Season 1 (The New Renegade)

Season 1 of Doctor Who: The New Renegade was produced as a CBS All Access Original Series, for BBC Studios and CBS Television Studios. It was aired on BBC One concurrently with it's CBS All Access release in the United States.

Overview

Creation

Conceived as ammunition in the CBS and Paramount rivalry, by disgruntled CEO, Les Moonves, Doctor Who: The New Renegade made it to the screen in a vastly different context to the one it was conceived in. A CBS All Access Original Series, the show was created to be everything Paramount would hate – they had, just as The New Renegade was commissioned, released Doctor Who: Until the World Ends featuring former Doctor, Paterson Joseph, and CBS wanted something which would top that and make people subscribe to their, arguably failed, streaming service. However, by the time The New Renegade hit the screens in January 2020, Les Moonves had been fired (sexual assault allegations) and therefore a major hurdle in peace between the two companies had been removed, and after over a year of negotiation, CBS and Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) merged together in December 2019 to form ViacomCBS. The New Renegade was entirely produced (apart from the final edits and dubs) before the merger took place, yet it was one of the first CBS shows to premiere after it – this meant the content of the show was unrulily aggressive towards Paramount despite it being released, now, by Paramount themselves. Still, there was nothing that could be done to the first season of The New Renegade at this late stage, but it was clear to all involved that (the already commissioned) Season 2, would have some big changes taking place.

Showrunner

The New Renegade was helmed by Chris Carter, as showrunner, who was most famous for his work running The X-Files but was best known to Doctor Who fans as the showrunner and director of Cold Front, eight-years earlier. Jane Espenson wanted to showrun the show herself, however she felt doing so would have put her in too much of a dangerous place when it came to working with CBS, Paramount, and the BBC, as she had to be able to get along with all three of them, so she suggested Carter to CBS, who offered him the position.

The main concept of the series was very simply: “Anthony Head getting some adventures in the TARDIS”. When this was pitched to Carter, alongside CBS All Access Original, so the limits of Network TV don’t apply, Carter immediately requested that he be allowed to take some gambles with the series, firstly asking for a TV-MA rating (15 in the UK), mainly for some of the show’s darker themes and for its common use of the words ‘shit’, ‘bastard’ and three appearances of ‘fuck’, and also asking to do a completely serialised season. This worried Espenson as firstly adult Doctor Who had not really worked when attempted before (notably with Panopticon Series 4) and also all three of Anthony Head’s seasons were serialised, so the selling point of “Anthony Head getting some adventures in the TARDIS” might feel a little redundant. After considering all of these issues, Espenson expressed her wish that the show doesn’t go down that route – however CBS overruled her as they liked the sound of those ideas, and they wanted a dark and edgy show for CBS All Access to bring subscribers in.

Production

The show was given the same budget as Doctor Who, that of $40 million for the season. However, while Doctor Who had to stretch $40 million over 13 episodes, The New Renegade only needed to deal with 10, managing around $4 million per episode, as opposed to just over $3 million. However, comparatively The New Renegade was still only a medium-budgeted show for CBS, with shows like Star Trek: Discovery budgeted $110 million and NCIS budgeted $60 million.

Shooting in Toronto, all the sets for the show were entirely new, as none of it could be shot on the existing Doctor Who sets at BBC Scotland. Both the TARDIS interior and exterior were redesigned, finally giving the Eleventh Doctor his own version, while several Gallifreyan sets were redesigned, based upon the original sets, but improved for HD and made more realistic, using actual metals instead of plastics. These sets didn’t match the originals perfectly, but they were close enough, even a hardcore fan would only notice many of the changes when put side-by-side.

Title Sequence & Theme Music

The title sequence for the show was designed by Prologue and was probably the most different title sequence Doctor Who had ever had. The sequence began with an artist’s interpretation of the Citadel on Gallifrey before it catches into flames and the camera follows the ashes into the night sky of San Francisco, where the TARDIS flies overhead. The camera then follows the TARDIS into the Vortex and past many strange new worlds, until it finally comes to a moon in the middle of a huge colourful nebula, which the Eleventh Doctor is standing on, in an action pose, as the camera flies past his face, into the nebula and the ashes of the Citadel float past as the camera zooms into them and the logo appears on a clean white background.

Jeff Russo, after just one season on Doctor Who, left the show and moved onto The New Renegade upon CBS’ request. He composed the theme tune, which was mostly an adaptation of the Eleventh Doctor’s theme by Murray Gold but a slower more melodic version, complete with Jeff Russo’s own original elements and finally echoes of the Ron Grainer Doctor Who theme towards the end as the logo appears. It distinctively shows that the show is Doctor Who but it’s also its own show which is about one particular character – not the Doctor – but the Eleventh Doctor.

Cast

Regular

Recurring

The Keeper - Don Warrington
Gali Lewis - Audra McDonald
Duncan Burne - Terry Serpico
Stevesson - Drez Ryan
Izyar - Natalie Paul
Edwar - Scott Lawrence
Beynol - Gabriel Ebert
Duggan - Paul Guilfoyle
Judith Lewis - Cassi Davis, Trinity Moriah Jones

Guest

Television Stories

#	Title	Writer	Director	Air Date
1	The Reckoning, Part I	Chris Carter	Chris Carter	19 January 2020
2	The Reckoning, Part II	Chris Carter	Chris Carter	26 January 2020
3	Refuge	John Shiban	David Barrett	2 February 2020
4	The Monastery	Jane Espenson	Douglas Aarniokoski	9 February 2020
5	Time Syndicate	James Duff	Marta Cunningham	16 February 2020
6	The Silent Years	Vaun Wilmott	Rachel Talalay	23 February 2020
7	The Keeper's Knife	Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt	Douglas Aarniokoski	1 March 2020
8	Widow's Feast	James Duff	Rachel Talalay	8 March 2020
9	Faith of the Doctor, Part I	Chris Carter	Chris Carter	15 March 2020
10	Faith of the Doctor, Part II	Chris Carter & Jane Espenson	Chris Carter	22 March 2020

Production

Crew

To be added.

Production Blocks

Block	Episodes	Director	Producer	DOP	Editor
1	1.01, 1.02, 1.09, 1.10	Chris Carter	April Nocifora	Craig Wrobleski	Eleanor Infante
2	1.03, 1.04, 1.07	David Barrett / Douglas Aarniokoski	Patrick L. Coleman	Franco Tata	Chad Rubel
3	1.05, 1.06, 1.08	Marta Cunningham / Rachel Talalay	Thom J. Pretak	Logan Schneider	Jesus Huidobro

Filming

To be added.

Home Media

Physical Media

To be added.