{"id":365233,"date":"2026-03-25T23:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365233\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T23:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:57:08","slug":"hate-dangerously-assumed-as-fan-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365233\/","title":{"rendered":"Hate ‘Dangerously Assumed’ as Fan Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cDoctor Who<\/a>\u201d showrunner and writer Russell T Davies<\/a> is warning audiences about the dark side of social media when it comes to fandom, saying that opinions can easily be misconstrued on platforms like X, which he called a \u201chate site.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a masterclass at Series Mania in France on Wednesday, Davies \u2014 who considers himself a \u201cDoctor Who\u201d fan first and foremost \u2014 said that we often \u201cfall into the trap of talking about fans and assuming that means the online voice.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think they are different things. I know they\u2019re different things, I absolutely know that,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd that online voice, which is hostile, exists on X, which is a hate site. We shouldn\u2019t be surprised to find hatred on it, because it\u2019s a hate site \u2026 It\u2019s very dangerously assumed that that is the fan voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDavies is no stranger to dealing with hate. The most recent iteration of \u201cDoctor Who\u201d saw Ncuti Gatwa take the reins as the first openly queer Black actor in the iconic role, which sadly resulted in racist and homophobic discourse online. Davies said that social media \u2014 along with what he called \u201cthe collapse of journalism\u201d \u2014 has helped these voices find their way into the mainstream.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s where the danger point happens of the minority voices slipping more into the mainstream, because suddenly they\u2019re in newspaper articles, suddenly you find critics quoting those voices,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Davies accepted that fans don\u2019t \u201chave to like a show,\u201d they can still \u201chave a great time disagreeing\u201d with it in a respectful way. \u201cFandom is creative and brilliant and fun, but it\u2019s all getting soured,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cTurn those phones off for anyone under 16, chuck them in the bin. I literally am evangelical about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, Disney+ exited its partnership with the BBC following two co-produced seasons of \u201cDoctor Who.\u201d Though it\u2019s been confirmed that there will be a Christmas special this year, Davies stayed mum on the topic of the show\u2019s return \u2014 and who will be in its title role.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe finale of the most recent season saw the departure of Gatwa as the Doctor and the reintroduction of Billie Piper, who played companion Rose Tyler during David Tennant\u2019s run in the early 2000s. Though Gatwa\u2019s Doctor did regenerate into Piper, it was not explicitly stated that she will be next to wield the sonic screwdriver. During the masterclass, moderator Renan Cros attempted to get Davies to reveal more about Piper\u2019s role in the future of the series, but he wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReally, good luck,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI just love Billie, that\u2019s all!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDoctor Who\u201d showrunner and writer Russell T Davies is warning audiences about the dark side of social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[40748,93,61,60,97595,282],"class_list":["post-365233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-doctor-who","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-russell-t-davies","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}