Update: The text below was first uploaded in June 2001. Since then, Russell T Davies has been confirmed as the writer and executive producer of a new Doctor Who TV series that should debut on BBC1 sometime in 2005. Looking back, the signs were all there...
Dark Season creator Russell T Davies is an acknowledged fan of Doctor Who. In addition to the numerous references in Queer as Folk - which features a Doctor Who fan as one of its lead characters - Davies wrote an acclaimed novel for Virgin publishing's Doctor Who New Adventure range, Damaged Goods. Davies' name was also linked to a stalled attempt to return the series to the small screen, Doctor Who 2000.
Given the Davies-Who connection, it's tempting, at least for Doctor Who fans such as myself, to look for connections between the two series. After all, both provide compelling and quirky sci-fi tales produced with that unique BBC low budget aesthetic. Here are some examples:
Both series have a number of cast and crew in common. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that Dark Season debuted on BBC just two years after the Doctor and Ace walked off into the sunset. (See Credits for examples).
The Dark Season script also features a couple of possible Doctor Who references, including:
Eldritch's declaration that 'nothing in the world can stop me now!' recalls an infamous utterance from The Underwater Menace
Reet's use of a yo-yo for her 'gravity readings' gag liner recalls a gimmick employed by Tom Baker's Doctor in The Power of Kroll
Too obscure for you? Well, there's also the matter of the lead character…
Who is Marcie?
Eldritch: Always there, interfering, holding me back
Reet: Who?
Eldritch: An essence, a little girl with no name…
At the heart of Dark Season is Marcie, an intelligent, irascible eccentric, with dubious dress sense and a knack of getting straight into trouble. She's followed around by a couple of devoted friends to whom she imparts guidance and wisdom. She seems to have knowledge beyond her years, for example identifying Eldritch and his environs as a long-standing source of evil. In addition, as the above quote implies, Eldritch even seems to believe he has confronted her, or at least someone like her before. Any of those characteristics sound familiar? Could Marcie really be the Doctor, daringly and radically reconceived as a teenage girl?
Russell T Davies comments that 'a lot of people said Marcie in Dark Season was very much like the Doctor and I do love Doctor Who, but I wasn't thinking that at the time. I just wanted to make her cleverer, ahead of the game, 'cos I was sick of watching kids' drama where your three episodes in before the heroine locks herself in a cupboard and oh-so-accidentally overhears the villains making their plans. So in episode one, Marcie sees the villain, and immediately thinks, 'oh, he's evil!' (quoted in SFX Xmas 1999)
Even if Marcie is not directly written as a re-interpretation of the Doctor, Dark Season undeniably offers a number of pleasing self-aware acknowledgements of its intertextual roots: After escaping Miss Pendragon by dint of a handy ventilation shaft, Marcie comments, 'Oh marvellous, I'm a cliché!' She also has her own explanation for her uncanny insight into Eldritch and the threat he poses:
Eldritch: Such a clever little girl. How do you know so much?
Marcie: I watch a lot of TV!