When we last heard from Russell T. Davies he was taking a sabbatical from the world of entertainment in order to be with his ailing partner Andrew. He did mention, however, that he had a “small commitment” with CBBC that had predated his plans and that he needed to see it through before completely stepping away. This project has now been announced and it is a new children’s television show called ‘Aliens vs. Wizards.’

The BBC describes the show as “Doctor Who meets Harry Potter.’ Davies is listed as co-creator along with Phil Ford who is known for writing the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘The Waters of Mars’ and the ‘Doctor Who: Dreamland’ series. He was also the head writer for ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures.’

The series will follow the same format as ‘SJA’ in that it will contain 12 two-part episodes lasting a half hour each and some of its episodes will be written by ‘SJA’ alumni Joseph Lidster and Gareth Roberts (who has also written for ‘Doctor Who’). It’s also been said that many of the crew who worked on ‘SJA’ will also be working on this new show.

Even before this series was announced or even aired, the BBC has already ordered a second season. Apparently they must have a lot of faith in the show and think that it will be a big hit.

On a side note, on the agent’s page for Davies, it lists him as a writer for a 25 minute pilot called ‘Star Lost’ made for BBC Worldwide. Unfortunately, no other information was listed about the show. Hopefully it will be a pilot that will also air in the US for fans of Davies to enjoy too!

Davies was actually good overall, apart from writing the resolutions to his OMGSUPERAWSOME two-parter series finales (and the end of time, yeah he kind of went a bit nuts at the end). So far as characterisation and interesting ideas went he wasn't bad in Dr. Who.

Of course, he was also responsible for the abomination that is Torchwood, the show that just wouldn't die no matter how bad it got.

Ignoring Rusty's involvement for a second, based on the description alone: this sounds like standard godawful CBBC kid-fodder.

And all the 'NERD RAGE RAR!! RUINZED 4 EVUUUUR!!!' aimed at him has died down a lot since he left, with Matt Smith and Steven Moffat in the firing line for a long while now.

Alien invasion countered by magic? AWESOME!

I now have a mental image of an orbital bombardment fended off by thirteen circles of thirteen wizards using a gigantic ritual-warding spell. Arcane energies coursing over the upper exosphere lighting up in spider-tendrils of power when hit by some plasma based terror weapon or anti-matter warhead.

Awesome.

Read a book like that before can't remember the name. It started off a craft crashing, there was a part where the wizrad was shooting lightning at some kind of attack craft. And that's all I remember of it I read it a long time ago.

Not really, Davies work is still crappy from season 2 onwards and the less said about his final specials the better.