Riffing off the high concept nature of the show, Davies mentions (with my emphasis):
a cartoon’s come to life, or we’re visiting the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest, or Boom Beasts have taken over London
Wait, what? The first two are previously announced episode briefs, but… “Boom Beasts”?
Did he just come up with that last bit on the spot or did I miss it in any of the advance promo copy?
RTD also praises the new writers this season:
Inua Ellams just to pick an example, set his episode in Lagos. He’s created a whole history of friendships for the Doctor around a whole new mythology. There’s that lack of fear. There’s not a second of worrying, of him thinking, ’Have they done this before? Did they do this in 1985?’ Although he’s always watched the show, he was completely free of its shackles. What you get is a completely new take on things you thought you understood in Doctor Who. The episode has the TARDIS doing things it’s never done before.
As I recall, getting the Doctor mixed in with African mythology was an explicit wish from Ncuti Gatwa coming in, and this looks like it could be a start.
Besides, frankly — what haven’t we seen the TARDIS do yet? 🤯
I’m especially excited for Inua Ellams’ episode - I really hope it works, because in addition to quite liking his writing, he’s exactly the sort of writer whom I was hoping they’d recruit for the show: someone who’s loved Doctor Who their whole lives, for whom Doctor Who is extremely meaningful, but also willing to put the Doctor in a very different story - temporally and narratively – from what we’ve seen before.
I wonder if he means the Slitheen from “Boomtown.” Best I can come up with.
I’m amused that all three of us in the thread so far have identified the passage on Inua Williams as one of the more exciting tidbits.
You could be right about the Slitheen, but why not just name check his own creations then? I’m mostly curious to see now if there are actually going to be aliens called Boom Beasts in the new season 😄
As for Ellams, I think he’s a genuinely interesting addition for his background in poetry as well as theatre. It doesn’t hurt that he has the Nigerian mythology framework to draw from, and I think that’s going to be thrilling to explore in a Who setting — but having an award winning playwright and poet writing for the show is perhaps the most left field thing I’ve seen in a good while.
