Doctor Who is moving to Disney+ in the United States, and I’m not taking it the way everybody else is. I’m down, man. I love this entire concept, and I think there’s a plan sitting underneath it that Russell T Davies told us about before he ever had the job back.
So the news finally dropped. I don’t know what that means for the existing thirteen seasons that are on HBO Max. I’m actually under the impression those are going to stay there, because every article I’ve read, and especially the press releases that have come out from the BBC, use exactly the same verbiage: starting with the 60th anniversary.
Spoilers for The Power of the Doctor, and if you haven’t watched it yet, what’s wrong with you? Go watch the thing. Jodie Whittaker regenerates, and it isn’t into Ncuti Gatwa yet. It’s into David Tennant. That’s been well reported, and David Tennant is in fact playing the Fourteenth Doctor rather than an iteration of the Tenth. I’m sure that’s going to have a lot to do with, to use our favorite stereotypical catchphrase, the timey-wimeyness of a regeneration that got forced, when the Master was forcing her to regenerate so he could assume her form. David Tennant plays the Doctor for three specials throughout 2023, and in November, in the final one, he regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa. That’s the beginning of the new series of Doctor Who with our favorite showrunner, Russell T Davies.
“I Did That Ten Years Too Soon”
ComicBook.com reports that Disney wants to turn Doctor Who into an American-style Hollywood franchise, and given that they’re the company that produces Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s safe to say they know all about that. The same report points out that Russell T Davies has held up Star Wars and the MCU before as examples of what could and should be the future of Doctor Who.
He told Radio Times this in 2021, before his return had been announced, talking about his previous run as showrunner, when he was also producing the spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures:
“I was in the middle of running an empire, and my God, I did that ten years too soon, didn’t I? There should be a Doctor Who channel now. You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble, and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a 10-part series. Genuinely.”
Anybody else saying something like that, you kind of sit there and go, I don’t know, whatever. Russell T Davies is the man. This is the man who brought Doctor Who back to the forefront, back into the zeitgeist, who put the name back on the map, starting with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper playing the Doctor and Rose Tyler, then moving forward into David Tennant and Billie Piper, then into Matt Smith and all the different companions, and on to Peter Capaldi. It’s been rolling forward ever since.
He Was Thinking American From the Start
I remember when I first got into Doctor Who. 2005. They were doing the run-up to season two, David Tennant’s first season, and the Sci-Fi Channel, back when it was still Sci-Fi and hadn’t become Syfy yet, was replaying season one with Christopher Eccleston. I hadn’t caught it when it first jumped off. I was working from home at the time doing voiceovers, so I got to binge it and catch up.
In between those episodes they’d show interviews, and in one of them Russell T Davies gets into what he thought the show could be. He’d looked at American shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and things of that nature. So he was already thinking in terms of a new thought process.
When those seasons first got rolling, there was a big fear from our brothers and sisters over in the UK that Doctor Who was going to lose its charm. Part of that charm has always been the way it felt campy, the papier-mâché monster of the week and all that. What Russell T Davies did was say, let’s take the same mentality, the Daleks and the Cybermen and whatnot, and just modernize it. It’s similar to what I said back when I was first talking about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is essentially the original series in a new font, done with today’s sensibilities, today’s production design and today’s visual effects.
Plus he had the intrepid idea of getting rid of the crutch that was the Time Lords. Make him so that he’s all by himself, and now you have a story. I believe that’s what hooked this all in.
Make Him the Kevin Feige of Doctor Who
If there’s anybody who can do what he’s outlining, this is the guy, because he’s absolutely right. There’s no reason we couldn’t have a children’s show that’s K9 and friends or something like that. There were a bunch of spin-offs at the time. Bring Torchwood back. Lay the groundwork for some really cool things. Introduce the Doctor Who multiverse. Hell, you could even bring back, not Rose, the other Doctor, the one from that other side, after they left. There’s a lot to be done here to make this story fit an MCU style or Star Wars style series.
Apparently Disney has creative input written into the agreement. The BBC has final say, and that’s how it should be. It’s very clear from a lot of the language in this thing, though, that Disney wants to own major things, or at the very least be a part of them. There’s no way in the world I believe the BBC would ever let go of Doctor Who. It’s their mainstay. It’s one of the oldest series ever, if not the oldest, and if I’m not mistaken it recently took a Guinness World Record, beating The Price Is Right for the most episodes or something ridiculous along those lines.
So Russell T Davies is coming in with a plan. BBC, make him the Kevin Feige of your Doctor Who universe. He’s completely right. You have the Valeyard storylines. You have old stories, and you can go back into the crates and really dig deep. One thing the Chibnall finale introduces is the idea that these actors aren’t opposed to coming back.
Put Doctor Who on the Volume
Now, you really want to get crazy? Let this deal with Disney+ introduce them to the Volume. There’s no reason Doctor Who shouldn’t be filming on a Volume. Oh my gosh, that would immediately change the game.
Then you bring in de-aging technology. Hardcore de-aging technology, the Luke Skywalker stuff. Now you can bring back Tom Baker. You can bring back any of the existing Doctors as younger versions of themselves, with the voice work and the whole thing. You could literally let this be Disney’s proving ground for a Luke Skywalker series. What I’m saying is nobody does anything selflessly, so let’s do this, man.
If you’re going to open that Pandora’s box, or the Pandorica if you will, just do it right. You have enough living Doctors. You have enough adventures to go from, and enough companions from the past. That’s the one thing I loved about the Russell T Davies era: you got these beautiful swan songs, deep moments and big ideas. The End of Time was one of the best two-parters I’d ever seen, plus all the various Christmas specials. There’s a lot of room for creative input in some of these things.
I’m Not Scared of the Mouse
You can ask whether Doctor Who needs to go MCU, Star Wars style, and hear that as the show losing its luster. That’s the same fear from 2005, and it’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the way they market it, the way they present it, putting it out there so these stories commingle and coexist. Let’s see somebody put it all together, because there’s a ton of really great storylines that could easily be revisited. You could even pull off some Deep Space Nine, where they went back to the original series, and play some of our characters into older episodes. That would be brilliant.
The possibilities are endless. The future of Doctor Who looks really bright to me and I’m excited for what’s to come. I’m not scared of the Mouse, man, because I’m loving Marvel, I’m loving Star Wars, I’m loving the things that are coming out. Let’s see that same oomph and power put into the Doctor.
I can’t wait to do a state of the Doctor Who universe with Mrs. Know-It-All so you get a chance to really dig deep into some of this. There’s been stuff, there’s a lot yet to come, and I’m excited for all of it.
Does Doctor Who need to go MCU and Star Wars style, or does the Mouse make you nervous? Give me your input. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
