O Doctor, My Doctor.
Jun. 16th, 2026 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452In a short period of time we've got the announcements that: the 2026 Christmas special for Doctor Who has been cancelled, showrunner Russell T. Davies (along with Bad Wolf TV) is exiting the show, and that the show itself won't be returning to television for some time as it's going to be shopped around.
Contrary to what's been circulating around online, only the Christmas special, which was originally planned to air this year, has been confirmed to be outright cancelled. Otherwise Doctor Who the show is just going on an indefinite hiatus until further notice. Of course this has led to much arguing over semantics, debating and speculating whether it'll just be a handful of years as the tender process is occurring or it could be another decade and a half gap like before, and questioning whether it'll continue where the RTD's Disney Plus version of the show left off or start anew.
So, I have a somewhat an odd and complicated relationship with Doctor Who, as I've watched and loved some Doctor eras but haven't bothered watching others for one reason or another. Interestingly, Doctor Who is one of those shows where that's an easy thing to do since every regenerated era of the Doctor brings a new story. The big thing is how the new story is handled by the writers and showrunner.
And therein lies the current problem.
What's bothering me isn't so much the show taking a break, that was expected given the situation the show is in. It's more RTD and the tone in his announcement of him leaving that bothers and baffles me. It comes across very passive aggressive, in a weird smug and patronizing kind of way, even going so far as admitting that there was no script written for the Christmas special despite saying otherwise months prior, bringing into question how truthful this is and whether he was lying then or lying now. Either way, the whole post itself comes across less of a gracious farewell you'd expect and more of an unprofessional bitter rant, and that's not a good note to leave your legacy on regardless of what happened.
In general, I haven't been paying close attention to anything regarding the show recently. I didn't watch the Fifteenth Doctor era, and because fandom has Many Opinions On Things I tend to tune everything out and just enjoy what I like and ignore everything else. I'm not "in the know" of what the opinions are or even what the numbers are for the show. I'm only going by what I'm seeing being talked about now after these announcements happened, and while they're all varied and subjective of what they enjoyed or didn't, the main consensus is that the partnership with Disney was a mistake as was rehiring RTD as showrunner. Which I'll admit, I was confused seeing so many reacting in excitement RTD when it was announced he was returning since I distinctly remember back people were expressing extreme dislike towards the end of his first run of the show and were relieved when Moffat was taking over. Perhaps some were being blinded by nostalgia, or simply wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, idk. Even though I wasn't planning on watching I was also hoping that somehow he would prove me wrong. Needless to say, as much as I predicted it so, it was still disappointing that he learned nothing from the past, and sadly the show suffered because of it. I don't believe it was the main reason of course, there's much we don't know that goes on behind-the-scenes over the years, but it certainly didn't help matters.
I just feel really bad for the actors involved in the latest season, they really got the short end of the stick with the whole ordeal, but they did the best they could given the circumstances.
As for what will happen now, well, we wait. I have no doubt that Doctor Who will return at some point, it's just the biggest question of when. It could be within the next five years (which, given the state of television these days with how long people have to wait in between seasons of their shows, wouldn't be so much of a big deal) or it could be even longer to which some fans are speculating that this is going to be yet another Wilderness Years. Some are trying to be reassuring as to say that it won't be as drastic as before, which it might not be, but then again we don't really know that for certain. We're in a strange time in entertainment right now. Shorter seasons, longer waits, things are too expensive and too much of a big risk. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I do have my thoughts on what I personally would want for the future of the show once it returns, but I'll save that for another entry.
So yeah, it's been quite a doozy within the Doctor Who fandom.
Contrary to what's been circulating around online, only the Christmas special, which was originally planned to air this year, has been confirmed to be outright cancelled. Otherwise Doctor Who the show is just going on an indefinite hiatus until further notice. Of course this has led to much arguing over semantics, debating and speculating whether it'll just be a handful of years as the tender process is occurring or it could be another decade and a half gap like before, and questioning whether it'll continue where the RTD's Disney Plus version of the show left off or start anew.
So, I have a somewhat an odd and complicated relationship with Doctor Who, as I've watched and loved some Doctor eras but haven't bothered watching others for one reason or another. Interestingly, Doctor Who is one of those shows where that's an easy thing to do since every regenerated era of the Doctor brings a new story. The big thing is how the new story is handled by the writers and showrunner.
And therein lies the current problem.
What's bothering me isn't so much the show taking a break, that was expected given the situation the show is in. It's more RTD and the tone in his announcement of him leaving that bothers and baffles me. It comes across very passive aggressive, in a weird smug and patronizing kind of way, even going so far as admitting that there was no script written for the Christmas special despite saying otherwise months prior, bringing into question how truthful this is and whether he was lying then or lying now. Either way, the whole post itself comes across less of a gracious farewell you'd expect and more of an unprofessional bitter rant, and that's not a good note to leave your legacy on regardless of what happened.
In general, I haven't been paying close attention to anything regarding the show recently. I didn't watch the Fifteenth Doctor era, and because fandom has Many Opinions On Things I tend to tune everything out and just enjoy what I like and ignore everything else. I'm not "in the know" of what the opinions are or even what the numbers are for the show. I'm only going by what I'm seeing being talked about now after these announcements happened, and while they're all varied and subjective of what they enjoyed or didn't, the main consensus is that the partnership with Disney was a mistake as was rehiring RTD as showrunner. Which I'll admit, I was confused seeing so many reacting in excitement RTD when it was announced he was returning since I distinctly remember back people were expressing extreme dislike towards the end of his first run of the show and were relieved when Moffat was taking over. Perhaps some were being blinded by nostalgia, or simply wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, idk. Even though I wasn't planning on watching I was also hoping that somehow he would prove me wrong. Needless to say, as much as I predicted it so, it was still disappointing that he learned nothing from the past, and sadly the show suffered because of it. I don't believe it was the main reason of course, there's much we don't know that goes on behind-the-scenes over the years, but it certainly didn't help matters.
I just feel really bad for the actors involved in the latest season, they really got the short end of the stick with the whole ordeal, but they did the best they could given the circumstances.
As for what will happen now, well, we wait. I have no doubt that Doctor Who will return at some point, it's just the biggest question of when. It could be within the next five years (which, given the state of television these days with how long people have to wait in between seasons of their shows, wouldn't be so much of a big deal) or it could be even longer to which some fans are speculating that this is going to be yet another Wilderness Years. Some are trying to be reassuring as to say that it won't be as drastic as before, which it might not be, but then again we don't really know that for certain. We're in a strange time in entertainment right now. Shorter seasons, longer waits, things are too expensive and too much of a big risk. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I do have my thoughts on what I personally would want for the future of the show once it returns, but I'll save that for another entry.
So yeah, it's been quite a doozy within the Doctor Who fandom.
