Earlier this week, comments from a former Doctor Who writer, Robert Shearman, went viral after he shared his opinion that the long-running sci-fi TV series is "as dead as we've ever known."
He was referring to the Season 2 cliffhanger, which saw Ncuti Gatwa's Time Lord regenerate into Billie Piper, the actress who played Rose when Doctor Who was revived by Russell T Davies in 2005. However, we don't know whether she's playing the new Doctor, "Bad Wolf," or something else entirely.
Shearman's point was that the ambiguity has made it near-impossible for tie-in material to continue telling Doctor Who stories at a time when it seems the BBC is close to shelving the property thanks to low viewership, negative reviews, and a deal with Disney+ that the streamer reportedly wants out of.
Now, Doctor Who executive producer Jane Tranter has hit back at the writer's comments during an interview with BBC Radio Wales (via Deadline). "That’s really rude, actually," she stated. " And really untrue."
"The plans for Doctor Who are really simply this: the BBC and BBC Studios had a partnership with Disney+ for 26 episodes," Tranter added. "We are currently 21 episodes down into that 26-episode run. We have got another five episodes of [spin-off series] The War Between The Land And The Sea to come."
"At some point after that, decisions will be made together with all of us about what the future of Doctor Who entails."
"It’s a 60-year-old franchise. It’s been going for 20 years nonstop since we brought it back in 2005 [when I worked at the BBC]. You would expect it to change, wouldn’t you?" she continued. "Nothing continues the same always, or it shouldn’t continue the same always. So it will change in some form or another."
"But the one thing we can all be really clear about is that the Doctor will be back and everyone, including me, including all of us, just has to wait patiently to see when — and who."
We don't doubt that Doctor Who will eventually return, but there's still a huge amount of uncertainty surrounding what happens if—or when—Disney+ pulls the plug on this deal and removes the cash injection which has given the series a big-budget feel. There's also the question of how closely involved Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf will be, given that—rightly or wrongly—this latest revival has been deemed a failure.
Doctor Who has been running on fumes for a while now, with many viewers walking away from the series during Chris Chibnall's run as showrunner. Jodie Whittaker was in the TARDIS at that time, and the hope had been that Davies' return would restore the franchise to its former glory. Instead, ratings continued to decline, the show didn't find an international audience, and "woke" storylines were widely criticised.
Stay tuned for updates on Doctor Who's future as we have them.