Longtime Doctor Who writer and showrunner Russell T Davies has criticised the new BBC director general over comments he made about an AI-generated episode of the show. Matt Brittin told a Royal Television Society conference in September that he had been sent a "pretty good" 50-minute unofficial Doctor Who episode. "That's a clumsy thing to say in an industry where he's got writers and artists and it specifically affects people, they're the first to take the blow," Davies told BBC Radio 4's The Media Show.
Addressing criticism he has received, Brittin told a staff meeting last week he was attempting to make a point around the "pace of change" while stressing he believed in "human creativity". The director general joked he had "got into trouble" over what he had said, but added: "I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do." He said: "I want to be really clear: Humans are leading, and I believe in human creativity, enhanced by whatever tools." He emphasised human-led creativity would always be at the heart of the BBC's mission. But speaking to BBC Radio 4, Davies said that the new director general, who joined the BBC after a career at Google, "hasn't worked in television for that long and might not be so fruity with an opinion in future".
"My inbox went ping ping ping ping ping, so God knows what his was like," he added. Davies was also asked more broadly about AI, including how, or if, writers should use the technology. "I have heard stories of some writers using AI prompts to do a first draft which I find shocking because I think...
What are you paid for otherwise? What are you there to do?" He said he did not use it to write his scripts but he "very much" worried it would start to replace writers, and in some circumstances that may already be the case. Davies is one of the UK's most influential television writers - from the ground-breaking Queer as Folk to acclaimed dramas including It's a Sin, Years and Years and, more recently, Tip Toe, he has had a major impact on British TV.
But perhaps his most significant achievement is his work on Doctor Who. In 2005, he brought the Timelord back after a 16-year absence after pitching it to the BBC's then-head of drama at a party in Manchester. He revived the show again in 2023, although he confirmed earlier this year he would be stepping away.
He told The Media Show there were times he "used to dread going on a Doctor Who set" because of the expensive special effects and "explosions going on, people pulling themselves in to prosthetics". "It's more difficult than any other set." The BBC cancelled the planned Christmas special and Disney+ no longer co-finances the series. But Davies had good news for Doctor Who fans.
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