The BBC is making a big mistake with Doctor Who

It feels like some time ago when Ncuti Gatwa’s run as the Fifteenth Doctor came to a desperate end, as he regenerated into Billie Piper. 

Doctor Who will now officially have to make good on that head-scratching manoeuvre, after an announcement yesterday confirmed the Time Lord will be back in 2026, with a new series and a Christmas special penned by Russell T Davies.

If you are an avid Whovian, the dire whispers from the gossip mill have probably been exhausting.

But finally, after endless headlines and hints, it has been announced that Disney officially ended its partnership with the franchise, but Davies is still in as show-runner.

However, painful as this is to say, I think the time has come for him to leave.

The BBC may have just asked Davies back to do something about the series finale’s shameless nostalgia grab he wrote in, which certain fans have likened to the last-ditch efforts to right a sinking ship.

Or maybe there just isn’t a comprehensive sense of how existential the problem Doctor Who currently faces is. With record low ratings and no Doctor confirmed to pilot the Tardis, this is a battle to keep us interested, and cheap tricks aren’t going to work.

I want to caveat what comes next by saying that I think Russell T Davies is a visionary, who is in large part the reason we’re all here still talking about Doctor Who after the TV show was quietly shelved in the 80s.

I have no doubt the years since he first revived the franchise in 2005 he has come across obstacles which he has overcome confidently. 

He’s a legend, but I no longer believe he is the right person to run this show.

I’ve felt this for some time. 

Ever since I first watched Space Babies. I noticed that in that first season of Gatwa as the Doctor, the episodes I liked best – Boom and Rogue – were the only ones not written by Davies.

The obvious exception to this was Lux, a bravado episode with an exquisite, meta interlude that spoke to how hard-to-please this fandom can be. And yet one episode does not a brilliant series make. 

Even Gatwa animated into 1950s Miami couldn’t get a bump in the ratings and it was one of the lowest-viewed episodes in what were already paltry viewing figures across the series.

I was disappointed. Instead of solid storytelling, we had callbacks and cameos, plus the Disney-ification of a fundamentally British cultural institution. 

Classic villains were eschewed in favour of a toothless, silly variety (again, the less said about the Space Babies’ Bogeyman, the better), presumably to appeal to the Disney kids. And everything hardcore Whovians know in their bones was explained as if for the first time.

Even the release schedule was engineered for a time difference and the seasons were numbered as Season One and Season Two when procured by Disney, as if what had gone before didn’t matter.

Then, when none of that was working and Gatwa decided to peace out, it feels like Davies used the nostalgia of Billie Piper to survive. 

However, Disney’s lack of commitment will be better for the show going forward, if it means Doctor Who can do less cringy bootlicking to American audiences.

But Davies trying to pivot from what he has advocated for years, harping on about the coming demise of the BBC and the need for Who to go global, feels fundamentally unsustainable.

He was the loudest advocate for Disney’s involvement and the moneyed door it opened to his newfangled Whoniverse, promising it would become a sci-fi version of the Marvel universe. The current state of both franchises is strikingly similar.

The fact we’re still awed by David Tennant, Catherine Tate or Billie Piper returning to our screens is evidence of the mark Davies has made on Doctor Who. But there is little in his recent tenure to compare to what he did in 2005 and that’s a problem.

If Doctor Who is going to once again rise from the ashes, we need new ideas. 

Who, you might ask, could replace him? If we’re fan casting, I would love to see what Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker would do with the Doctor. Although whether he would fancy the scrutiny is another matter. 

Although, given all three show-runners during the modern era have been men, it would be a welcome sight to see a woman in the job. Kate Herron and Briony Redman, the duo behind standout episode Rogue, brought writing that was sharp and tender. 

The exchange between the Doctor and Rogue in his ship was the most compelling of the series, set to Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head.

It pains me to say all of this, because I still think Davies is brilliant, and Lux proved he can still contribute as a one-off writer if needed. 

But there’s also only so many times you can mount the mammoth task of revitalising a once-phenomenally successful franchise as show-runner.

It’s time Davies left that job to someone else.

Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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