Veteran DOCTOR WHO writer reveals why he thinks the franchise is now ‘as dead as we’ve ever known it’
When the BBC announced a partnership with Disney+ in October 2022, the idea was to bring together Doctor Who to a wider global audience than ever before. In exchange for the show’s broadcast rights, the House of Mouse pumped money into the long-running sci-fi series, leading to a long-overdue big-budget revamp.
Unfortunately, even with better effects and bigger guest stars like Frozenit’s Jonathan Groff, Doctor Who has not proven itself in terms of ratings, neither on television nor in streaming. Reviews for both seasons and the seasonal specials were mixed, and many fans rejected showrunner Russell T Davies’ “woke” take on Time Lord.
Netflix and HBO Max would be expected to replace Disney+ if the streamer decides to leave the TARDIS. We also heard that, if necessary, the BBC would continue to produce Doctor Who without a partner, even if that means fewer episodes per year and a smaller budget.
It’s been months since we’ve had a definitive update on the future of the series. As we first reported on SFFGazette.com, Doctor Who Magazine spoke with Robert Shearman, a writer who worked on both the TV series, including the classic 2005 episode “Dalek,” and several novels and audio adventures.
Address the current state of Doctor Who frankness, he said, “I go through phases. I have a real push/pull thing with the show. Right now I’m in a ‘pull’ phase. It’s weird because the show is probably as dead as we’ve ever known it.”
Shearman explained that the show was “dead” saying, “After 1989 we had a current Doctor for years. Now anything produced in Doctor Who terms is going to seem backwards. At least with the New Adventures and then the BBC Books. [original novels published in the nineties] you thought, “It’s the current Doctor – McCoy or McGann.” »”
“No one is going to start writing Doctor Who books with a Doctor Billie Piper, because no one knows what that means.” added the writer. “In a funny way, the final moments of The Reality War seem to bring things to a close. We didn’t have that before. I don’t know if it’s important, but it’s a strange thing: it made me want to accept it, because all of Doctor Who feels like it’s in its own bubble.”
Davies is well and truly gone Doctor Who in a difficult situation. When the series was taken off the air in 1989 (before finally returning in 2005), it left plenty of room for new stories to tell with the then-current status quo of doctors Sylvester McCoy or Paul McGann.
However, with so much ambiguity as to who or what Piper is playing (she hasn’t even been introduced as the new Doctor), the Doctor Who the franchise remains stuck in limbo, in more ways than one.
Check back here regularly for updates on Doctor Whothe future as we have it.
