Russell T Davies has revealed that made one key demand when he returned to Doctor Who – that it shouldn’t be publicised on social media platform X.
The screenwriter, 63, came back to Doctor Who as its showrunner in 2021, ushering in a new era with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor.
In a new interview, Davies spoke about his disdain for X – formerly known as Twitter – under owner Elon Musk’s reign, saying that he asked the BBC to stop posting about Doctor Who on the platform when he returned.
“It’s a public service broadcaster posting on a hate platform,” he told The i. “It’s not the town square it pretends to be.
“It’s a privately owned hate platform, owned by a megalomaniac [Elon Musk] who is pushing ill on many of us. The tone of voice on X is becoming our tone of voice in every single discussion ever made. I think it’s creeping into the real world – and we’re just letting it happen.”
The Independent has contacted the BBC and Musk for comment.
Musk took over the social media app in 2023, during and after which hate speech saw a significant jump on the platform. In February 2025, experts found that the weekly rate of hate speech was “about 50 per cent higher than in months prior to the purchase, including increased use of specific homophobic, transphobic, and racist slurs”.
Despite Davies’ request, it appears that the BBC still posts Doctor Who content to X, with both the BBC Press Office and Doctor Who accounts still sharing promotional content about the show.
The show is currently in flux, with fans patiently waiting to find out what’s next for the show after Gatwa’s sudden exit last year. Last June, Gatwa’s Doctor regenerated into Billie Piper, who is best known for playing Rose Tyler – the companion to David Tennant’s doctor – on the BBC show.
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Just months later, the BBC confirmed that Disney had pulled out of its Doctor Who partnership with the broadcaster, with many fans uncertain of what the future holds for the show. Davies recently confirmed that there will soon be news, telling BBC Radio 2 at the start of June: “You will get an announcement soon.
“There’s a press release lumbering through the BBC, which, as you know, is like the Jurassic period. And 57 people have to sign off on every single word so I promise you in about a week or two weeks, there will be a some sort of press release.”
Davies recently released new Channel 4 drama Tip Toe, starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey as neighbours who become embroiled in a feud with deadly consequences.
Elsewhere in the interview, the writer revealed how he had experienced homophobic instances in the last five years – and how that pushed him to make the show. “I’d had things happen on my doorstep, and I’ve had things happen at work. They all happened only in the last five years,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to repeat the instances so as not to spread more hatred.
“All our lives we’ve campaigned to be more visible, and I never thought what the end result of that was,” he added. “Now I look at myself like I’m an idiot. As if I ever imagined we’d reach a harmonious society. Our visibility is being weaponised.”
