The Stage

Transcending Time Lords - Russell T Davies on writing Doctor Who

Published Friday 27 November 2009 at 12:45 by Douglas McPherson

As he is about to step down from his role at the helm of Doctor Who, writer-producer Russell T Davies reveals the mad world of scriptwriting to Douglas McPherson and how it led to transforming into his latest book

The scene is a car, speeding through London. In the back is one of TV’s biggest writer-producers. Literally biggest. In his early forties, wearing a dark suit and tie, and big, thick-rimmed glasses, he’s beaming and bursting with more energy than a Dalek’s death ray. Asked what qualities he looks for in new writers, Russell T Davies doesn’t hesitate: “I’m looking for handsome ones.”

Four years ago, Davies was responsible for regenerating Doctor Who from a decade-dead laughing stock to arguably the most loved and talked about show on television. As Davies prepares to stand down and hand the series to a new team, his book The Writer’s Tale reveals that scripting the top-rated time-travel show required a lot more than simply typing “Exterminate!” every couple of pages.

Hailed by author Philip Pullman as, “A treasury of wit, truthfulness and good, sound storytelling sense”, The Writer’s Tale offers an unparalleled insight into the torrid heart of the creative process - and the even stormier mind of its creator.

“Writing isn’t just a job that stops at 6.30pm,” says Davies. “It’s a mad, sexy, sad, scary, obsessive, ruthless, joyful and utterly personal thing. There’s not the writer and then me - there’s just me. All of my life connects to the writing. All of it.”

And that’s just the blurb on the cover.

The inspiration for The Writer’s Tale came from Davies’ co-author, the journalist Benjamin Cook. Having reported from the Cardiff set of Doctor Who since the new series began, Cook had the idea for an article following Davies through the writing of a single episode, from conception to final edit. Such was the enthusiasm with which Davies threw himself into the project that the emails between him and Cook grew into a two-inch thick, £30 hardback covering the writing of an entire season.

The paperback version, which comes out in the new year with the title The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter, has been expanded with even more material to cover the entirety of Davies’ time at the helm of the show.

Many fans who bought the hardback are expected to cough up for the new version, with The Guardian hailing it as, “The Doctor Who annual for adults”.

Looking back to Cook’s original proposal for the book, Davies says: “I just liked the idea immediately. I get increasingly cross with the way scriptwriting is talked about. All the books are about the ABC of it, structure and formal language, and nobody ever talks about the ideas - how to get them out of your head and on to paper.

“Also, you should always do things you’ve never done before and I’d never shown pages of a script to anyone as I wrote them. I’d never talked about the formation of ideas.”

But, seeing as he talks throughout the book about the frustration of Doctor Who storylines and cast changes being leaked to the press, wasn’t he worried that he was nightly emailing wodges of freshly written script to, well, a journalist? The big man’s response is a typically enormous peal of laughter.

Mostly written at two or three in the morning, the email exchanges that make up The Writer’s Tale offer a thrilling, unedited commentary on the writer’s work as it happens. We see characters created that will never be used because of last-minute cast changes and scenes written that will be cut to meet budgets. We even meet the formidable BBC Wales head of fiction and drama Julie Gardner, “running about in her bra and knickers”.

“Actually it was a camisole,” says Davies. “I had to ask.”

And you’ll have to read the book to discover the circumstances.

Most of all, Davies shares the small-hours angst of sitting in front of a blank screen with shooting starting the next day: “Try being a nurse or a teacher, people say. No - try being a writer. Try sitting with every doubt and fear about yourself and everyone, all on your own, with no ending or help or conclusion…”

Again, that’s just the blurb on the cover.

In person, Davies says: “It might sound in some of the emails as if I’m moaning away at three in the morning, but actually I’m loving it. Partly, the job of producing Doctor Who takes up an awful lot of the day. But even if I were left alone all day, I think I’d still work at night. I’m naturally nocturnal.”

Davies began his television career as a floor manager and production assistant. He took the BBC’s in-house director’s course and became a producer on children’s show Why Don’t You?. His first drama series, Dark Season, was commissioned after he submitted it on spec to the Beeb’s head of children’s programming. His big break as a scriptwriter came on ITV’s prime-time drama The Grand, before he made his name with the ground-breaking Queer as Folk.

His advice to anyone who wants to write for Doctor Who is don’t write a Doctor Who script.

“Sadly, we can’t read those, because science fiction fans, out of all viewers, are curiously litigious. They’ll send in a script with an alien invasion, then say we stole it and try to take us to court. That happens literally every year. The best thing is to write an original piece, whether it’s the start of a series or a one-off.”

This year’s Christmas special is not only the last to feature David Tennant as the Doctor, it is also the last Davies will write for the series before handing over to new showrunner-writer Steven Moffat. Apparently the BBC begged Davies to stay on, but from the show’s conception, he and his team had made a pact to bow out after four seasons.

Naturally Davies promises to go out with a bang, saying his last show “definitely won’t be small”.

And after that?

“I think the only place to go is something more nine o’clock-ish, more adult, more intimate. I was offered the other day a 13-part, family-orientated, seven o’clock series - and I thought, I can’t, because I’ve done the best one.”

The one possibility of Davies returning to the Tardis is the much talked about idea of a feature film. “I’d like to give it a whirl,” he admits - in much the way that Davros, if pressed, might concede he’d actually quite fancy running the universe. But, quickly coming out of his reverie, he adds: “Television is always first and foremost in my mind because I genuinely love it. It’s what I relax with. And not just relax with. I find it challenging. Fascinating.”

As for the future of television itself, Davies acknowledges the challenges the medium faces, but says: “I think anyone my age who makes predictions about the future is just going to look stupid. I just hope there’s still enough television around to employ me when I’m 65.”

• The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook is out in paperback in January, published by BBC Books, ISBN: 9781846078613, priced £16.99. Preorder from Amazon.co.uk and save