History Creator / RussellTDavies

!! Tropes in his work in the Whoniverse (''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood'', ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'', the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse) :

* SoftReboot: When the show came back in 2005, Davies could adequately be described as a man utterly terrified of continuity running amok, like in the 1980s. Information about the Doctor and the show's lore was tightly controlled and parceled out in the tiniest possible portions. When it became an enormous hit, he relaxed this policy (cf. "School Reunion"), but never truly abolished it. Even the montage of previous Doctors in "The Next Doctor", the most 'for the fans' moment in his tenure, was included solely on the suggestion of producer Julie Gardner, whose judgement he trusted specifically because she was not a classic Whovian.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Frequently uses this to move his plots along when doing sci-fi.

* {{Technobabble}}: He isn't shy with this in his sci-fi works.

* AuthorAppeal: UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}, HoYay, self-aware campiness (he produced ''Doctor Who'' and a show called ''Wizards Vs. Aliens'', for crying out loud!), and, in ''Doctor Who'', the Daleks.

* {{Camp}}: Pops up often, especially in his run on ''Doctor Who'', but always with a sense of self-awareness.

* AuthorTract: In projects where he's served as showrunner, he constitutes a mild case of this (for sufficiently flexible values of 'mild'). While he does tend to harp on about homosexuality and atheism a lot, he rarely cops out, and he makes an effort not to devalue the opposing views of either topic- being straight or religious is just as likely to be explored in one of his stories.

!! Tropes in his work in the Whoniverse (''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood'', ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'', the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse) :

!! Tropes in his other works:

** The surnames "Smith" and "Tyler" tend to show up no matter what show he's working on.

* AlienInvasion: ''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood'', ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'', and ''Wizards vs. Aliens'' all feature these.
** EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Many of them are taken care of in just an episode or two.

* EveryoneIsBi: Bisexual people are ''very'' common in his works.

* FantasticRacism: Aliens are frequently prejudiced against humans or occasionally other kinds of aliens in the Whoniverse and ''Wizards vs. Aliens''.

!! Tropes concerning his works:

* GayAesop: Pops up to some degree in almost everything he does. Some are directly about gay life (''Queer as Folk'', ''Cucumber'') while others usually include positive portrayals of gay people wherever possible (''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood'').
* {{Gayngst}}:
** While RTD stories are very progressive, even for the era, a major theme in his stories about homosexual love is loss and mourning. His ''Torchwood'' hero, Jack Harkness, is the poster boy for pansexual hedonism, while his lovers (Ianto and Angelo in particular) serve as [[{{Foil}} a cold splash of reality]].
** Of special note: RTD, himself gay, has gone on record about not being the biggest fan of this trope, arguing that it in some ways perpetuates gay shame both as something experienced by homosexuals and how it is viewed by non-homosexuals, and also because it can be a bit boring, cliched and stereotypical to watch and write. As such, while most of his works deal with homosexuality and are not entirely free of angst, the characters usually angst about things other than being homosexual.

* MagicVersusScience: This conflict comes up in the ''Doctor Who'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E2TheShakespeareCode "The Shakespeare Code"]], and in ''Wizards vs. Aliens''.

** The Master, once it's revealed that the constant drumming in his head turned him mad, and that he's been used aa a tool for Rassilon all along.

* DarkerAndEdgier:
** His take on ''Doctor Who'''s mythos was this. The Time Lords were all wiped out by the Doctor's own hands, leaving a lot of angst on his part, the Daleks were more powerful, deadly, and sadistic than before, and the companion actually had to deal with the consequences of leaving her home and family to travel with the Doctor.
*** His run subtly became more so as it went on.
** And then ''Torchwood'', was this to ''Doctor Who'', with more [[BloodierAndGorier violence]], [[PrecisionFStrike harsher language,]] and [[CerebusSyndrome grim themes]].

* AlasPoorVillain: His take on classic monsters and villains in ''Doctor Who'' often brings out their more human and sympathetic side, with this being the result. Notable examples are:
** The Daleks. A recurring element with them under Davies's run was them becoming "infected" with human thoughts and emotions. The Doctor also points out how they live their whole lives without being touched and and alone.
** The Cybermen are shown being converted from human to Cyber form, and the tragedy of it. When their emotional inhibitors are destroyed, they're shown to be horrified by what they are before dying from the shock of their emotions returning.
** The Master, once it's revealed that the constant drumming in his head turned him mad, and that he's been used aa a tool for Rassilon all along.

** For one thing, he once said that he didn't like the Master and wasn't planning on bringing him back. Davies also said he didn't like multi-Doctor stories. This has also caused fans to distrust them when he says something sensible and thankfully true like "It's better not to show the Time War."

* ''BreakfastSerials''

* LyingCreator: [[invoked]] It has become well-known in the ''Who'' fandom to never trust anything Davies says.
** For one thing, he once said that he didn't like the Master and wasn't planning on bringing him back. Davies also said he didn't like multi-Doctor stories. This has also caused fans to distrust them when he says something sensible and thankfully true like "It's better not to show the Time War."
** Davies used a phony name, an anagram of ''Series/DoctorWho'', during production of the 2005 series to prevent would-be pirates from spotting the tapes. That phony name would later become [[Series/{{Torchwood}} the name of a spinoff series]].
** After [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]], he told the press Rose was gone for good. He told Creator/BilliePiper, "See you in two years".
** RTD's still lying in regards to ''Doctor Who'' even after stepping down from it. He said he would never write an episode for Creator/MattSmith's Doctor. Guess who guest stars in the RTD-penned ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' story [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS4E5E6DeathOfTheDoctor "Death of the Doctor"]].

!! Tropes concerning him and his works:

* BigFun: He's rather large, and is always seen to be jolly and enthusiastic.

* RidiculousProcrastinator: He has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_T_Davies#Writing_style admitted]] to being this himself, and isn't happy about it.

* JokerImmunity: He has a tendency to wipe villains out, then bring them back/reveal they weren't dead after all. Examples from ''Doctor Who'' are the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, Lady Cassandra, the Time Lords [[note: while the Time Lords never actually returned under Davies's tenure, they ''did'' briefly escape the Time War into the present day before being sent right back again to die. Technically not this trope, but effectively so.]]...

* JokerImmunity: He has a tendency to wipe villains out, then bring them back/reveal they weren't dead after all.

* HotterAndSexier: While never actually explicit, Russell's run on ''Doctor Who'' contained more references to sex than most of the Classic Era,

** And then, ''Torchwood'', was this to ''Doctor Who'', with more [[BloodierAndGorier violence]], [[PrecisionFStrike harsher language,]] and [[CerebusSyndrome grim themes]].

** {{Camp}}, {{Camp}}, [[Camp}}!

* HotterAndSexier: While never actually explicit, Russell's run on ''Doctor Who'' contained more references to sex than most of the Classic Era, and then he produced ''Torchwood'', which was often ''very'' explicit.

** He tends to introduce new shows by using a NaiveNewcomer [[ActionGirl Action]] [[GirlNextDoor]] as an AudienceSurrogate. this technique is used in ''Doctor Who'', ''Torchwood,'' and the ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''.