A female Timelord was non-negotiable
New writer Chris Chibnall tells Anita Singh why he wants to channel the glory days of Tom Baker
Doctor Who fans take the show very seriously indeed. For evidence, look no further than a Youtube clip of a young man named Chris, appearing on a 1986 discussion programme called Open Air. Chris, aged 16, was representing the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (Merseyside branch) and was there to express his annoyance over an episode starring Colin Baker, who was the sixth Doctor (1984-86). “It’s not a kids’ programme at all,” he harrumphed, taking the writers to task for their failings. “It could have been a lot better. It was very clichéd – running up and down corridors and silly monsters.”
Did Chris grow out of his obsession with the Time Lord? He did not. Thirty-two years later, Chris Chibnall – to give him his full name – is the new Doctor Who showrunner, with overall creative control of the BBC’S prize asset and the man responsible for giving us the first female Doctor. Funny how life turns out.
“Imagine if something you did for 20 minutes when you were 16 somehow has a resonance when you’re 30 years older. It’s kind of extraordinary,” laughs Chibnall, pictured below.
Time has mellowed his views. “Listen, I’m not saying I was right when I was 16 – it was a load of old nonsense.” What can we expect from the new series? “Loads of running up and down corridors and loads of monsters.”
As you would expect from a lifelong fan, Chibnall is excited about the new series. But he also faces a challenge. The world’s longest-running sci-fi show, first aired in 1963, has lost its mojo. It was revived to great acclaim in 2005 by Russell T Davies (a genius, according to Chibnall) then handed over to Steven Moffat in 2010. Under Moffat, the storylines got more complicated and less fun, with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor involved in lengthy story arcs that rewarded devoted fans but baffled the casual viewer.
Chibnall, a genial figure about whom nobody in TV has a bad word to say, is far too nice to openly criticise his predecessor. But ask him what he thinks of Moffat’s approach and it’s clear that he wants to take the show in the opposite direction. “My approach is: let’s make sure everybody has a way in, everybody feels welcome. You can watch episode seven of this series even if you haven’t seen episode one. That just felt the way to go, to be honest. There’s no barrier to entry. It’s not like you need to study for this show. It’s not homework. It’s the most joyous hour of the week and it’s my job to give audiences that.
“If you’ve lapsed, if you’ve never tried it, if you love it – just come on in.” There will be 10 stand-alone episodes, broadcast in an early evening Sunday slot. Chibnall agrees that the Capaldi episodes, which were broadcast on a Saturday, went out too late, sometimes after 8pm, which excluded younger viewers.
The buzzword for this series, which pops up regularly in conversation with Chibnall and BBC executives, is “inclusive”. This is one reason why Whittaker’s Doctor has three companions; Bradley Walsh, as retired bus driver Graham, is there for the older audience, while younger viewers have Mandip Gill’s rookie police officer and Tosin Cole as a dyspraxic teenager with an absent dad. “I want everyone to feel that if they tune in they’ve got at least one character in the first instance where they think, ‘That’s me,’ or, ‘I know someone like that,’” he says.
Chibnall cast Walsh after working with him on Law and Order: UK and recognising that he was a great dramatic actor too often pigeonholed as a comedy performer. Jodie Whittaker’s casting took a little longer, as the team auditioned an all-woman shortlist. When Chibnall was sounded out for the job, he made it clear that a female Doctor was non-negotiable. “I came in saying, if you want me for the show, this is the way we would want to go. And that was a very short conversation.”
He thought the backlash would be much greater (“about 80:20 against – yet it was generally about 80:20 in favour”) and hopes the new Doctor will become a role model for boys as well as girls.
“I have no issue with my boys looking up to women,” he says of his sons, who are aged 15 and 12. “And it may be true in the past that that’s been problematic, but that’s also the absence of role models.” Whittaker’s Doctor is earnest, passionate and fizzing with energy, qualities the actress brought to her auditions. “You can’t be the first female Doctor meekly,” Chibnall says.
He had worked with Whittaker on
Broadchurch, the ITV police drama that became a huge critical and commercial success. Born in Formby, Merseyside, he studied drama at university and started out in theatre before moving into television, writing for Life on Mars and Merlin, and earning his Doctor Who stripes on the spin-off show, Torchwood.
You might think he’d jump at the chance to run Doctor Who, but he took some persuading. “Because I know what kind of a commitment it is. There’s not a day when you’re not thinking about Doctor Who, because it’s so big. It’s not like any other job in television, really, in the world.”
His favourite Doctor (although, of course, he loves them all) was Tom Baker because that was the Doctor of his childhood – something that is probably true for most of us. “It’s more than a cultural memory, it’s emotional – it reminds you of being a child. That’s what I love about Doctor Who – it takes you back to being the age you were when you first saw it.
“In an ideal world, Doctor Who makes the whole nation eight years old, with that excitement and engagement and wide-eyedness. That’s what we’re hoping to be.” He also notes that, in the Tom Baker years, the show “felt very present in the public consciousness. It felt like you had to be there to watch it.” And that’s what he’s aiming for.
We are in Sheffield on the day of the new season premiere. If Netflix or Amazon had the rights, this grand unveiling would probably be taking part in the Namibian desert or aboard the international space station. As it is, the event is taking place at a cinema inside a shopping centre and the red carpet is being unfurled outside Primark. How does it feel to work to a relatively tiny budget when US streaming giants can lavish tens of millions on a drama series?
This is when he gets serious. “When the call came for this, part of the reason I wanted to do it was I wanted to work for the BBC. I wanted to work for public service broadcasting because it is massively under threat, in a way that nobody thought five years ago, from people with more money.
“We need great shows on the BBC. If we lose the BBC it would be a disaster for the entire country. I genuinely believe that.”
In this age of catch-up TV and multi-screen viewing, it remains to be seen how many will tune in to Whittaker’s first episode. But Chibnall is resolute. “You make a show for it to be watched,” he says. And there will be plenty for fans like his 16-year-old self. “It’s called Doctor Who. It’s got the Doctor in. It’s still the same show. It’s just had a wash and a brush-up.”
The new series of Doctor Who starts on Sunday at 6.45pm on BBC One
Chibnall says the new series will have ‘loads of running up and down corridors and loads of monsters’
‘We need great shows on the BBC. If we lose the BBC, it would be a disaster for the entire country’