Back in 2022, a trio of Jodie Whittaker-era Doctor Who episodes was known as ‘The Flux’. But as it turned out, the real Doctor Who flux was still to come – the recent Ncuti Gatwa era, overseen by returning showrunner Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf productions, with an injection of additional cash from a Disney+ deal, ground to a halt after two seasons, ending in Gatwa’s departure. And since then, there’s been little news on the TARDIS front, other than the announcement of a Christmas Special. Bad news for Whovians: Christmas is cancelled. Or, the Christmas Special is anyway.
The BBC has confirmed that it will no longer be moving ahead with the previously-announced festive episode, and it comes amid a bigger shift in Doctor Who’s fortunes: Davies and Bad Wolf are exiting the show, which the BBC is ‘putting the series out to tender’. (This means that other production companies and creatives will be able to pitch a possible future for the legendary British sci-fi series, the rights for which are fully owned by the BBC.)
“After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode,” an official statement reads. “This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory.” The BBC also confirmed that a previously-announced animated Doctor Who series on kids channel CBeebies will continue its production.
Davies opened up about his exit in an Instagram post. “And so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show,” he wrote. “As a result, there won’t be a Christmas Special – we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who… but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it!”
He also clarified that no progress was made on the proposed Christmas episode: “For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor. You may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You’ll wait a lonnng time.” This marks his second time departing from the TARDIS. “Now I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next!” he wrote. “Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future, vworp vworp.”
It seems some sort of reset is upcoming, then – not necessarily a hurdle for Who, given the show’s in-built notion of Regeneration. But fans will have to wait longer to find out who’ll be running the show, who’ll be twiddling all the knobs of the TARDIS, and find out whether the next run will pick up where Gatwa’s era left off: with the Doctor regenerating into Billie Piper, who previously played beloved companion Rose. Time to get your sonic screwdrivers out, sci-fi writers.
