RTD should return as a writer, at some point in the future
There's been some discussion about whether Moffat should return to write more episodes in the Chibnall era after series 11, so I thought I'd make the suggestion that Davies should return, as he's the other former showrunner and perhaps fits the Chibnall era better in some ways. It has been said that Moffat got very close to convincing him to return so I also don't see it as being impossibly unlikely.
The most obvious way in which Davies suits the Chibnall era more is that the Chibnall era is very overtly political in a way Moffat's Who writing has not been, outside of The Beast Below, which I (and Davies, from an interview he gave) love, but Moffat himself does not. Davies on the other hand has written Aliens of London/World War Three, The Long Game, Gridlock, and The Sound of Drums, all of which are to some degree overtly political, and has dealt heavily with political themes in a lot of his other work. After some somewhat muddled politics this series (particularly in Kerblam! but also in some of the effects of the Doctor being female), a political Davies script would likely be more focused and clear, although whether he'd want to write a political episode or a more traditionally sci-fi one is obviously unclear.
If he were to write a sci-fi episode, it's a fair bet he'd have come up with a pretty great idea during his many years not writing for the show, and he has a pedigree for them having written Midnight and co-written Waters of Mars. I can imagine him having his own unique take on a Moffat-style timey-wimey episode might be a possibility as well and that would be incredible.
I don't think either Moffat or Davies are likely to return until fairly late in the Chibnall era at least, so as not to overshadow him while he's relatively new to the role, but I'd like to see both return at some point and I'm interested to hear what others think about a potential Davies episode at some point in the future.
Mild Disclaimer: I'm much more of a Moffat fan than a Davies fan so I've probably not given him enough praise here. I hope some big Davies fans will post some of their reasons as to why Davies should return because I'm sure there are far more than I've said.
Posted Dec 31, 2018, 1:34 AM UTC
The thing about RTD is that we've never had the opportunity to see what he can come up with when he only has to write one episode. With Moffat, his episodes before he became showrunner were always one of the highlights of the season; whether you liked his showrunner work or not, it's hard to deny that his single episodes were pretty great.
I was never a big fan of RTD's run in general, but I'd love to see what would happen if the roles were flipped and he could put all his energy and ideas into a single hour of the show. Another Midnight wouldn't be the worst thing ever...
I agree. Midnight was the Episode that showed me that RTD is a much better writer than most of his Era let show. Most of his scripts were always pretty tame or very simple, but Midnight really shows what he can do with a story.
So I'd totally down for him returning for an Episode, maybe writing a Companion-lite Episode again, focusing entirely on Thirteen. I'd be very down for that.
Wow... I dont think I ever realized that Midnight was RTD. Easily one of my favorites and arguably a brilliant episode... wow.
What if he wrote a single episode sequel to Midnight for 13?
As long as theres a proper story to be told and it is just fan service wank off, bring it on. That was an amazing episode. Sadly, I dont think there is much story to be told. It was never about the "creature" rather the monstrosity that is humanity and groupthink. And I think that story has been told sufficiently.