It’s been to the ends of the universe and survived man-eating slugs, murderous statues and the bubonic plague, but Doctor Who may have never faced a challenge quite so gruelling as the year 2025. Back in May, Ncuti Gatwa, the 15th Doctor, announced he was stepping down from the long-running sci-fi show after just two years – the shortest tenure for any Time Lord since Christopher “one-and-done” Eccleston. This week, it was confirmed that Disney’s deal with the BBC to co-produce new seasons of Doctor Who is also ending.
The Disney deal had proved a controversial talking point among the Who faithful; the idea was that a cash injection from a US streaming service would boost the show’s audience, shore up its finances and secure its future. But disastrously low viewing figures mean that both the Beeb and Disney will have failed to recoup their investment. For a show about a figure who can regenerate, it feels ironic that Doctor Who is once again having to transform in order to endure.
To be clear, this isn’t curtains for Doctor Who – not yet anyway. The BBC has confirmed it will return to our screens for a Christmas special in 2026, written by showrunner Russell T Davies. BBC drama director Lindsay Salt has stated: “The Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course.” Meanwhile, a spin-off series called The War Between the Land and the Sea – another joint venture between Disney and the BBC – will air later this year. That a children’s animated series based on Doctor Who is also in the works would suggest the brand is still seen as valuable and viable.
Nonetheless, the augurs for the main series’ long-term future aren’t good. At a time when audiences are increasingly fragmented and spread across multiple platforms, Doctor Who can no longer command the numbers it did in its pomp. In 1979, during Tom Baker’s tenure, a single episode pulled in 16.1 million viewers; by contrast, figures for the most recent series starring Gatwa, which aired in 2024, saw the lowest-rated episode fall to just 2.7 million viewers over seven days – a low for the series. Add to that prohibitive production expenditure – each episode said to cost in the region of £10m – and, for the BBC, the numbers simply don’t add up.
Matters have been worsened this year by Gatwa’s departure: you can’t blame him for wanting out, but it’s a blow. Audiences tend to take their time getting to know and love a new Doctor. Having him or her regenerate every two years doesn’t exactly foster devotion. The last series finale saw Gatwa’s character seemingly hand over the reins to Billie Piper – a former Doctor’s sidekick, now mysteriously promoted – in a twist that must now prove itself to be something other than a desperate Hail Mary.
Of course, debating the future of Doctor Who has long been a national sport, up there with trying to guess the identity of the next James Bond, or arguing about the order in which jam and cream should go on scones. On one level, who cares? In the age of Too Much Telly, what is the problem if a franchise that has run its course is canned? But Doctor Who isn’t the same as other franchises. It’s an institution that has been going on and off for 60 years and is embedded in the national psyche. It is as significant and worthy of devotion to its fans – most of whom will have watched since childhood – as a favourite football team. And like football teams, it is prey to budgetary pressures, lineup changes and the whims of businesspeople – many of whom have limited knowledge about the intricacies of the game. To this end, the separation from Disney may be something of a blessing.
That this heritage series is struggling to justify its existence is clearly indicative of a broader quandary at the BBC: how to make ends meet, and create genuinely brilliant dramas, in the face of dwindling audiences and a reluctance among viewers and government to support the licence fee. How the BBC should fund itself is a debate for another day. But partnering with Disney was a bold experiment that failed in part because Doctor Who doesn’t mean to the rest of the world what it means to people in Britain. And putting it on a platform that also houses flashy and expensive sci-fi series such as the Star Wars series Andor (with a reported two-season budget of $650m) was always going to make it look small by comparison.
We will have to wait and see whether the BBC will go it alone for future seasons or shop it around other streaming platforms – or if it will go on enforced hiatus. My money is on it being picked up by another streamer. Should the corporation take it in-house, the reduced budget would likely show on screen – and Davies, who has talked about building a Whoniverse along the lines of Marvel’s sprawling MCU, is unlikely to want this. The Doctor has, of course, vanquished more ferocious enemies than the bean-counters at the BBC. But whether a Time Lord can fight off viewer apathy is another thing altogether.
