Doctor Who – End Of Another Era

Ever since last year’s series of Doctor Who came to an end, there’s been a lot of confusion and speculation about what will happen next – not just online and in the media, but also within the BBC.

The Disney deal may have kept the show ticking along for a couple more years, with some interesting stories resulting from it, but it wasn’t good for the long-term, and ultimately descended into chaos. Disney’s dithering over whether or not to renew the contract, even though it was obvious they weren’t going to, forced Ncuti Gatwa to quit so that he could guarantee himself work elsewhere instead of waiting around. In interviews he actually said that he left because he was exhausted due to the tough filming schedule, which is probably also true. But the timing of his departure strongly suggests his career was also a major factor, totally understandably. He wasn’t treated fairly, he deserved better. You can’t mess around with an actor who’s in high demand like that.

That in turn forced the finale of the series to be rapidly rewritten and parts of it reshot, with Billie Piper brought in for the regeneration without any consideration as to how it would be explained away. The result was a relatively weak and disjointed closing story, which was a shame given all the build-up to it, including the promise of a greater role for Carole Ann Ford returning as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan Foreman.

Things have been very unclear ever since. But now, finally, we have some certainty, even if it’s created more uncertainty as a result…

The Doctor Forever

With all the rumours flying around after the series had concluded, the BBC knew they had to reassure fans that they’re still committed to the show. So in August 2025 Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips told the audience at the Edinburgh TV Festival:

“Any Whovians out there, rest assured: Doctor Who is going nowhere. Disney has been a great partnership and it continues with The War Between The Land And The Sea next year. But going forward, with or without Disney, Doctor Who will still be on the BBC. The Tardis is going nowhere.”

That was unsurprising but still good to hear. Then in October 2025 it was announced that the show would be continuing with a Christmas special in 2026, so that Russell T Davies could sort out the Billie Piper cliffhanger. And it was also confirmed that Disney will no longer be involved, which was again no surprise. They never really seemed to care about the show in a big way.

As stated by Kate Phillips above, we did then get the final part of the Disney deal with the UNIT spin-off called The War Between The Land And The Sea, which was shown in 5 parts over 3 weeks in December 2025. So that was very interesting to watch. It had its flaws for sure, but it was good on the whole, especially the story arc for Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (played by Jemma Redgrave).

Then in February this year, composer Murray Gold was asked about the Christmas special on the Half the Picture podcast, to which he replied:

“I know that Russell’s written, I think, multiple versions depending on certain outcomes. So that’s all I really know, and I’m not sure [that] I’m even supposed to know that.”

So it felt like things were moving forward, and there wasn’t necessarily any reason to worry. It’s not unusual for Christmas specials to be filmed as late as the autumn, so the lack of further news about it wasn’t particularly a surprise, especially if they were trying to keep the story or the new Doctor a secret.

Silence Will Fall

In May it was then reported by The Sun that the special could be scrapped or delayed, but everyone with common sense dismissed it as speculative nonsense because… well… it’s The Sun. They often make claims about TV shows, films, celebrities, etc that turn out to be partly or entirely false, because it’s their modus operandi as a gossip paper. It’s easy to claim that a random, anonymous “source” or “insider” has said something, because nobody knows who it is in order to ask them, and if it’s proved wrong then the paper can just blame that mysterious person, if they even exist. As long as what they’re printing can’t be considered defamatory about anyone under the law, it’s easy to get away with it.

But this appears to be one of those few occasions where they’ve got something right. Or, at least, they’ve got lucky by feeding off people’s speculation and just happened to be partly accurate.

That’s because this week, on Wednesday 10 June, we had a flurry of announcements to say that:

• The Christmas special has been cancelled
• Showrunner Russell T Davies has stepped down
• Bad Wolf will no longer be making the show

There were also farewell messages from producer Jane Tranter and casting director Andy Pryor, and maybe other team members have posted as well. It’s a shame to see the crew being disbanded, because they’ve done such an incredible job.

So The Sun did predict, either knowingly or by chance, the special’s cancellation. However, they were wrong to say that the special could be pushed back to Easter 2027, because that’s clearly not happening. There’s also no evidence to support the claim that they can’t find anyone to play the next Doctor. Indeed, I find that very hard to believe, as there are countless possibilities. The reasoning is likely to be more complicated than that. It may be down to disagreements between Russell and the BBC, or issues with funding, or any number of other possible causes. We know it’s been a mess behind the scenes, and we know some of the reasons why, but we don’t know the full story. We might find out more as time goes on, or we may not.

What we do now know for sure is that the BBC are putting Doctor Who out to competitive tender, so a new production company can take it on. That doesn’t affect the animated series for pre-school children that’s already in production, which could help to draw a new generation into the Whoniverse.

It therefore means that the show is going on hiatus again. Hopefully it won’t be as long as the Wilderness period between 1989 and 2005, but it’s probably going to be a couple of years at the very least before we see a new episode, and it could easily be longer.

It is of course disappointing, and it also feels like we’ve been lied to, as we were promised a special they clearly weren’t ready to deliver, and Russell’s claim that the special had never been written seems rather at odds with Murray’s statement that several scripts had been done. My guess is that Russell is technically correct when he says “There was no script, I never wrote it”, and that Murray is kind of right in his belief that multiple versions were written. It’s entirely possible that Russell wrote several story outlines for the special, but either wasn’t happy with any of them or the BBC wouldn’t give their approval, and so he didn’t get around to writing an actual script. Perhaps he was sacked because he couldn’t get it sorted out in time. We just don’t know. But Russell’s wording does make it clear that a script hasn’t been written regardless, which seems to confirm he had no idea what he was going to do with Billie Piper when he shoehorned her into the end of the last series, otherwise he’d have hit the ground running on it.

But that does all mean that this is the best decision, as hard as it is, because of the state the show has got itself into. Russell has been an amazing showrunner and we have had some enjoyable episodes since he returned, but overall his second era just hasn’t been as good as his first. And Disney are partly to blame for that as well, I think there were some creative conflicts there.

New Adventures

So it does need a fresh start. It had a fantastic 20-year run as a result of the last reboot, which we owe a lot of thanks to Russell for. But it’s time for another one, and that’s fair enough. The show has always evolved and will continue to do so. It’s in a unique position where it’s able to do that in ways that other shows simply can’t.

The BBC won’t want to get rid of it either, because it’s far too big an asset for them to just drop it, especially at a time when they need all the revenue they can get. They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of hooking up with a giant like Disney in the first place if they weren’t that bothered. Even the Classic era still pulls in a reasonable audience and income stream, plus there are the rights to all the audio stories, printed books, merchandise, events, etc that they must make quite a bit from. The new tender announcement also says that the show remains the property of the BBC, so they’ll still be very protective of it even if they bring in another production company.

I know some people say that it’s a poisoned chalice that nobody will want to take on, but I very much doubt that. It’s far too big for that and has far too much potential. It just needs the right people to steer it in the right direction, which could be a slightly different direction than before in order to refresh it.

So I think there will be plenty of people and organisations who will be interested in helping to make the show, provided the BBC are sensible and don’t constrain them too much. Not only will it give them a decent bit of publicity and revenue, but there plenty of Doctor Who fans in the entertainment industry who would fall over themselves to put their stamp on it. Just look at the 7 years of effort Philip Segal put in to get the 1996 Doctor Who movie off the ground – the documentary about that on the new Blu-ray, which I’ll be posting a review of very shortly, is fascinating. And then there’s the work put into the modern series by Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, which has in turn produced another generation of fans. Russell was the right person at the right time in 2005, but he’s not the best person for the job now, so it’s time to move on.

And even if the budget is lower than it has been recently, it’s hardly going to be a showstopper either, as it was doing perfectly well long before Disney got involved. Creative people are just that – extremely creative – especially when resources are limited so they have to think outside the box. Plus technology continues to improve in leaps and bounds, making it easier to do special effects than it’s ever been. So even with less funding they would still be able to do incredible things, as any long-term fans will know. It’s getting well-written stories that’s the most important thing.

So it will be interesting and exciting for the show to have a new look again, and I don’t mind if the BBC want to take their time picking the best people for the job. I’d rather they didn’t rush it just for the sake of getting the show back on the air as quickly as possible. I don’t want them to take forever either – we really don’t want a 16-year gap this time – but if it takes a few years then so be it. If it’s anything like 2005, it’ll be well worth the wait.

A decision will also then need to be made about how to deal with the Billie Piper regeneration, as they’ll either need to write a story about it (if she’s even still available when the time comes), or ignore it and start afresh with a new Doctor (as in 2005), or retcon it somehow so it never happened. The middle option may well be the best one there, and the backstory could still potentially be filled in later (like it was for Paul McGann’s regeneration). If the finale last year had been left open-ended, without us seeing who Ncuti regenerated into, it would have made things a lot easier. We could also do with renaming the last 2 seasons as Series 14 and 15, instead of Seasons 1 & 2, as when it returns we might get another fresh start to the numbering, just to confuse things.

Conclusion

Ultimately, therefore, we don’t know when the show will return. It’s clearly going to be a while now, quite possibly a few years. But hopefully it won’t be too long, and it will help if the BBC can give updates every so often to keep reassuring people that they haven’t forgotten about it. After all, in this world of social media, a lot of fans aren’t going to let this lie. As with many things in life, I have a rose-tinted (Billie pun intended) positive view of the future, so I’m looking forward to whatever we get next.

In the meantime, I’m about to post my review of the Doctor Who movie from 1996, as it’s the first time I’ve watched it in ages, and all of the special features on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray are completely new to me, as I’ve never owned it in any format before.

Then in the months ahead I’m going to carry on rewatching the earlier series of the modern era for my ongoing set of reviews. So that’ll keep me going for a while as I revisit Peter Capaldi’s and Jodie Whittaker’s adventures. I’ll now be able to finish those well in advance of the show’s return.

And after that there are plenty of other things for me to enjoy of course. I might finally try listening to some of the audiobooks for the modern Doctors, for example, as I’ve never gone through those before, and now I have more time on my hands I am getting back into books a bit more. So that would give me a wealth of new stories to dive into for Doctors I’m already familiar with. Big Finish are going to do rather well from the TV show’s absence I suspect, as they’ll continue producing new material. Or I could have a look at the Classic era more closely, although that would take a huge amount of time to get through. And there are loads of other things I want to watch that have no relation to Doctor Who whatsoever. So I won’t be bored!