When the BBC teamed up with Disney+ to co-produce Doctor Who, the future looked bright for the long-running sci-fi series. Coming off the back of Chris Chibnall's divisive run as showrunner, which saw Jodie Whittaker step into the TARDIS, a cash injection to give it a big budget feel felt like the right move for a property running on fumes.
Helping matters would be a new streaming home capable of bringing Doctor Who to a global audience. The return of Russell T Davies as lead creative (he rebooted the show in the mid-2000s to great success) was similarly celebrated.
Unfortunately, the series has struggled to strike a chord with new and returning fans. Davies has been accused of being too heavy-handed with "woke" themes, and newly introduced concepts like "Bi-regeneration" have frustrated the die-hards.
Ncuti Gatwa did an admirable job as The Doctor, but with limited screentime in season 1 due to other acting commitments, it feels like he never fully established himself as the Time Lord before passing the mantle to Billie Piper in the divisive season 2 finale.
Davies is thought to have had a three-season plan, but with low ratings for season 1, we repeatedly heard that it would hinge on how well season 2 performed. The numbers didn't vastly improve, so that means no Christmas special this year, and as of now, season 3 isn't in active production.
Scooper Daniel Richtman has proven himself a reliable source for Doctor Who intel in recent weeks and shared an update on the show's future that brings both good and bad news.
"Doctor Who is only dead at Disney," he reports (via SFFGazette.com), "but there are active talks to revive it elsewhere, and things are looking promising."
This suggests the BBC will continue partnering with another platform, and the likes of Prime Video and Netflix are surely in the mix. Whether Davies will return or we'll get another reboot remains to be seen, though that cliffhanger with Piper will need to be addressed somehow. Either way, we'd expect some big changes.
In related news, the mother of the young actress who played Poppy has confirmed the validity of a recently leaked alternate ending for the show (using a screenshot of Richtman's report from a ComicBookMovie.com article).
In Doctor Who season 2, the Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wilder terrors than ever before.
Stay tuned for updates on Doctor Who's future as we have them.