The BBC struck a deal with Disney+ to air Doctor Who in 2022, with the idea that the American media conglomerate could take the franchise to the next level. “They said, ‘We want to make Doctor Who bigger. We want to take it to a streamer. We want to go worldwide. We want it to have a bigger budget. And we want it to be up there with Stranger Things and Star Trek and the Marvel shows,'” Davies explained ahead of the first season premiere in 2024. “We think that it’s good enough, and we believe in the show to know that it can have that heft, weight, and swagger.'”
Davies had successfully re-launched the show in 2005 after a 16-year hiatus and departed in 2010 (succeeded as showrunner by Steven Moffat and later Chris Chibnall). Recruited to once again revive Doctor Who on Disney+, Davies returned to the campy spirit of his early 2000s episodes, but this time even more queer, diverse, and allegorical than before, with Ncuti Gatwa playing the series’ first Black Doctor. Unfortunately, Gatwa’s two seasons were bogged down by complicated lore from the original series (the Pantheon, the Rani, the Doctor’s granddaughter, etc.) and plagued by poor ratings that clearly made Disney rethink the Doctor’s potential as a global franchise.
As a last-minute Hail Mary, Davies had Gatwa’s Doctor regenerate into actor Billie Piper, who played the iconic companion Rose Tyler in the early 2000s. The cliffhanger didn’t keep Disney on board, but this major (and somewhat confusing) twist will likely be explored in the 2026 Christmas special (whether we get a full season of Piper-as-Doctor after that remains to be seen). Disney+ will air the spin-off series The War Between The Land And The Sea, commissioned as part of its original co-production deal, and then hand the keys back to the BBC. There, its long-term future is uncertain as the broadcaster has admitted to facing an “unprecedented content funding challenge.” In early 2025, the publicly-financed service warned that “without intervention, it will be difficult to maintain the current ambition and volume of UK content.”
Nevertheless, the BBC is steadfast in championing the brand. “We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between The Land And The Sea,” Lindsay Salt, the BBC’s Director of Drama, said in a statement. “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 for 2026. 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.”
