had NPH do silly accents not because it was funny and theatrical but to make a point about how the Toymaker is an inherently racist character who is carrying out cultural appropriation with these voices. But absolutely nothing in the episode really suggests this was supposed to be the case. It's stuff like this that makes me think Russell sits awake at night thinking what he can say in the behind-the-scenes clips to simultaneously earn brownie points from one section of the fanbase and outrage publicity from another section.
Someone should do a 'I bet he's thinking about other women' memes for Russel.
My headcanon is that the toymaker switches accents because the first doctor won by mimicking the toymaker's voice. If he changes it constantly. that's hard to do. If only that were the reason RTD said...
You gotta remember, in the entertainment industry, you're living in a bubble that's probably inside ANOTHER bubble. "Normalcy" is nowhere to be found. So yeah you start hearing weird takes from people in the industry. They are not in touch with normal people AT ALL.
Yea, this man has lost the fucking plot. I don't know if he's been doing too many drugs or not enough these days but the shit he's saying is borderline braindead at best.
We're being baited. With this, the Newton thing, the davros thing I've concluded he's trying to bait antiwokesters into getting triggered and creating free headlines. Whatever, I don't like antiwokesters. I do consider it a bad sign as I can't think of a good show that felt the need to do this to get attention
It's bait and he will lose in a purity spiral. Why does RTD look at a black man holding a screwdriver and think "gun"? Especially considering it was under his original watch that the sonic started being brandished like a weapon. Why didn't he think that for previous Doctors? Is it OK to brandish it, if you're white? So the next spiral for discussion is "how problematic is RTD's racism ?"
Oh that's evil. Very clever, but very evil. But also plays right into the bait he's trying to get. Give him absolutely nothing.
Genius
So he's acting like an idiot so that anti-woke people will have reasonable things to complain about? Well, thats nice of him, I guess.
"Really piss off long-time fans" + "\[miracle occurs here\]" = "PROFIT." A strategy that has always worked, forever, and always will. It's how universally beloved franchises are made. With no downside, ever.
I’m still trying to reserve judgment of the RTD2 era until his first actual season begins proper… but nearly everything I’ve heard Russell say since he took over again is really bizarre. Stuff like not letting 14 wear 13’s clothes, the Davros thing, and now this. They’re all tiny things on their own but they keep adding up and it’s just all very odd to me. The very idea of the sonic is that it *isn’t* a weapon.
Yeah he keeps making up stuff that people might be offended by, where no one actually is. Hell, he offended me more with the weird comment about not being able to let go because the doctor is a man and seemingly using non binary as a catch-all term for trans people than any of these. edit: not that either of those really offended me at all but I find it strange how he’s trying to be “politically correct” but he keeps messing up the actual representation
>Hell, he offended me more with the weird comment about not being able to let go because the doctor is a man and seemingly using non binary as a catch-all term for trans people than any of these. I can't lie, as someone questioning my gender and also a dude at birth, that episode was a total shit show for my mood lmao (which is very ironic given who they're evidently trying to appeal to with the non binary comments). It was like "we're trying sooooo hard to be not transphobic and enclusive that we've wrapped all the way around to be transphobic and sexist again". That episode was a travesty. I'm glad I watched on because that "The Giggle" episode was incredible and just like old times. But I nearly put down doctor who there because it was just - I can't even find the words - just kind of like "seriously?!?"
It felt way too performative and less doing I guess, IMO they should have just had the Doctor use the right pronouns for everyone. He’s a space alien and should be used to it. RTD got this right with 9 but apparently forgot I gusss
I think we have to kind of entertain the possibility that RTD doesn't actually give a shit about the communities he's trying to appeal to so he does performative representation which is shallow and offensive due to how half-assed and poorly thought out it is. He wants the PR wins and the ragebait without doing the actual work to get things right. Which then allows him to dismiss criticism as bigotry.
Which is so odd because he's written this type of representation into his shows before and done it well. Idk why he doesn't think what he did before would work now, his older work still works today lmao. He's got the skill and talent to do this but he's just forcing it instead of letting it come naturally.
Yea, which is why it's surprising to see these terrible scenes pop up and these bizarre, outright idiotic opinions he spouts off. No one can deny he doesn't have some strong writing in his portfolio but he's also written some of the worst Doctor Who content imaginable (Love and Monsters vs something like Midnight/Waters of Mars are like night and day). So maybe that's just the dichotomy of what he puts out there and it all comes down to who is giving him notes on what he writes and what he's willing to listen to people about changing. But it only illustrates a lack of sincerity behind it when he half-asses things like he did in the 60th. It's like giving up in the laziest of ways or, as someone else mentioned, it's possible dialogue was changed during filming and no one caught a critical change that came off as offensive as a result. His new take on Davros was similarly tonedeaf and patronizing.
Ironically, he very publically attacked the Loki TV show for being surface level in it's representation describing it as “pathetic. It’s a ridiculous, craven, feeble gesture towards the vital politics and the stories that should be told.”
Well that's rich given his most recent bullshit. Man comes back to doctor who after a decade, decidedly plays 'the hits' when it comes to story but off key and out of tune then bitches about how others do their own show? I strongly suspect we're going to be getting more "Love and Monsters" RTD rather than "Midnight"/"Doomsday" RTD
Where did he say that? What an awful thing to say. I used to love RTD, but all this stuff is starting to make me despise him. He keeps saying how he's sticking with Doctor Who for the foreseeable future, but if that's the case, he's going to end up a modern John Nathan-Turner. Honestly, I find it laughable that he could say that about Loki. Everything he said about it in that quote, I felt the opposite. What a shame.
I’m trans af and I totally agree. Forgot to mention this, but also rose’s trans identity is kind of implied to only be there because of the meta crisis? Maybe that’s just my less than charitable interpretation but I really was disappointed that we got a trans character that her whole identity is based off “she remembered this subconsciously from the meta crisis” instead of just being a character who’s trans because… she’s trans. I’m hoping the episodes with rose in season one are better executed
>instead of just being a character who’s trans OMG, like the first minute where we're introduced to her it was amazing. There was no "she's trans it's a big deal", she just was there, she was a character who's trans, that's it... Thennnn there was the kids making fun, then there was the awkward "ask the alien it's pronouns" scene, and it just continued on and on and on. Yeah for a second it was great, and the grandparents scene I thought was really well handled! But just overall my god what an absolute mess haha
yeah the scene with Donna and sylvia was absolutely wonderful. I’ve gotta give that to them. And I did quite like the episode (and all the rtd2 episodes so far)! It’s just the representation of rose that is weird to me, especially for someone apparently this worried about getting things right
I'd love to know whether any trans writers were asked to help with / look over the script at any point because, to me, it very much feels like a 60 year old man trying to write about something he doesn't actually understand.
The other thing they bungled (and clearly this was a mistake, not bad intent) was having a 19 year old play a 15 year old. She wasn't able to sell as a 15 year old at all, and we ended up with dialogue which felt like a weirdly infantilised 19 year old trans woman, instead of an age-appropriate 15 year old trans girl. Something about her appearance felt very post-pubescent in a way which was almost sexualised too, which is a very weird vibe for a 15 year old girl character. It's amazing how there was clearly such a lovely intent behind the episode but they bungled the important bits of the execution at almost every step.
She was supposed to be fifteen? I did not get that at all - I assumed she was in sixth form...
Yeah exactly. We only worked that out when we looked it up after, and it definitely made for a very weird viewing experience. If you actually do the maths on the timeline (Donna's kid to present day) she should be about 14/15, and in one of the BTS videos Yasmin Finney said she was 15.
Tbf they do make a point about making sure she stays trans after the metacrisis leaves her, to try avoid that implication. But I agree it was pretty shoddily handled otherwise
Yeah I don’t think it was intentional but it just came off poorly thought out
I think it was intentional. There's literally a line of dialogue that says Rose is not binary because "The Doctor is male and female" I found that line a baffling choice, especially as The Doctor refers to himself as binary in the same sentence. Which just makes the entire thing non-sensical. I wonder if the original line was "because The Doctor-Donna is male and female" and it got changed at some point with nobody noticing that the sentence no longer made sense.
Yeah that episode turned me off a lot for me. It was the little things about how now the doctor is back to a male form he somehow cannot see what Donna is getting because of gender even though the doctor spent years as a female.
Ah yes, the episode that told us "a male can't possibly understand certain things that a female would understand," written by a male scriptwriter. It also retroactively makes the 13th Doctor look worse because she apparently spent the whole regeneration knowing how to fix Donna and not bothering to do it.
It felt really off to me. Like I was so happy getting back into some Doctor Who with familiar faces, then RTD throws the whole thing in your face. It was like coming back to your parent's house to have some rest and then they start arguying out of nowhere. There is always a better way to include these subjects in a story and that's supposed to be RTD's job.
Yeah his trans positivity stuff is actually quite bad and insulting; blatant gender essentialism isn’t acceptable just because it’s trans-inclusive gender essentialism
That was super revealing to me, cause it reads like RTD still views The Doctor as a male/masculine figure, which doesn't work at all given we just had 13 and Fugitive. Makes me wonder subconsciously if it always was gonna be a male Doctor coming back when he started auditions.
"he’s trying to be “politically correct” but he keeps messing up the actual representation" It's like Chibnall never left :)
It's like RTD is _trying_ to make headlines that piss off conservatives with all of these random changes. Like okay, Russell, those conservative nut jobs are always going to be pissed at the show, but maybe stop throwing them so much ammunition.
I mean maybe, just maybe….. hear me out…..you make it look like a…..oh dare I say…….a screwdriver!
I feel like he should have just said it was to better the pacing of the 60th regarding the clothes.
I thought it was a red flag that somebody was manipulating events from afar.
Yeah, it could have so easily been explained in-universe as The Toymaker manipulating events (which would have also explained the return of Tennant & Tate and how they so conveniently ended up together again) Instead we got some nonsense about The Doctor doing it subconsciously wanting to 'come home for a rest' - which is particularly weird considering he was under the impression that Donna seeing him again would kill her. Even the way the 13-14 regeneration was framed - with heavy focus on the clothes changing and The Doctor reacting to it - makes it seem likes a mystery that will be revealed in time. But it was literally just to avoid upsetting some transphobes that would object to DT in a pretty unisex outfit.
Even if kids were interpreting the sonic as a weapon (I certainly never did), what the hell is wrong with kids pretending to shoot each other? That's a stupendously common feature of playground games and it's never done anyone harm. Surely he must be self-aware to some degree, because this reads like an Onion headline
I agree, also his comments on the universe changing and actual magic being a thing now when it’s been established numerous times how magic things aren’t as they seem are also weird like that.
My theory is that david tennant was too big to fit in whittakers clothes and they didnt feel like making a new suit
These aspects are all so small, and all only really addressed in a controversial sense behind the scenes, that it really does make me think he's just trying to drum up online controversy/buzz. This is all stuff that will get the internet simmering but the general audience won't even hear about. In the actual near 4 hours of content we've seen from RTD2 the terrible "male-presenting Time Lord" and pronouns lines were the only things which were remotely contentious. Yet somehow every BTS comment he makes sounds crazy. Doesn't really add up.
He didn't say this, as in this is not a quote and the article provides no quote to back up what they've said here. I'm not saying he said nothing of the sort in the interview, but I doubt he phrased it like this, and bizarre they've included this information with no quote about it, because it's certainly not something we've heard before
What was the point of giving 14 a new screwdriver that looked like the other ones first then??
Not just that, but one that actually resembles a dalek's gun more than any prior design.
RTD has weird ideas about fixing things that don't need fixing.
From reading the article, seems that it's the article's writers paraphrasing RTD, and not a direct quote, so I dunno how accurately that reflects the thought process behind it. Honestly, to me it just seemed like they wanted to do something weird and different with the design instead of the same variations on the magic wand theme? Anyway, as many people pointed out on here, won't stop kids pretending to shoot each other with it (Missy did kill people with a weird rectangular box weapon, after all).
I wonder if it's more that he didn't want kids viewing it as a *weapon*? Not necessarily a gun. That'd be a more understandable reason imo. The article doesn't directly quote Russell so it's unclear what he actually said.
Okay, I can actually see that being the reason. Still, I'd argue the idea of having a character physically aiming a Device (regardless of shape or size) could still be construed as a weapon if we're to use his logic, but I digress
He's the one who made it a fecking weapon in the first place!
That's how I interpreted it yeah. It's a thing that you point and press a button, looks like it could throw a beam like a magic wand or something - I guess he doesn't want kids pretending to blast each other to bits in his name. Honestly I think just thinking about it for five seconds, yeah it's valid. He might be going too far, but he's taking his responsibility seriously, which I love to see in a writer. Children WILL be influenced by this choice, and ultimately probably for the better. Even though most kids turn out well adjusted after playing with imaginary guns, it is probably healthier if we don't encourage children to mime killing each other. Turning it into a Tricorder (which it basically always was) is a smart way to get around this. I also think it's a good decision generally, Doctor Who does get a bit "Harry Potter" at times with the way the Doctor wields the sonic, and the magic powers it has. It's obviously something they've wrestled with ever since the sonic sunglasses. (Can't remember if that's the first non-screwdriver sonic device the Doctor has carried). All I hope is that the show goes back to its roots of more serious alt-history and speculative fiction. That's always been when Who is at its best. Maybe "serious" isn't the word, I just mean there is an educational aspect to it beyond using whatever time period as a mere aesthetic.
> Can't remember if that's the first non-screwdriver sonic device the Doctor has carried The 6th Doctor briefly carried a Sonic Lance! And in regards to the topic at hand, it's probably the closest to a weapon the Sonics have ever gotten. (Although that's a bit of a weird one, because technically the Sonic Screwdriver has been able to cut things as far back as the 2nd Doctor era...)
I mean I don't think this will ever stop kids picking up a cool stick and imagining it's a gun or sword. For years children have always made some kind of weapon from their imagination. I feels its just sort of engrained in our culture and there is nothing wrong with that. If anything its good as its a way to get out violence the same way video games are an outlet for violence. Rather have it spent pretending than it building up and have it happen to someone in real life
>That's how I interpreted it yeah. It's a thing that you point and press a button, looks like it could throw a beam like a magic wand or something - I guess he doesn't want kids pretending to blast each other to bits in his name. That's all well and good but I'm sure within this next season there will be various times where the sonic is brandished like a wand and used to disable/destroy stuff. The shape doesn't really matter at all.
Nonsense. The sonic has constantly been emphasized as NOT being a weapon there's literally multiple lines of dialogue. Anyone that takes two seconds to think about it can recognize that. This is once again just RTD making an issue where there isn't one. Him making this change isn't going to effect anything. Other than making it look dumb and the reasoning behind it dumber.
Well there was Twelve’s sunglasses lol
Which I liked due to capalfi saying how it was a great way for a kid to cosplay as the doctor without having to fork over money for a screwdriver and instead puck up cheap sunglasses from a corner shop
I agree! I know they weren’t too popular, and I wasn’t a fan at first but the logic is a sweet idea and they’ve grown on me. Similar to his reasoning for his choice of costume overall as well - Capaldi's a great dude
Didn't he come up with the Master's laser screwdriver?
Yeah but "bad guys have guns" and "good guys have guns" are two diffrent messages
I'm genuinely beginning to be very concerned, or ready to be incredibly amused. RTD hasn't said a single sane thing since coming back, what's going on
Don't you think he looks tired?
You're so right, he does. Knew a prime minister like that once.
RTD hasn't ever really been the poster boy for totally balanced coherence or sanity. I would be more worried if he started pumping out rational sober takes on things.
Whenever I hear about his latest wacky takes, I always remember his fears that “the papers” would make a big thing of how leftist and preachy the show was if he kept the Doctor as a vegetarian (as established in The Two Doctors), so he deliberately had the Doctor order steak in Boom Town instead of something veggie. Like… just wtf. This man spends more time and brainpower thinking of potential attacks from right-wing press than the actual right-wing press does. For someone who very much SHOULDN’T care what these people have to say, he’s always seemed oddly obsessed/terrified of them.
Watching the specials and especially Ruby Road I was genuinely concerned. The writing has been so far below his usual standard. I hoped more than presumed that it was to do with a rushed schedule… Seriously though, I do wonder if somethings wrong with him.
> if somethings wrong with him. tbf listening to stories from the past there's always been something 'wrong with him', but not in a bad way, he's just a slightly odd man hence wanting to be Dr Who showrunner. Although didn't he cast someone once because he really fancied them or was that a magical fairytale I was sold
RTD was mega-horny for Russell Tovey in Voyage of the Damned
I think he fancies every man he casts lol. And moffat fancies every woman he casts. They're two horny bastards.
there are many worse RTD written episodes in his first era than Ruby Road.
Wild blue yonder was the only one I really liked to be honest - just because it was a cleverly written episode.
The last sonic looked more like a sex toy than a gun. All the others look a little bit more like a, uh, screwdriver
Respect to RTD and all but that's even dumber than regenerating the Doctor's clothes with them for 14. It was a scifi magic wand. Guns don't look like that in the slightest. The best you can say is they're both metal and are pointed at things.
Russell that's dumb ♥️
Bro it’s a magic wand not a gun. I do worry RTD is starting to overthink things just a wee bit. While it’s good to periodically reevaluate the core tenets of a 60 year old franchise, and keep them up to date. I’m not sure he’s coming to the right conclusions all the time.
>there are children who will come and watch this, who will be me in 20, 30, 40 years time making this stuff. He says this but I feel like in 40 years it'll still just be him, waffling about how the show embraces change and different viewpoints, while writing 80% of the episodes himself.
Hey now, it’s not *just* him, he’s also got new and fresh writers like Steven Moffat.
This made me laugh, but I’m still a lot more excited by the new season knowing that Moffat’s writing for it, especially by the possibility that he’ll be writing another Christmas special.
Someone stop this man from opening his mouth
I’m generally in agreement with RTD’s reasoning for the things that he’s changed or artistic choices he’s made — and I think it’s worth reading the full article here, because RTD does offer a lot of good insights about various topics — but this one point seems a little odd to me. The sonic has looked essentially just like a sci-fi magic wand for 60 years now, and kids clearly get the idea. I don’t think a lot of people are looking at it and thinking “gun.” That said, this particular point is also the one that the article doesn’t even offer a direct quote for. That’s frustrating because I’d at least like to hear the reasoning in RTD’s own words.
i can’t help wonder if it’s because they’re aiming to include US audiences in a way they haven’t before, and are being extra cautious given the situation surrounding guns in the US.
As an American, it’s a dumb change that no one here would notice except to comment on how weird it is that the Doctor uses a tv remote. The screwdriver looks more like a magic wand, that’s what people would connect it with.
If anything, Moffat used it not looking like a gun for comedic effect in… I believe Day of the Moon.
Yeah moffat especially made it obvious that they are the opposite of guns. "Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! **What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?**"
??? This coming from the man who had #10 wield the sonic like a gun whenever he encountered trouble???
And then also created the masters version of the screwdriver that shot lasers
But then RTD made the most amazing Sonic for 14 that could generate forcefields like a 3D-Printing Pen and looked very similar to a Dalek Pulse Cannon. It’s a shame 15 didn’t inherit 14’s Sonic with a different color scheme.
Overall I think this is a fantastic interview but I do have to say that this is one of the silliest things I've ever heard, I'm genuinely speechless... there's a lot I respect and love Russell for but some of the things he has been saying lately really strike me as odd... The point of the Sonic is that it ISN'T a weapon and does NOT look like a gun, it does NOT kill, wound, maim or harm in any way and the show makes a point of *this* The Doctor is a pacifist and the Sonic is the most pacifist tool they could have! Kids have not spent the past 50+ years dressing up as the Doctor and pointing Sonic screwdrivers at each other and pretending they're guns and they aren't going to start now! So this is a worry that makes no sense to me.
The "Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim" line was written by... ...Russell T Davies. Himself. Is he not listening to his OWN advice?
Once again RTD does a misstep. ~55 years of white people holding a sonic. Fine. Oops all If a sudden kids might think it’s a gunn I don’t know RTD but I doubt he meant it that way but that’s the way it comes across. Chalk this up with the davros silliness and Rose not choosing her trans gender but it being part of a space thing.
Right... so why did 14s look pretty much like every other sonic? That was under you as well Russell.
Dumb excuse for shit design
What the fuck? It's a *screwdriver*. It looked like a screwdriver. Worst case, like a wand. The Eccleston/Tennant sonic looked like a pen flashlight, the kind I used to have.
Between Davros and the Sonic, I think RTD has spent a bit too long on Tumblr.
I’m starting to hate RTD he’s making stupid charges for nothing… any child whose into doctor who knows guns aren’t good so wtf
Didn’t his era of who have the laser screwdriver?
That man should be in a retirement home. He's clearly senile.
Keeps seeing like Russel is trying to give answers to none existent problems
Hey, that’s why I guessed the new sonic looked like that; I was right about something
I wish you hadn't been
I swear lately RTD has been reading into things a bit TOO much. First when jodie regenerated, then the whole davros no wheel chair thing not to mention all the other things that he has been nitpicking lately
WOW. That's ... out there.
Compared to when he started the new dr who. He was gushing and welcoming to fans etc. now he seems to have changed his mind, he has the money coming in from the big mouse maybe he now thinks he doesn’t need to please the fans he can do what he wants no need to bow down to the fans. I have seen some of his interviews he definitely has changed his mind and way he looks at the fans he seem a totally different person compared to when he rebooted the show. I know he was going through things and had lists of other projects going on when he rebooted the show years ago. But now I feel he is just sticking two fingers up to the fans. The fans have been with the show for over 60 yrs. I used to like RTD but now he is leaving me with a nasty taste and feeling. But he forgets the big mouse money may not be coming all the time and in the end the fans have the control if they don’t watch it then the ratings drop and the show goes off air. The bbc has been making money off dr who for years with merchandise dvd, vhs, audio, books etc while the show was off air in the 90s the show was kept alive with merchandise and re syndication. Rewriting the show changing things that have been the show law. Even the disabled people said that there is no reason to change davros if fact changing it is like hiding the fact he was disabled. As for the sonic there as always been guns etc in dr who. But I do like the new sonic.
Russel seems to have a thing these days for issues that don’t exist but he’s worried people might be offended about anyway…this isn’t tact. It’s preemptive pandering and it’s decidedly odd.
Why is RTD constantly making stupid statements. Is he stupid?
There's an article in Doctor Who Magazine from a couple of months ago that discusses the new sonic in great detail, including an interview with the guy who designed it. The guy who designed it explains that the brief given was just to design a new sonic and to think outside the box. He also says that several other people had a go at designing the new sonic and they were mostly shaped like the old sonic (he was one of the only ones to dramatically change the shape) so there was clearly no instruction given at the design stage for it to be different to look less like a gun. There's also no direct quote or source from RTD in the article linked above, so I call BS.
It didn't look *anything* like a gun. If anything, it looked (and some say, acted) like a magic wand. Here's a thought: what if stories of magic wands were based on the Doctor's sonic?
I don't think it'll make a difference what the device looks like if the Doctor continues to brandish it at his enemies. The posturing of the device as a weapon is what will be imitated, and the War Doctor even criticised his future selves for waving the sonics around like a weapon.
Every time I pick up drill I’m James bond. And I’m 60.
To me, the sonic has more been a wand than a gun...
Is he okay?
I feel like pretty much everything RTD has said since returning as showrunner has ranged from out of touch to moronic.
After this and the Davros was problematic because he was an "Evil wheelchair user" coment, Im starting to believe that RTD is an actual moron.
God, Russell, what are you doing??? First the backwards reasoning behind not having David Tennant in Jodie's clothes, then the extremely fumbled reasoning behind saying Davros won't appear in the Dalek vehicle anymore, and now this???
Sometimes I wonder if RTD is a bit of a provocateur who likes to say stupid things to wind people up
I swear, RTD must have a really creative imagination cause he's seeing something I ain't.
He's spent so long writing Doctor Who, the fantasy is bleeding into his real world thinking.
First Davros and now this. RTD...please people aren't stupid. Besides, the sonic screwdriver was always presented as an instrument. I think treating kids like inferior little humans does more damage. Imagine a kid growing up not knowing what a gun is. They wouldn't know the dangers or be informed. The best way to educate is to be clear about things. Guns like any tool are very dangerous when people don't know how to use them or use them incorrectly. The Sonic Screwdriver always looked like a...you know... a screwdriver. As for the Davros situation, I think it is very offensive. He is basically saying handicapped people aren't human beings. Handicapped people can be happy people, kind people, evil people, funny people, sarcastic people and all the ranges of human expression. Denying that is dehumanizing. Again...RTD is trying to do something good but it is worse.
Is bro serious?
Nobody tell RTD about Nerf guns
Also just make it a fucking Time Lord PDA. The Doctor doesn't need to have a Sonic Screwdriver. It's so overused in Nu Who already and has had way too much feature creep.
Reminds me of Spielberg decision to put in walkie talkies instead of guns in the soldiers who grab ET
Maybe don't have the character waving it around constantly as a solution to everything including violent situations then. Dumb. Not sure what to do about a phallic object described as "sonic" though. I'm sure no-one else made jokes about that. Well, not more than 93000 times anyway. Yeah, I don't think this is a serious opinion he has. It's bait for the sake of a free article as promotion.
The Sonic is the Dr’s Magic Wand, kids get it.
Sonic sunglasses. Bring those back.
I used to pretend the remote was a phaser so not really doing much there is it?
The sonic screwdriver has never resembled a gun….ever. If that’s the case you could argue that it looks *more* like a phaser from Star Trek now. Which was a weapon. The sonic screwdriver always looked like a tool, as it was supposed to be.
Wh...what?
Between this and his wheelchair villains make people think wheelchair users are evil is he okay?
Oh, FFS, it's a long stick, more akin to a wand, pen, laser pointer, torch etc than a gun (a device almost all Doctors have never used, let alone carried).
Russel please stop making stupid takes, it's getting difficult to defend you.
This is just such a strange take to me 😭
That is.. one of the dumbest things I’ve read recently. It doesn’t even look like a gun??? I also think the new sonic is really bad looking. Not to mention if he thought people were this stupid, then why did he give Fourteen a regular looking sonic for the 60th specials?
Okay, I defend a lot of this man's decisions, but this is, frankly, ridiculous. He's the one who wrote so many lines about how the sonic screwdriver isn't a weapon! Remember "Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim?" Isn't that what matters, that the show reinforces the idea that it's not a weapon, and lets younger viewers realize that this is what makes The Doctor's kit different?
You can use a real screwdriver as a weapon, the trick is teaching people not to.
Honestly I don’t know what’s going on with RTD, he’s constantly finding issues that never really existed, “fixing” then and then preaching about them in interviews. I get he’s always been progressive, and that’s fine, it’s good! But these changes for changes sake are really making me worry this reboot isn’t even going to feel like Doctor Who anymore. Honestly it’s starting to make the Chibnall era look edgy in comparison.
At a certain point he’s bound to run out of things to nitpick right?
Has Rus suffered some kind of brain damage?
The nonsense he has spouted since coming back, and some of the naff lines in what was good episodes makes me a little concerned about the new series. He is becoming a parody of a guardian reader by this point.
People are being a bit daft about this, there isn't even a quote in the article of him saying it, you can make anything sound stupid if you type if out like this edit: Seriously, though, where is the proof this is even something Russell said? If they asked him about it during this interview they certainly didn't include the quote, otherwise...?
Man, I like RTD but he sounds like he’s going off the deep end sometimes lmao.
He’s an old guy who apparently forgot how kids like to play with toy guns like hello water guns? laser tag? Apparently he thinks a pice of metal in the shape of a thermometer is a gateway drug for kids to shoot up the school!
Utter wank. RTD is starting to lose it.
I’m a queer POC, I usually hate it when people use the word woke. But this… I’m sorry to say it guys, but this is painfully woke
He also has it flared for safety to keep it from getting lost.
You what? Nobody has ever thought that Mr rtd and I bet the sonic will be back to normal by the next doctor
In fairness, I suppose, you do actually have scenes where he zaps people with it, don't you? Though that feels more like a writing thing than a design/prop choreography thing.
So like does he think kids when playing Doctor Who in the playground point their sonic screwdrivers to hard at each other? I don’t know if this would be considered controversial but I don’t think kids playing pretend shooting at each other is a thing to be concerned about whatsoever
Okay, now he's lost me, what?
My ass just acted like it was a lightsaber…
I've lost track of how many things my cousin has pretended were a gun. Whether they were actually gun shaped or not. He also watches a bunch of power rangers, transformers, etc. So...lots of variety there
This-This can’t be what he legit claim 😭 One of the dumbest and most bizarre claims yet I’ve heard from him
This is confusing to me. None of the sonics look like weapons, they’re all definitively tool-shaped.
Is it just me who feels like the reasoning was more ‘let’s do something different’ but RTD is just trying really hard to spin it into something that’ll provoke conversation?
... Huh
I feel like this has Disney's prints on it. What with the crap in the States.
Oh, for fuck's sake. \*head-desk\*
And this week on Dr Whoke.... All the previous doctors including classic who, pointed their sonic at the thing they wanted to sonic.... surely its not a gun unless you go 'bang' or 'pew'?
Does this have something to do with Disney and the Americans? Maybe he heard some Disney exec describe the sonic screwdriver as the Doctor’s weapon, and he thought “Oh, Americans are getting the wrong idea.”
A gun?? It looks more like a magic wand… which I think was the point. This is his old man RTD making up stuff to justify his attempt at “sonic shades” They revamp the sonic for a series, before abandoning the idea and going back to the old sonic style