Back into the TARDIS for a Period of Time

Recently the BBC announced that the 2026 Christmas special for Doctor Who, which had been announced back in 2025, had been cancelled and that Doctor WhoThe longest running sci-fi franchise (at least in terms of sheer seasons), Doctor Who has seen cancelations, relaunches, and reboots, but the core of the series remains the same: a madman in a box traveling through time and space. was going into a period of redevelopment for some time. This came after Disney had previously announced that they wouldn’t be renewing their production deal with the BBC, ending production on the main series after two full seasons (and a handful of specials), along with just a single season of the spin-off series, The War Between Land and Sea.

To be honest, I didn’t find this announcement all that surprising. Much had been made about the development deal between Disney and the BBC. It came after the previous era of Doctor Who, the run under the leadership of showrunner Chris Chibnal, had resulted in greatly diminished ratings for the series and general hate from the show’s dedicated fanbase. BBC decided they needed to break out the big guns, so they brought back the man that had previously successful revitalized Doctor Who, the man who found a way to resurrect the series in 2005 after it had functionally been off the air for nearly two decades (barring one television movie): Russell T. Davies.

Everyone assumed that Davies would be able to right the ship, but as it turned out Davies’s run was at least as big of a disaster as Chibnal’s, if not worse. It started off well enough, with three decent specials featuring David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor ("The Star Beast", "Wild Blue Yonder", and "The Giggle"). The specials weren’t perfect, but it did feel like the show had something of the old magic once more. However, it quickly fell apart during Ncuti Gatwa’s run as the Fifteenth Doctor. Gatwa was great, but much like how Chinbal’s run during the time of the Thirteenth Doctor was plagued by terrible stories that let down Thirteen’s actress, Jodie Whittaker, Davies’s stories ruined all the magic Gatwa could bring to the role. Ratings were bad, and they got worse as Gatwa’s two seasons went on, until Disney walked away from the whole affair.

The recent announcement about the cancellation of the 2026 Christmas special also brought the news that Davies was leaving the series, and that his production company, Bad Wolf, would no longer be in charge of Doctor Who going forward. That makes sense, really, considering his team bungled the whole Disney era of the show. It was also plagued by issues on set, with Gatwa leaving the series early due to issues he had working with Davies (which is shades of Christopher Eccleston’s time as the Ninth Doctor when he, too, left the series after on-set issues with Davies). All told, Davies was not the man that helped resurrect Doctor Who a second time. Instead he’s the man that helped to bury it once more.

Part of the news for the series is that the BBC is looking for a new production partner to help work on the show. Doctor Who is not a cheap show to make and, at this point, the Beeb can’t easily soak the costs of production all on their own. They need a production partner that can help get the cash needed to fund new seasons while also bringing in fresh ideas that can revitalize and resurrect the series. They need someone that can do what Davies did back in 2005: make Doctor Who interesting again. It just, obviously, isn’t going to be Davies.

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t really sure that Davies coming back was a good call. I wrote an article about just that when it was announced a few years ago, and at the time I said there was a solid chance that Davies could bring fans back to the show, but that he did seem to care more about bombast than heart and good storytelling. His run guiding Fourteen and Fifteen certainly justified my opinions. There were high points, certainly, but there was a whole lot of bombast as well without all of it really making sense. Hell, I thought the run under Fifteen was so bad that, much like I had with Whittaker’s Thirteen, I tuned out before I even reached the end of a season. Davies didn’t have what was needed, despite it feeling like everything could come back together.

Now that Davies is gone, the big question is where the series goes from here. We won’t have any new Doctor Who this year at all. Nor next year, as there’s nothing even in production, and even a special takes a long time to get going. Hell, right now we don’t even have a main actor or actress for the role. While Gatwa did regenerate into Billie Piper (who had previously played Rose Tyler during the first couple of seasons of the 2005 run), making her technically the Sixteenth Doctor, she hasn’t been signed to return for the role and, by all reports, she’s passed on playing the Doctor going forward.

So that’s no production team, no showrunner, and no Doctor. Even the Beeb knows this means the show will go into hibernation for some time. Their press release notes that it might be five years, or more, before Doctor Who gets back on the air again. This will be the longest that the series has been out of production since it came back in 2005 and while that’s nothing in comparison to the twenty years it was off the air when it was first cancelled, it’s hard to know if it’ll just be five years or whether that might stretch on… and on…

With that said, I actually think the series taking a break is a good thing. The original run of the series (from 1963 to 1986) eventually stumbled with fans, as a terrible Doctor (the Sixth, played by Colin Baker) damaged ratings and sent the series into a tailspin that even the next Doctor (Seven, played by Sylvester McCoy) couldn’t save it from. The 2005 iteration was on the air for almost as long, and it ran into a similar issue: two terrible runs under two Doctors that alienated fans, sending the series into a tailspin. And as with the previous time it went off the air, what might just be needed is a long break so that new blood, and fresh ideas, can find a way to resurrect the series once more.

The concept of Doctor Who is still solid. A traveler through space and time who can go anywhere, and anywhen, with the press of a button in his magic blue box. You can tell a plethora of stories with that concept, and the series has done just that, with forty years of adventures without a major reboot. The 2005 series preserved most of the continuity of the original run (and even the movie) while finding a fresh angle to explore the series. There’s no doubt that with enough time off a new showrunner can find their own angle that can, once more, make Doctor Who fresh and interesting again. All they need is enough time to pass so that fans are willing to give the show a chance again.

In the end, then, I think that this is really what the series needs. While it would have been nice if Davies could have refreshed the show and made it interesting again, just like he had two decades earlier, that didn’t happen. The show is struggling and the BBC has finally realized that it needs a break, new blood and new ideas. Five years (which is likely how long it will take, at least) to revamp the show and get it rolling again isn’t really that bad. By the time it comes back plenty of the actors that appeared on the series, including most of the recent Doctors, will still be alive and kicking, so we can even get crossovers then. A break is what the series needs, and as I fan I welcome it.

And then when the show comes back, after a nice break and ready to roar again, I’ll welcome that too. I love the series, but I think right now a break is for the best.