Doctor Who Social Club

It’s strange, in many ways, to be back, or at least back under these circumstances, watching Doctor Who tick down to the first time since Time of the Doctor [2013] that an episode will air when the next episode hasn’t been shot. And that was a two week period towards a commissioned episode—Deep Breath shot in January [2014]. Here we head towards the great unknown, perhaps even the wilderness. It’s faintly unsettling—I’ve not written about Doctor Who in a moment where it might not come back before.

— Elisabeth Sandifer, in her review of "The robot revolution"

I'm not going to wallow in predictions of doom and gloom here, just note that what Sandifer outlines here is fairly out of the ordinary. It certainly shows that the joint venture with Disney hasn't played out as expected.

To rewind a little, when Russell T Davies returned as a showrunner, he announced that an initially two-season distribution deal with Disney+ would guarantee a steady pace of one season plus a christmas special per year, no gap years.

The part of this not spoke out loud was the implied expectation that Disney would be blown away by the first new season and just set up a recurring allowance. In that case, the BBC, Davies, and Bad Wolf Productions would get to work on season 3 and 4 before the second one had even aired. It seems everybody expected to start shooting early this year; Ncuti Gatwa said as much on a talk show.

Well... that didn't happen, in part because the streaming market has gotten ever tighter, but presumably also due to the show not quite performing to Disney's expectations — Gatwa's live remarks were edited out in the streaming version. Instead, the House of the Mouse has decided to remain undecided on future funding until season 2 has aired. So you see that planned production buffer that ensured yearly seasons without gaps? Yeah, no. That's because it isn't there anymore.

Even if Disney agree to distribute another season or two, we should definitely expect a gap year until we see new Who episodes again (not counting the upcoming War between the land and the sea spin-off). First hitch is, if the BBC doesn't secure another deal with Disney, they'll have to find a new funding partner. The Beeb is in fairly dire financial straits, certainly in terms of producing a costly, effects-heavy show like Doctor Who.

Second hitch — leaving an in-demand young star like Ncuti Gatwa hanging when he expected to be working through the first half of the year could turn out to cost Doctor Who its lead. Gatwa will be playing on stage during fall, so that's pretty much any slim hope of a christmas special for 2025 shot down. The rumour mill has it he has checked out of the show entirely by now, but that remains unconfirmed.

Overall it seems we need to acknowledge that Davies' grand plan has suffered a severe setback. Maybe a new season will appear in 2027 at the earliest? But then. with what international partner? And featuring which actor in the lead? We're in for interesting times, I suppose.

Note: I didn't source all information in the above beside the Sandifer quote, but I'm 99% certain I can dig up references to support everything without resorting to pure speculation. Or, a quick online search could get you similar results without me having to :)

Also, I know our mod @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website isn't keen on speculation and Fantasy Football-esque media analyses, so give me a heads up if this is completely OT for this community.