Summary

• Breaking the fourth wall in Doctor Who is a risky but whimsical move by RTD, catering to TikTok-era audiences and adding a laid-back vibe.
• RTD's approach includes campy elements, like defending talking babies against snot monsters and engaging in lively musical numbers.
• Seemingly random moments in the series may hold deeper significance, with RTD possibly planting seeds for future reveals and building on past lore.

Russell T Davies has made significant changes now that he's back in the driver's seat on Doctor Who had embraced at some point.

Davies left Doctor Who in 2010 after four seasons, but recently returned as its showrunner. The newest era of Doctor Who marks a significant departure from the past as the BBC inked a deal to distribute the series worldwide on Disney+ for the first time. The Doctor Who season 14 cast included Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa as the first Black actor to play the Doctor and Millie Gibson as a new companion with a mysterious past. This gave RTD a blank slate to recreate Doctor Who, including using a gimmick to get audience attention.

Doctor Who Has Repeatedly Broken the Fourth Wall Since RTD's Return

Characters Regularly Talk to the Audience

Doctor Who has broken the fourth wall in nearly every episode since RTD's return, meaning that characters turn toward the camera and address the audience directly. Breaking the fourth wall is a risky strategy, as it reminds the audience that the show they are watching is fictional. There is a segment of any given audience that will intensely dislike this technique and may decide to stop watching. The classic series had not shied completely away from this technique, but had never explicitly acknowledged the audience the way RTD's characters do.

The only time a character explicitly broke the fourth wall before this is when the First Doctor wished the audience a happy Christmas in a long-lost episode of "The Daleks' Master Plan."

Mrs. Flood was the first RTD character to break the fourth wall. At the end of the Christmas special, Mrs. Flood responded to her neighbor's shock at seeing the TARDIS dematerialize by turning directly to the camera to comment, "What? Never seen a TARDIS before?" This comment led to speculation and debate about who Mrs. Flood may be and what her significance is to the overarching storyline.

"The Devil's Chord" also had several examples of breaking the fourth wall, most notably that the Maestro ends the cold open by playing the theme music to Doctor Who on the piano. The Doctor and Ruby are able to hear background music in the scene where the Maestro captures Ruby and tries to steal the music from her soul, and the Doctor even comments he thought that music was nondiegetic. Finally, the Doctor winks at the camera before beginning to perform the "There's Always A Twist At The End" song that wraps up the episode.

Doctor Who's Fourth Wall Breaks Are Indicative Of RTD's More Relaxed Approach

RTD Appears to Be Dialing The Campiness Up To The Max

Doctor Who has always had some campy elements, particularly during the Fourth Doctor era. RTD has chosen to focus on these aspects of the series during the newest season. The Doctor's early adventures have included defending a group of talking babies from a monster made of snot, singing to the Goblin King to distract him while he and Ruby rescued baby Lulabelle from the monsters, and participating in a long musical number at the end of "The Devil's Chord."

Breaking the fourth wall is another example of RTD's whimsical, laid-back approach to the series.

Breaking the fourth wall is another example of RTD's whimsical, laid-back approach to the series. The newest season includes plenty of lighthearted fare that may be more attractive to that segment of the audience that has grown up with Tik Tok and other video-sharing social media sites. The habit of having the characters break the fourth wall fits in with this version of the Doctor Who brand. Thus, it is entirely possible that the fourth wall jokes have no greater significance to the story and are there simply because RTD found them amusing.

There May Be A Canon Explanation For Doctor Who's Crumbling Fourth Wall

RTD Often Has a Deeper Reason For Including Random Things That Is Not Immediately Clear

RTD has already inserted two seemingly random moments into Doctor Who in addition to the long musical number at the end of "The Devil's Chord." Doctor Who has featured the "mavity" running joke since Donna accidentally changed the name of Newton's discovery. The FIfteenth Doctor narrowly prevented a similar disaster by rescuing a butterfly that Ruby had accidentally stepped on and stopping Ruby from turning into a butterfly-like alien. Both of these examples could be nothing more but a joke, but their inclusion suggests that the universe has been fundamentally changed by seemingly small actions.

Furthermore, RTD chose to include the Toymaker in Doctor Who after 57 years because of his larger-than-life, fantastical qualities. Thus, it's likely that the other fantastical elements are also because of the Toymaker or other of the Pantheon causing trouble. Most of the fourth wall breaking came with the Maestro, who was said to be a child of the Toymaster, suggesting that characters who break the fourth wall have immense power.

Doctor Who has broken the fourth wall repeatedly during the beginning of the new season. RTD is clearly having fun with the material, but it's also likely that he is planting seeds for later reveals. The constant breaking of the fourth wall may make more sense once the season is over and all the mysteries have been explained.

The current season of Doctor Who streams on Disney+