Seeing the future
A couple of interesting thoughts as I read this interview with Russell T Davies in the lead up to series three.
First of all, there's the (unsurprising) news that a fourth series has been commissioned. But I wonder if that'll be the last series of the Russell T Davies era. There are certainly hints that could be the case -- "This is one of the reasons why Davies is ready for a new challenge" and "If you stay too long somewhere you start missing out on chances like that."
And while we've proven that the new series can comfortably change Doctors, and I am sure that we'll show that it can change companions with the next series, the big question will be whether it can change lead writers. I don't think there's any reason to believe that Doctor Who needs to end with the departure of Russell -- it is a series designed to run and run, constantly refreshing itself.
One other amusing thing about that article is how they over-play The Ten Doctors play as a stage production at Gallifrey One this year. It was amusing, but it was by no stretch of the imagination a serious stage production of Doctor Who. There have been a few "serious" stage productions over the years, and I've imagined that one could do something like Tomb of the Cybermen very effectively as a stage production, but that wasn't what we saw at Gallifrey.
Labels: gallifrey, rtd, seriesthree
1 Comments:
Hello there!
As part of The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group, who performed 'The Ten Doctors' at Gallifrey One, it was lovely to get the smallest of namechecks in The Telegraph article. I'm slightly puzzled about why you didn't think that 'The Ten Doctors' was a serious stage production of Doctor Who? Yes, it was a full-length comedy, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a 'serious' stage production.
It was staged by an award-winning travelling theatre group, it was performed by semi-professional actors, it was written by two serious professional writers, but in no way was it serious in tone, no.
However, the time, effort, and money that went into this production to make it a fully-realised stage show was all there (granted, it wasn't as top-notch as it would've been had we been based in the USA, due to us travelling from the UK with an already overstretched budget and having no Tech rehearsal with the AV crew, plus unforeseen circumstances nearly scuppering the production a month or so before we came).
For what we had, what we gave, and what we achieved, I'd like to class it as a 'serious' stage production. We've fought against this prejudice all throughout our 15 year history (as 99.9% of our output is original comedy), so hence why I felt the need to defend us a bit!! I realise there was no malice or put-down in your comments, and you can say what you jolly well like (yay for freedom of speech), but I hope you appreciate why it looks like you are under-selling the great deal of work that went into this production for Gallifrey One.
Best wishes,
THE OFFSTAGER
www.offstagetheatregroup.com
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