I remember when he was first announced as coming back and was saying something along the lines of creating a ādoctor who cinematic universeā ala MCU with spin offs etc and jsut, the sheer hubris of thinking that when he hadnāt even secured a third season of the Main Show
11 Likes
Yeah, not knowing the future of the show and when it will be back is really stressing me out.
Iām sad and worried for the showās future. It feels like some people act like another hiatus would be no big deal or even encourage it for the sake of the show coming back better, but I strongly disagree. I think of all the fans that died in that time during the Wilderness Years and it feels more like an era of lost opportunity than one of creative reimagining or recalibrating. It feels like it took a miracle to bring back Doctor Who once, so Iām not sure it coming back ever again is even in the cards, and certainly it wouldnāt be for a very long time.
We are at an era and time of television where science fiction and fantasy are drying up and disappearing. Losing Doctor Who would be a loss I feel many people are underestimating and it seems tragic to me.
13 Likes
Iāve got one of the more optimistic views, born from being cynical about things nonetheless.
It seems like in TV and movies, more and more money goes to old, established franchises. Lots of new things are still created, but I get the impression that, when in doubt, investment goes to remakes rather than to new ideas.
From this cynical point of view, Doctor Who as an IP is an absolute treasure trove.
Will we get what we individually want? I donāt know.
But the IP will live on, and as long as it does, thereās always the chance that some creative will do something with it that I, you, or someone else really loves. 
14 Likes
I think itās worth remembering that the TV and streaming landscape has been changing significantly over the last couple of years. Youāre right about the hubris, but I think it was based on his good grasp of TV production at the time and Bad Wolfās record at delivering high quality fantasy drama like His Dark Materials. I think Russell genuinely believed that he could deliver a season a year, plus spin offs, based on his existing performance in the TV industry. The problem was that no one could (and still canāt) predict the very volatile market that the streaming services have created. Nothing is safe in this model and no one has really worked out how to make it work properly. Netflix disrupted the linear TV model and others jumped on the bandwagon to try and get market share, but noone has really made it work in the way that linear TV could. Long running series are struggling, even on the terrestrial TV channels. Have you seen how the soapsā ratings have plunged? Even something as reliable and cheap to produce as Neighbours couldnāt survive on Amazon. Itās carnage, and, while thereās still good, creative stuff being made, long running series seem to have had their day, at least for now. That makes producing the longest running (and now pretty expensive) sci-fi show a very risky business indeed.
It doesnāt help that we Doctor Who fans are both fickle and vocal. Every show runner and/or producer since JNT has faced sustained calls for their sacking. That canāt play well with the execs, especially if the returns on their investment arenāt easily proved.
Iām sure that, in 2022 RTD genuinely thought that he was ushering in a new golden age of Doctor Who content. Despite the problems with Disney, he has achieved a lot: almost the whole show since 1964 available on iPlayer and other streaming platforms. Those of us in the UK are lucky enough to have the whole of nuWho, plus the vast majority of classic available and covered by our licence fee, plus thereās the colourisation stuff and the whole promotion of the (ugh, donāt like the term) Whoniverse.
I wish there was a way to get Doctor Who made regularly every year, but I honestly think this was their best bet to get it made and, sadly, it didnāt quite work out. I just hope that the reports that there might be some BBC backed, scaled down Who being prepared are true.
If this really is the end, I guess that there could have been a far worse way for nuWho to go out than Billie Piperās āOh, hello!ā. Itās cheeky, and there is a kind of circle closing to it. Also, it allows for a restart or reboot should the TV industry get its act back together again.
16 Likes
Iām eagerly waiting for the next Doctor Who Magazine and RTDās column, maybe he can clear some things up?
Although the āthis was always the plan!ā lies in Unleashed really doesnāt fill my with confidence that they are going to be transparent about this.
18 Likes
When is the next one due out?
4 Likes
What existing performance? He hasnāt done either in years. Heās just done miniseries, very good ones but not the same as Who.
True but I do wonder what else they could have done? I doubt very much any tv production company would be transparent & admit to things not going according to plan, especially if further seasons are up in the air. Then again within the industry its probably all known.
8 Likes
True. But he still had a lifetime of experience in the industry and a special relationship with Doctor Who. Itās easy to see why he and the BBC thought he would be a safe bet to expand its possibilities. They were wrong, but I can see why they thought this way at the time.
I really hope so too, but I share your reservations.
7 Likes
Iām pretty sure itās just iPlayer that has most of the show now. This Disney deal has actually restricted availability of the show in a lot of places. In Australia, most of NuWho used to be available on Netflix and ABC iView (which also had some classic), and all of Classic Who on Britbox apparently, but now thatās pretty much all gone except for a limited number of NuWho eps that are being rerun on the ABC at a particular given time (which atm is just s5-9, plus The End of Time for some reason).
9 Likes
Doctor Who has not had a reliable streaming partner in Sweden for years, and I hoped that Disney would help with this, but it did not. We could not buy or rent episodes of new or classic Who digitally. That changed a bit recently when New Who was added to a free streaming service that relies on ads, but there is still no way to watch classic Who if you do not own it.
8 Likes
That sucks, although, from a purely small minded tit-for-tat point of view it kind of makes up for Australia having regular reruns of extant Doctor Who throughout the eighties and nineties when those of us in the UK had few, if any, reruns due to union rules at the time. That said, Iād rather more people, wherever theyāre from had easy access to the show at all times really. It sounds like the Disney deal screwed a lot of fans over. Iām sad about that.
That is also very sad. We could do with an internationally available version of the iPlayer, which I think was one of the original plans for Britbox if I remember correctly. I guess itās been explored and, like the rest of the streaming services, the problem is working out how it would be properly funded.
Everyone needs easy access to Doctor Who.
15 Likes
Well they could have just said Ncuti thought it was time to leave, even say about his dodgy knees or whatever, just donāt say āthis was always the planā which is demonstrably untrue.
Is that right though? I could understand if the show was taken off places and added to Disney+. But as it stands, it was only taken away from places but not added to Disney+. How does that benefit Disney?
6 Likes
My guess (and this is just my speculation) is that the BBC was hoping that Disney would buy the rights to all of Who, and therefore, they would not like to renew deals with others, allowing them to sell world rights to it when all active deals are over.
10 Likes
Itās so sad that itās not all working out.
When the Disney deal was first announced I thought our little show was going supernova.
10 Likes
Me too. It felt like the perfect step. But the streaming market has changed a lot in the past couple of yearsā¦
7 Likes
I do think the dodgy knees thing is overplayed, it seemed like a more light-hearted comment. But if I was Ncutiās agent I would not want that to be given as part of his reason for leaving. A young actor in his early 30s with dodgy knees! Not a good look for future employers.
10 Likes
I also think that the way it was laid out on Disney+ didnāt help. You had Specials 1-5 as their own individual things (like movies), and then Doctor Who as TV show with Seasons 1 & 2. And Special 4 was also the first episode of Season 1.
On top of that, if one wanted to watch the rest of the Modern Series in the US, theyād need a Max subscription.
12 Likes
The way its listed on Disney+ is such a joke 
11 Likes
I thought this too, but I think DW entered the game too late. This shouldāve happened like 10 years ago when streaming, multiverses, and big franchises were really blowing up. Joining now meant that there was no real momentum.
The same over here, obviously. I was hoping to finally be able to stream Classic when BritBox hit Finland, but to this day, it has never been added to the platform (despite it having several other major British shows). Netflix used to have the the New Who seasons (1-7, I think), but hasnāt for many years. So itās impossible to watch anything pre-Disney unless you buy the DVDs or the Blu-rays.
12 Likes
Totally agree, the BBC had a perfect show to expand into a real Whoniverse years ago. They were ahead of the game during the era of Torchwood, SJA, even Class a few years later.
To give him his due RTD knew then what was to come, maybe because of his love of comic books. I wonder if the BBC were reluctant to commit. Torchwood for example could have become a global brand with different Torchwood shows in different countries. Now it feels like DC trying to play catch up with the MCU.
12 Likes