Summary
-
Doctor Who
showrunner Russell T. Davies speaks on a Beatles episode in the upcoming season 14. - Davies explained that a Beatles-based episode has been a long time coming, but has proved challenging due to the fact that the copyright for Beatles music is so expensive.
- The lasting impact of The Beatles in pop culture makes the upcoming Doctor Who episode exploring their legacy a great idea.
Russell T. Davies reveals how Doctor Who’s upcoming Beatles based episode came to be. Davies is the returning showrunner for Doctor Who season 14, which he runs after previously coming back for 2023’s Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials. Doctor Who season 14 will see Ncuti Gatwa play the Fifteenth Doctor, with Millie Gibson playing his companion, Ruby Sunday. The season is set for release on May 11, 2024.
As per Empire, Davies talks about the background for Doctor Who’s upcoming Beatles episode. According to the showrunner, the idea of doing a Beatles episode has been floated for years but has always faced the inevitable obstacle of that fact that “the copyright is too expensive” to actually play a Beatles song in an episode about the Beatles. This led Davies to think up creative ways to make a Beatles-based episode without their music. Eventually, Davies cracked the code by making the actual episode plot related to copyright law. Check out the full quote from Davies below:
“I knew instantly you can never play Beatles songs on screen because the copyright is too expensive. So I’m thinking, ‘How would you do a Beatles episode without Beatles music?’ And that becomes the entire plot. That’s where the idea came from – copyright law!There’s a young director called Sam Arbor who I’ve kind of been mentoring for a while, and when I told him I was going back to Doctor Who, he was just 21 and said, ‘Oh my God, if I had a TARDIS, I’d go back and watch the Beatles recording their first album.’ And I thought for a 21-year-old to say that must mean there’s something to that idea.”
Why The Doctor Who Beatles Episode Makes Sense
Davies’ conversation with the young director is not an isolated incident of the lasting impact of the Beatles. The British band is still deeply embedded within the cultural milieu, as young people today still know and appreciate Beatles songs. This appreciation extends to the media, as there has been copious Beatles-based content in recent years. This includes fiction works such as Yesterday and the Oscar-winning short War is Over!, as well as a number of prominent documentaries, including Peter Jackson’s hit Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back.
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As per the description via
Empire
, the episode will see both the Time Lord and companion Ruby Sunday travel to Abbey Road to see the Beatles first recording.
The lasting impression that The Beatles made makes the Doctor Who episode a great idea. The time-traveling abilities of the TARDIS allow Doctor Who to explore numerous time periods, many of which include famous figures. While Doctor Who has taken this to global extremes by exploring worldwide places, The Beatles seem particularly pressing as the band is such an essential part of British music history. It is also a period that could not have been explored in earlier seasons, as The Beatles broke up several years after the Time Lord debuted.
The Doctor Who Beatles’ episode will be titled “The Devil’s Chord.” As per the description via Empire, it will see both the Time Lord and companion Ruby Sunday travel to Abbey Road to see the Beatles first recording. Exactly how this will play out sans the tunes of “I Saw Her Standing There” or “Help” remains to be seen as the wait for Doctor Who season 14 continues.
Source: Empire
Doctor Who
Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.
- Release Date
- November 23, 1963
- Seasons
- 26
- Writers
- Mark Gatiss , Toby Whithouse , Neil Cross , Steven Moffat , Chris Chibnall
- Franchise
- Doctor Who
