“It’s the end… but the moment has been prepared for.” Rarely have Tom Baker’s last words as Doctor Who‘s Fourth Doctor felt so very appropriate; the world’s longest-running TV show is destined to regenerate itself once again, with the end of the BBC’s Disney+ partnership. Current showrunner Russell T. Davies is confirmed to be working on a 2026 Christmas Special, and the BBC will press on with another season after that – likely without Davies at the helm.
It’s all such a disappointment. Davies was the architect of the 2025 relaunch, and his Doctor Who return was seen as a chance for the show to get on a better footing after poor viewership and critical reception during the tenure of Chris Chibnall. But the Disney era of Doctor Who simply never performed how it should have; ratings remained low, with the latest season failing to register in Nielsen and Luminate’s streaming charts. Doctor Who insiders are already openly conducting inquests on the partnership, even as the BBC begin to plan for the future.
Such inquests are, of course, necessary. Doctor Who has relaunched itself many times over the last 62 years; every regeneration is an opportunity for the show to reinvent itself. Some of these has worked (think Russell T. Davies’ first era), and others have fallen flat (Paul McGann’s 1996 movie sadly failed to find its audience). If the BBC is to secure the show’s future, it’s vital that the right lessons are learned.
Doctor Who has always operated on a shoestring budget, and the pressure has been even greater in recent years; the streaming boom led to incredible budgets for sci-fi TV shows that the BBC simply couldn’t compete with. A co-production partnership seemed the only way to make the show work, with Disney money allowing Doctor Who a budget of $8.5 million per episode. The cost per viewership is likely a major reason Disney has now pulled out of the deal, because Doctor Who didn’t deliver what it needed to in the ratings.
In truth, precious few streaming shows have really seemed to justify the money spent on them; for every Andor there is The Acolyte. The streaming bubble has finally burst, though, and we’re unlikely to see future shows enjoy anything like Stranger Things (season 5’s budget is estimated to be between $50 million and $60 million per episode). Given the changes happening in the industry, the BBC can now choose to give Doctor Who a more reasonable budget. With slick management, that will be fine.
2005’s Doctor Who revival worked in part because Russell T. Davies hit upon a smart approach; the companion was as well-developed as the Doctor, sometimes moreso. It was an idea the show had been experimenting with prior to its 1989 cancellation, with Sophie Aldred’s Ace given much deeper characterization than many other classic companions, but Davies went one step further. He made the companion the viewpoint character, the lens through which viewers experienced the Doctor. The relationship between the Doctor and their companions became the emotional core of the show, giving it heart.
This, in large part, is why the last few seasons of Doctor Who have fallen flat. The Chibnall era focused more on Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, to the extent that a ground-breaking LGBTQ romance felt like it was tossed in with precious little signposting. Davies spent a great deal of time with Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, but she left after season 14, and Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra never had any consistent development. In fact, many viewers believe Belinda’s entire season 15 story was originally intended for Ruby, with the new companion only created because Gibson wanted to spend less time on the show.
This lack of individual development has robbed Doctor Who of its emotional core. Viewers don’t resonate as strongly with recent companions as they do with the likes of Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond, or Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble. If Doctor Who is to successfully regenerate itself again, this companion focus needs to be restored.
But it’s not enough for Doctor Who to just focus on its companions; there needs to be a renewed sense of conflict between the Doctor and the people traveling with them. There were promising signs of this in Belinda’s debut episode, “The Robot Revolution,” when she called Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor out for scanning her DNA without permission. We finally seemed to have a companion with a sense of agency, an unwilling traveller who would call the Doctor out, but that whole idea was pretty much forgotten by the very next episode.
Character conflict has always been at the heart of Doctor Who in the past. The first companions were essentially kidnapped by a Doctor who wanted to hide his existence from the authorities, Ace was manipulated by a Machiavellian Doctor she didn’t trust, and David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor treated Freema Agyeman’s Martha so badly because he was still getting over Rose. The closest we’ve come to this in recent years was in the tense dynamic between the Thirteenth Doctor and Mandip Gill’s Yaz, which was borderline abusive at times (but was then forgotten rather than faced).
The Doctor is an alien with an unfathomably cosmic perspective, and there are decisions the Doctor will make that appal his companions because they do not share such a long view. Conflict should be inevitable, with the companion only learning to trust the Doctor as time passes – or, perhaps, never quite trusting them. If Doctor Who is to flourish, then this needs to be remembered.
Back in 2005, Davies took a smart approach when it came to relaunching Doctor Who. He deliberately dialled down on the continuity, creating the Time War as a sort of cosmic reset; the Doctor’s homeworld of Gallifrey was destroyed to establish a new status quo, and classic villains were brought back slowly over the years. All that has changed in recent years, with Chibnall and the returning Davies increasingly focused on selling nostalgia to older viewers.
Chibnall started off strongly, choosing not to use any classic monsters in season 11 (but unfortunately failing to create any compelling new ones). His controversial Timeless Child retcon soon became the core of his tenure as showrunner, though, and that retcon prioritizes lore over character; it builds a long-forgotten plot from the end of the classic era, and is rooted in an idea from the 1976 story “The Brain of Morbius.” Meanwhile, Davies’ two latest seasons have both brought back classic monsters who only mean something to long-term viewers – as the “big bads” of the seasons no less.
Davies was right the first time. Doctor Who is the world’s longest-running sci-fi TV show precisely because it possesses the ability to regenerate itself, to make itself new. A relentless focus on canon, continuity, and lore defeats the whole point of that regeneration. It stilts the show’s growth, meaning new viewers are lost about what’s going on or why they should even care. Nostalgia can be a powerful storytelling tool, but it is the worst master possible.
Every hero is only as good as their villains. Doctor Who‘s monsters have always been iconic; think of the Daleks and the Cybermen as the classic examples, or the Master as the Moriarty to the Doctor’s Sherlock Holmes. The revival introduced new creatures such as the Weeping Angels, the Ood, the Vashta Nerada, and so many more. The last few seasons haven’t landed so well, focusing on new villains who failed to command attention or bringing back monsters that had been largely forgotten by all but the most hardcore fans.
The Weeping Angels and the Vashta Nerada show just to make the best Doctor Who monsters; they take something that is part of everyday life, and they turn it upside down. The Weeping Angels are basically creepy moving statues, gargoyles of the type you’ll see in most British towns and cities. The Vashta Nerada are living shadows, speaking to the ancient fear of the dark. It’s a pattern Doctor Who has followed so many times before, with everything from the Autons (animated shop window dummies) to the Krynoids (monstrous plants). The best Doctor Who stories take these everyday ideas, twisting them into something genuinely scary, famously leaving children gripped but behind the sofa.
Who is the great villain of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor era? Probably Sacha Dhawan’s Master, a villain who originated in 1979. But it’s not even possible to figure out which stand-out villain we’re going to see again from the Ncuti Gatwa era; Jinkx Monsoon’s Maestro is probably the best, but it’s impossible to see a scenario where that character can return without it feeling derivative of “The Devil’s Chord.”
It’s time for Doctor Who to send kids behind the sofa again, with a new generation of villains – ones who prove the infinite potential of a show transcending time and space.
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