We recently learned that the BBC had decided to pull the plug on Russell T Davies' largely unpopular second stint on Doctor Who. His Christmas Special was scrapped, and the show has been put out to "tender," meaning the broadcaster is seeking a new partner to produce the series.
TV insider, author, and Taskmaster host Richard Osman has now weighed in, revealing insights from several people behind the scenes who have clarified what all this means and whether the Time Lord still has a future on our screens.
Low ratings and complaints from unhappy fans have plagued Doctor Who for years, with Chris Chibnall's stint in the TARDIS often viewed as the beginning of the end. However, Davies' "woke" stories were the straw that broke the camel's back for many Whoniverse lovers.
According to Osman, "What happened was, 2025, Disney pull out, the BBC are still absolutely saying 'no, we'll carry on with Doctor Who, what we'll do is put this out to tender in 2028/2029.' At which point everyone says, 'Let's do a Christmas special to bridge the gap.'"
"And because the BBC were dealing with [the legal case involving President] Trump and Charlotte Moore, who was the chief content officer, was leaving and Kate Phillips was coming in, there was a lot of churn at this point."
"As soon as Kate Phillips got her feet under the table she said, 'Let's put it out to tender at this point, because the whole point of putting it out to tender is it's a big deal for us, it's the opposite of saying we're going to rest it, it's the opposite of saying we're putting it out to pasture," he continued. "We want to give it multiple series, we now need production companies to pitch.'"
"As soon as you say you're putting it out to tender, you can't make the Christmas special, because the canon of the show will be affected so much by what they were about to do with [the regeneration of] Ncuti Gatwa to Billie Piper. You can't lay that on companies who are working on where they'll take the Doctor Who universe."
"If you're about to drop an enormous Christmas-shaped bomb in the middle of that, it makes that process impossible for everyone," Osman added.
Davies' cliffhanger will now go unresolved, though the next creative team will surely need to do something to address Billie Piper's return (still, many fans would likely be okay with the entirety of Davies' return being ignored).
While Disney+, disappointed by Doctor Who's streaming numbers, decided to jump ship, Osman believes that "the fact is they're doing it all suggests the ratings are there for the BBC," explaining that the series' future "has to be an awful lot cheaper. But you can do that with Doctor Who, it has always been about emotion and storyline rather than CGI."
"The BBC tender a lot of things, and there has not been a single thing they've tendered which has not gone on to multiple [seasons] after," Osman concluded. "They've never done a tender and then gone, 'Oh we'll get rid of this,' or done one more [season]. Every tender the BBC has ever done is for shows they're absolutely committed to and want to go forward with. It is the opposite of [kicking it into] the long grass, it is the short grass."
This is a positive update, but it doesn't change the fact that Doctor Who is expected to be gone for at least five years. That might be what's best for the series in the long run, of course, but it will still sting for fans who thought the future looked bright just a couple of years ago.
Now, Davies is gone (initially, his return was met with widespread excitement) and so is that influx of cash from Disney. Can a reboot save Doctor Who? For now, we'll have to wait and see.