Doctor Who: Christmas Is Cancelled

A sleek starship plummets through space against the tableau of rhe Horse Head Nebula.  The ship is falling towards a planet with a thick cloudy atmosphere.

On the bridge of this ship, all is chaos with explosions and crackling electricity.  The Captain of the ship assesses the damage and she's not feeling very positive at the moment.

"Both engines failed, and the storm-gate's critical!

The ship is going down!

Christmas is cancelled!" 

And thus begins "A Christmas Carol", the Doctor Who holiday special written by Steven Moffatt that aired on Christmas Day 2010. 

Which was 16 years ago? Wow! I didn't realized it had been that long.  

With the declaration of "Christmas is cancelled!" began what may be the best Doctor Who Christmas special ever, a twisty, fun and entertaining adventure.  My family likes to watch this special every year at Christmas.  

Doctor Who was in it's prime, more popular than ever.  The show survived the loss of fan favorite David Tennant with new fan favorite Matt Smith. 

Unfortunately in 2026, "Christmas is cancelled!" echoes like the somber dirge of a funeral bell.

Yesterday, the BBC announced it would not be moving forward with the Christmas special for 2026.

And furthermore, Doctor Who will no longer have Russell T Davies at the helm.  

Davies and his Bad Wolf production company will no longer be making Doctor Who.  BBC will be putting Doctor Who out to competitive tender – where production companies pitch to make the show – later this year.

 Here's more from the BBC's statement: “This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory."  

 

Davies took to Instagram shortly afterwards with his own statement: “And so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show, as the BBC announces it’s putting the show out to tender."

 

“As a result, there won’t be a Christmas Special - we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who… but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it!”

 

“Now I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next! Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future, vworp vworp.”

 

None of this is a complete surprise to me. There were reports last month that the Doctor Who Christmas special might not be happening. Li'l ol' me, looking from the outside in, pondered there was TOO much uncertainty with the franchise.  

Never mind WHO was going to be the Doctor, there was the no small matter of who was going to run the show.  After the debacle of the Disney+ series, did the BBC trust Russell T Davies to run the show after that?

It seemed like the whole idea of a 2026 Christmas special seemed like a pipe dream to me and RTD pretty confirmed it was.  

It makes more sense for the BBC to commit resources to a whole new series with fresh leadership at the top.  And making those kind of decisions will take time to make them wisely.

There is some speculation from some quarters who do not completely trust the BBC to move forward and fear this cancellation goes beyond the special.

Me, I will choose to err on the side of positivity and take them at their word.  

Will we ever get an answer to what
THIS was all about?

"Christmas is cancelled!"

Yeah and I'm kind of sad about that. 

But let's hope the short term loss of that single special will lead to a long term gain for Doctor Who to be a viable series once more.