Russell T. Davies Doesn’t Know What Will Happen To Doctor Who
That’s above his pay grade.
Doctor Who has been a British institution for over half a century. Sure, it’s woven in and out of favor with the viewing public, and even was taken off the air for a few years, but it’s always remained part of pop culture. But in 2023, Disney got involved, co-producing the series along with the BBC. This meant amped-up production value, but by the time the second season of this new iteration of the series ended, it looked like the show may not come back at all.
Now, the showrunner of the series is warning viewers that the decision to continue the show or not isn’t up to him: it’s in the hands of not one, but two, different massive corporations.
Russell T. Davies may be the showrunner of Doctor Who, but some decisions are out of his hands.
Russell T. Davies brought the show back from the void back in 2005, and after leaving in 2010, he came back in 2023 to usher in the new era. But during an appearance on the Pilot TV podcast, he warned that he doesn’t have any say in those decisions. “Conversations are between the BBC and Disney,” Davies said. “I don’t work for either of them. I work for Bad Wolf, so I’m not part of those rooms.” Bad Wolf Productions is Davies’ production company, named for a major plot point during the 2005 Doctor Who reboot.
What’s more, Davies doesn’t even really have access to the people who are in those conversations. “Even people I work with every day, so they couldn’t know what’s really going on. I’m going, ‘I don’t know.’ I really don’t know.”
Doctor Who’s fate has been floating in space since Season 2 ended earlier this year.
Davies has been making ominous statements like this for months, with rumors flying that the show is headed for a “big pause.” But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the series. The major business factor that has changed from this version of Doctor Who to the last is Disney’s involvement. It’s possible that, even if Disney exits its partnership to distribute the show, the BBC can take over the whole series once again. It would mean a smaller budget and less accessibility for American fans, but it would mean we’d get more of the actual show.
There’s no telling when we’ll find out Doctor Who’s true fate, but at the very least now we know if it ends, it won’t be a creative decision — it’ll be purely business. At least we’ll have that shocking cliffhanger and a still-upcoming spinoff.
