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Sometimes the answer to one mystery only prompts more questions. That may well be the case with this week’s announcement from the BBC that Doctor Who will return to BBC One with a 2026 Christmas special and a new series to follow, but that the show’s international streaming partnership with Disney+ will end.
There was no indication of who might play the Doctor in next year’s special, which will be written by Russell T Davies and produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios.
The final episode of the 2025 series, The Reality War, appeared to show a departing 15th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, briefly regenerating into Billie Piper. Piper has previously played companion Rose Tyler, although it was notable that she was not credited as “The Doctor”, leaving the future casting of one of British television’s iconic roles very much up in the air.
Lindsay Salt, director of drama at the BBC, said: “We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons. The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special.
“We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course, which will ensure the Tardis remains at the heart of the BBC.”
Fans have already begun speculating, noting that the phrasing of the press release doesn’t confirm that Davies will continue as showrunner, the role he has held – for a second time – since taking the helm for the 60th anniversary specials in 2023. Nor does it commit the BBC to continue to work with Bad Wolf in Cardiff, where the show has been made since its 2005 revival.
Like many high-profile dramas, Doctor Who had been perceived to be struggling, with diminishing linear transmission viewing figures. Episodes in the most recent series were regularly pulling in fewer than 2 million viewers live on BBC One, a historic low for the long-running show. None of the ratings for this year’s episodes, even including iPlayer views after seven days, reached 4 million viewers, a significant slump compared with Jodie Whittaker’s tenure. The Disney deal did not power Doctor Who to be the global streaming hit that both sides of the arrangement must have been hoping for.
While figures have been a closely guarded secret, Disney+ ending their association with the show will inevitably have an impact on the BBC’s budgeting for a programme that had a reputation in the 1970s and 1980s for wobbly sets and bubble wrap monsters, but which has been enjoying an expensive CGI-enhanced glow-up.
Davies once told Doctor Who Magazine that a reported Disney-boosted figure of £10m an episode for the last two seasons was “exaggerated”, with Bad Wolf executive producer Jane Tranter only confirming that the deal with Disney provided “a really good budget for us”.
She suggested, however, that the budget was not on a par with Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, highlighting one of the issues that Doctor Who has faced. In the streaming world it is competing with the likes of Andor and The Last of Us. It faces the scrutiny of an international adult fandom, while the BBC is also still trying to make it a programme that will appeal to families on a Saturday teatime and, crucially for the future of the franchise, give younger viewers an on-ramp to becoming the next generation of lifelong fans.
The Gatwa era has been plagued by rumours of production difficulties behind the scenes, with his decision to leave the lead role after just 18 episodes apparently necessitating reshoots of the season finale. Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan in the very first episode in 1963 and who made a brief return this year, recently suggested during a convention interview that only part of what she had filmed was used. Gatwa’s departure, it seems, had resulted in her storyline being scrapped.
Millie Gibson, who played companion Ruby Sunday, recently spoke out about tabloid coverage labelling her a “diva” on set, which, reports claimed, led to her being dropped in favour of Varada Sethu as the companion for Gatwa’s second series. The former Coronation Street star has claimed she found herself in a situation where she felt she couldn’t speak up to defend herself in case she spoiled future plot developments for viewers.
A spin-off from the show, The War Between the Land and the Sea, starring Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jemma Redgrave and Ruth Madeley, is expected to be broadcast on BBC One later in 2025, marking the end of Doctor Who’s association with Disney.
The BBC has also previously announced that it is exploring options for an animated version of Doctor Who, aimed at a preschool audience, which would run on CBeebies, independently from the main show.
