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A Life of Noisy Desperation
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30th-Jul-2009 02:16 pm
Odilon Redon - Eyeballs Ablaze
laughingacademy
I think I need to stop reading interviews with Russell T Davies. It’s bad for my blood pressure and spoils my enjoyment of his work.

This io9.com article was the proverbial straw: We Asked Russell T. Davies Our Most Pressing Doctor Who Question.

That question: “Why exactly is the blonde ingenue Rose Tyler the most special of all the Doctor's companions?”

His reply:
I don't think she has been [treated as special].* I don't think I feel any more special when I'm writing Rose than when I'm writing any of the others. I think there's an iconography about Billie Piper. When the programme came back, it was the biggest advertised, most hyped-up programme in the world [and she was at the center of the imagery]. I'd never prefer her to Donna or Martha when writing her. But she was enormously popular and so — let's be blunt — every time I brought her back, the ratings went up. It's my job to make people come back to watch this. Sometimes people roll their eyes and go, "Oh, you've got another returning character." [To which I respond] "Yeah, leave me alone with my millions, thank you very much." So you know, it simply works. Plus we like Billie... So simply by dint of being her, she's come back the most often.

Not treated as special? Really? Even though she gets an AU replacement for her dead father and her very own Doctor!clone? As for those rating boosts, a commentator points out that Rose’s reappearances occurred during season finales, when one would expect viewing figures to go up.

Genuine cluelessness, or an elaborate leg-pull? I don’t know, and frankly I can no longer afford to care.

* Headline: Optometrists Report Eye-Roll-Induced Strabismus Epidemic among Doctor Who Fans

ETA: Y’know, RTD may single-handedly convert me to the Death of the Author theory.
Comments 
30th-Jul-2009 07:26 pm (UTC)
ceindreadh
It's my job to make people come back to watch this

What gets me is that in the very next breath he'll say something along the lines of how he writes for himself and doesn't give a hoot what the fans think. Clearly he doesn't associate fans with viewers.
30th-Jul-2009 07:43 pm (UTC)
laughingacademy
In reference to the ongoing Torchwood kerfluffle, RTD has been saying that vocal and critical fans are a lunatic fringe who make up only a tiny percentage of the audience — note his repeated claim that the BBC has received only nine packets of coffee from the Save Ianto campaign.

Much as I love John Barrowman and Captain Jack, I hope season four (assuming there is one; I have yet to hear of a definite, official announcement from the Beeb) takes a critical drubbing and draws a much smaller audience. (Unless it’s excellent, but judging from past performance that doesn’t seem likely.)

Edited at 2009-07-30 08:50 pm (UTC)
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