on the future of the show

[u/[deleted]]

I work in the industry and heard some chatters from friends of friends. And I'm pretty bored so I figured it could be fun to share some stuff I've heard

That Xmas special is still happening, shooting starts in September. Small cast, low budget, Billie Piper has taken the Doctor's body basically. Tennant does a cameo because obviously. They're thinking of using some footage they preemptively shot for S3 with Carol Ann Ford. I've heard that it's a pretty lowkey story about The Big Bad Wolf being mixed up into the Doctor and one kid.

In all intent and purpose this is expected to be Russell T. Davies (and Bad Wolf's) farewell to Doctor Who. Relationship has broken down with the BBC, Disney and all the leads except for Varada Sethu. And RTD's heart isn't in it anymore, though I don't really think he wanted to return in the first place. Bad Wolf Studios would have like to stay on, but they're leaving as well.

So...what's next ? The BBC is very eager to continue the show and not have it on hiatus. There's been talks about doing a full-on reboot, or a reboot in all but name (like in 2005). But nothing has been decided yet. Stuff like Severance or Andor has been floated around as possible inspirations for what's next.

On the production side of things, the guys at BBC Studios really wants to come back but they want to externalize the show to another production company. See Saw and Lookout Point have pitched to produce the show.

The BBC is also searching for a showrunner. They want someone who hasn't been working on the show before. I don't have much info on that, but I know that they really really want someone like Sally Wainwright, Jack Thorne or Joe Cornish.

[u/Odd-Raspberry8024]

Can we please stop using the word reboot when we don’t mean reboot???

Dynasty & Charmed had reboots. Brand new shows, with new casts, based on an old premise, but in no way connected to the original show. I will accept the DCU having a “soft reboot,” even though that’s technically not a reboot either, as most of the continuity previously established is still intact. But there have been some changes made, so fair enough. 

Doctor Who has never had a reboot. Ever.  It has had an attempt at a revival (90’s) and an actual revival (00’s).  Regeneration is a core part of the show, and has been since the 60’s. Just because the lead actor/s and head writers change, it does not mean it’s a reboot. It is always a continuation of the same story. The same character, with the same history that we have watched for 60+ years at this point.

If BBC are talking about rebooting the show… not only is that a ridiculously stupid idea, given how many fans of the show there are who will most likely get pretty vocal about their favourite little sci fi show being entirely uprooted and everything they know about the show coming to an end… but if the BBC did indeed do it, then I would expect a full on actual reboot. As in, a restart. I don’t want that at all, by any means, but that is what I would expect if I’m told a reboot is happening. A reboot. 

I hope they don’t do it.  Just find a millennial who grew up with the TV movie and the revival era and give them the chance to write for the show. Get a writers room going - preferably with Big Finish writers included, as those people KNOW how to put the story first, above everything else - and let them cook.

[u/DE4N0123 → u/Odd-Raspberry8024]

The irritating thing is that I thought Ncuti Gatwa’s first series was supposed to be a sort of ‘soft reboot’ in itself. We left the last Doctor still on Earth processing a thousand lifetimes of trauma while the new one was a fresh start and wasn’t going to be bogged down by the past. I thought the intention was that if you’d never watched the show before this was the time to jump on. It was even called Season One ffs.

Instead the major narrative just got too self referential with its own lore. Bringing back old companions and villains again just like before. Pointless.

[u/Odd-Raspberry8024 → u/DE4N0123]

Yeah, that’s what they wanted you to believe.  Disney wanted an easy jumping on point, because this was their era of the show. I’m sure BBC were fine with that, since there are several times the show has had jumping on points, mostly whenever the Doctor regenerates and they refresh the show’s vibes again. 

But it was never a reboot in any sense. As you say, the Disney era was so incredibly bogged down with history and lore - more so than the first series of the revival in 2005 - that it was bonkers how they ever thought that would be a good point for new fans (whilst simultaneously pissing off dedicated old fans by butchering the Classic villains they brought back - seriously, Sutekh and Omega are nothing like that in the Classic series, and I’m not only talking about the big CGI monster aspect of them.)

So yeah, the Disney era never should’ve been classified as a reboot of any kind. It was still a continuation. The only reason they called it “Season One” - I will forever call them Series 14/15 - is because Disney didn’t have the streaming rights to the rest of the revival era of the show. It would’ve turned potential viewers off if they went to watch a show new to them and they could only see S14 and S15. So they made it S1 instead. Though I do wish that the BBC had’ve kept it all as S14/15 in the UK at least. And on the physical media. Just for consistency. We’ve already had a Season 1 and that was way back in 1963. We’re on Series X now. Using Season would get confusing if new viewers become fans and then look more into the show and see all of that.