Ncuti Gatwa is the Fifteenth Doctor and he’s exploring all of time and space with his new companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) in the fourteenth season of Doctor Who. The duo met during the Christmas Special when they rescued a baby from the grasp of hungry goblins and connected over their pasts both being abandoned as children. The Doctor is intrigued by the mystery surrounding Ruby’s origins which he witnessed during the Christmas Special, but there is something deeper going on with the universe as they face foes beyond the usual alien foes.

Russell T. Davies has returned to lead this new chapter of Doctor Who after initially rebooting the series in 2005. Gatwa and Gibson lead the new Doctor Who season with fantastic guest stars set to appear, including Jinkx Monsoon and Jonathan Groff. The mystery of Ruby Sunday will be a large part of the new season, but Davies has also promised new villains instead of leaning into the classic monsters.

Screen Rant interviewed Russell T. Davies about the new season of Doctor Who. He explained how he came back and why he was excited about this new chapter, including the mystery of Ruby Sunday. Davies shared his desire to fully explore fantasy in Doctor Who and how the new villains, starting with the Toymaker, have allowed him to fully dive into this genre.

Russell T. Davies Was Never Done With Doctor Who

Davies explained what drew him back, revealing that while he did what he set out to accomplish when he rebooted the series in 2005 he never felt truly done with Doctor Who. He also shared how the BBC convinced him to return and what he is excited to explore with this new chapter that sets it apart from past seasons.

Russell T. Davies: Yeah, I wanted to come back because I agreed with the BBC’s ambition for the show, which is to make it bigger, to make it a streamer, to go worldwide with it. Also, I’ve missed it. I love it. During the years when I was writing other shows, I’d always be asked that, Would you ever write for Doctor Who again? And I’d just very politely say, No, never.

Because that’s the only nice thing you could say when someone else is sitting in your chair. I’m calling in my chair, that’s cheeky, but I’d never stopped thinking about it. I faithfully trapes into town every fourth Thursday and by a Doctor Who magazine. I love that thing. I’ve got every single edition of that magazine since 1979 in a cupboard in my house. So that’s someone who’s never given up a Doctor Who.

So coming back to it would be a choice not to repeat myself. I don’t think there was ever anything in the old days that I didn’t achieve because I had a wild time. I had some of the greatest ratings of my entire life. It was so successful. It was brilliant, but I wanted it to be new again. I wanted to have an energy that would push it forward. I thought it was important that it feels like 2024 on screen and at the same time the BBC cooked up a plan to take it to Disney Plus.

To make it a big worldwide stream, whether it would drop every day, that was their plan. But it just so happened that was a plan I absolutely agreed with. They kind of Shanghai me into a Zoom call that I thought was just going to be a nice little happy little celebration of Doctor Who 60th, where suddenly the head of the BBC appeared on this call. I thought, That’s strange. Aren’t you busy running a worldwide empire?

And it was a trap to run the potential future of Doctor Who passed me and ask me to whether I come back and run it. But it was only a trap in the sense that they knew me well enough to know I absolutely agreed with everything they were planning. Everything there were planning I was in immediately. Here we are and I do think it’s the right thing to do.

Davies also teased the larger mystery surrounding Ruby Sunday including what inspired the storyline and why he wanted to include Davina McCall in the Christmas Special. He also promised, “Big answers are on their way. Shocking answers.”

Russell T. Davies: It’s a new one for me to actually bring a companion with such a strong story. We’ve always had great characters, and we’ve always been blessed with the greatest of actors, but the TARDIS with the Doctor tends to be the start of their journey. Actually, Ruby’s story has been going on since she was born, and we’ve seen this. We’ve seen a baby abandoned on a church doorstep in the snow on Christmas Eve. It’s quite a shock to realize that it’s 2004 because she’s so young. 2004 sounds like yesterday to me; I always have to pause and think about that day, thinking, “Ruby’s so young.” We actually talk about that in the penultimate episode. The fact that it’s not Dickensian, there’s not a fairy tale here. It actually happened in 2004.

But she’s a mystery. There’s an unashamed mystery about who is her mother, who is her father. It’s something that I was very interested in. I watched There’s a very great British show called Long Lost Family hosted by Davina McCall. We got her into The Church on Ruby Road; she’s a very famous British TV presenter, and she hosts this show that started doing stories about foundlings because now, for the first time in history, foundlings can be traced through DNA. That’s a whole raft of people, who’ve never had any hope of tracing their family, suddenly finding that their family can be found by the press of a computer button.

I love that stuff. I would’ve written a drama about that no matter what. Then you put that into a Doctor Who setting, and suddenly you’re thinking, “Who is Ruby’s mother? Who is the father? Is there a grander story at play here? What a mystery.” It just comes alive. I’ve loved that, and Millie has risen to the challenge of hitting that epic story so beautifully. Great fun to be had. Answers are coming, don’t worry. I’m not going to do that vague science fiction thing of going, “Oh, we might find out one day…” Big answers are on their way. Shocking answers.

“Wild Forces Are At Work In The Universe” On Doctor Who Season 14

While the new season of Doctor Who will introduce new villains and monsters longtime fans have no need to fear because his love for the classics hasn’t diminished. Part of what excited him about these villains, which began with the Toymaker from the classic Doctor Who era, is the opportunity to fully bring Doctor Who into the fantasy genre instead of fantasy with a science fiction twist.

Russell T. Davies: We might always return to the classic iconic monsters, but not yet because with a new Doctor and new Companion, I want new threats. I simply wanted to expand the scale of the threat. As you can see when you watch my old Doctor Who [episodes], I love it when the scale gets epic, like Titanic. There’s nothing I love more than vast armies of Daleks threatening the Doctor, but you’ve got to find new ways to do that. You can only use the phrase “vast armies” so many times, and you’ve got to look for something new. I wanted to stretch the program in new directions. Everything I’m talking about, its energy and its wildness, I wanted to fit onto the villains as well.

Just stepping into fantasy felt like a very natural direction. It’s always been on the edge of Doctor Who. You could not be closer to Narnia than with Doctor Who. In Narnia, you step through a door in a wardrobe into a magical land. That’s a wooden door, and in Doctor Who, the wooden door, is the TARDIS. It’s always been very, very close to that kind of thing. It’s had werewolves. I’ve written a werewolf into Doctor Who with a vague hand wave, saying, “Yes, it’s a lupine alien-like form.” Let’s be honest, it’s just a werewolf. And that’s one of the best episodes we ever did. I love that episode.

It’s always had little nods towards making a science fictional sense of fantasy elements, and I just decided to start dropping the nods and not even pretending that there’s any rational exposure to this. Wild forces are at work in the universe manifesting themselves into the shape of Neil Patrick Harris and Jinx Monsoon. Who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want that? I can promise you more Gods to come as well. We have not finished with this.

About Doctor Who Season 14

The Doctor and Ruby travel through time and space on adventures to unknown lands, to the Regency era in England, to outer space worlds and the Sixties.

Check out our other Doctor Who series 14 interviews:

• Ncuti Gatwa
• Nucti Gatwa & Millie Gibson

Source: Screen Rant Plus