Doctor Who: The Future?

In last week's Doctor Who post, I promised the following posts:

NEXT WEEK:  

Doctor Who Is NEW! returns as we look at the special edition of Doctor Who Unleashed that celebrates the past 20 years of modern Doctor Who.

NOPE!

While it was promised that the Doctor Who Unleashed special would appear on the Doctor Who official You Tube channel ("click below and subscribe"), so far that has not happened.  There have been some clips from the special with Billie Piper, David Tennant, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, but the thing itself has not appeared yet.

AND BEYOND THAT:

The return of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC! with a look back at a tale of Tom Baker as the Doctor.  

CHANGE IN PLAN

A post on the episode, "The Invisible Enemy" will be forthcoming but when I do the next Doctor Who Is CLASSIC, it will be a 5th Doctor story, "Arc of Infinity" which featured the 2nd appearance of Omega in the classic era.

So where does that leave us for today's Doctor Who post?

The future!

As in...  Does Doctor Who have one?

Well... yes. 

Kind of.

Sort of.

We're not sure.

There is still the small matter of the UNIT spin off, The War Between Land and Sea.  The five episode event will complete the 26 episode commitment Disney+ had with the BBC for Doctor Who content.   

After that? 

All we have at this writing is rumor and speculation but the consensus is that the BBC will be looking for a new streaming partner. It appears that Disney is not happy with what they got from their Doctor Who deal.  

I'm not sure what Disney was expecting.  While Doctor Who fandom is quite expansive around the world, it may not be as pervasive and dominant as say Star Wars is.  

When Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise, they had an extensive back catalog of movies that was ripe for spinning off into all sorts of new projects such as Andor and The Mandolorian.  Star Wars is a significant presence on Disney+.

Likewise for the Marvel franchise which is prominent on Disney+ with it's vast library of movies and TV shows. Marvel is a major presence on the streamer.   

All Disney+ got from Doctor Who was just the new episodes. No back catalog from the new era (which can be found on Max) or classic episodes (which can be found on Tubi). And even with new episodes, Disney+ did not get much with just two 8 episode seasons and a handful of specials.  They did not even get the companion behind the scenes Doctor Who Unleashed.  

Word is the limited episode count was due to Disney's insistence on making Doctor Who episodes look better.   The money Russell T Davies could've spent on 10 or 12 episode seasons was invested in making the 8 episodes look better.  

Disney also seemed recalcitrant to promote what they did have. Doctor Who was frequently missing from the rotating banner at the top of the Disney+ home screen, even when a new episiode dropped.  

Anyway, Disney is apparently not happy with the performance of Doctor Who even if some of that is their fault.   

The rumor mill is churning with "news" that the BBC is close to a deal with another streamer.  

I imagine any real revelations about that might not drop until after the UNIT series is complete. 

No matter who pays for it, what of the show itself?

Ncuti Gatwa exited from Doctor Who with a regeneration into... Billie Piper? 

What the....? The next Doctor is Billie Piper?

Well... yes. 

Kind of.

Sort of.

We're not sure.

At the end of "The Reality War", while Ncuti Gatwa and Jodie Whittaker received closing credits as the Doctor, Billie's credit read "And introducing Billie Piper" and that's it.  Not "as the Doctor" as is traditional with introducing new Doctors.  

And RTD has been cagey about Billie's role as well.   

Since the 15th Doctor's regeneration involved the TARDIS itself, my current theory that Billie is some sort of manifestation of the "Bad Wolf" persona from the time Rose Tyler looked into the Time Vortex.  ("Parting of the Ways", June 2005).  

Since the 14th Doctor is still presumably out in the world somewhere, speculation is running rampant that the BBC will be turning to David Tennant to save Doctor Who one more time.  

There has been some trolls who think that Doctor Who has been cancelled and the BBC is done with it. Well, it's happened before, in 1989.   

The general consensus I think is that unlike in 1989 when the BBC found Doctor Who to be a costly embarrassment, the current BBC sees Doctor Who has something of value and merit.  

Last week saw an announcement that the BBC is developing an animated Doctor Who series for it's CBeebies Channel which is the BBC's service for kids 6 years old and under.  

But what of THE Doctor Who series itself?  

Nobody knows nothing.

Or if they do, they're saying nothing.

Anything else is just speculation.  

______________________

NEXT WEEK:  

After the blink and you miss it return of Omega in "The Reality War", Doctor Who Is CLASSIC returns with a tale of the 5th Doctor as he encounters the return of the first of the Time Lords: "Arc of Infinity".