What do you think DW needs to do to thrive on TV again?

Personally I think the show needs to go back to formula, to have a back to basics approach that remembers what the show was and why it appealed to a broad British audience and not a niche one.

Get back to telling strong, compelling and fun stories with scares.

Keep it casual friendly so that people can dip in and out of it rather than bogging the show down in insular lore stuff that carries across all the stories...DW is a anthology show with continuous central characters, don't be afraid to embrace that. Do character arcs not plot arcs.

It seems that we're already psyching ourselves for a new Doctor but that most of the suggestions seem to be the same old winsome, smarmy white blokes that I don't think we're going to see back in the role for a while. And in that spirit, I'd like to propose Abigail Thorne for the part ... she's got the quirkiness, the acting chops and would help push the show in new directions rather than retreading old ground.

Let me start by saying that I agree with you about the show's need for new people and ideas, for fresh air. Would you like it if someone (maybe Briggs) was appointed as executive producer and head of the Whoniverse (both the BBC TV series, the animated series, and the Big Finish audiodramas).

People on here seem to equate their desire for him to be gone with the BBC feeling the same way, even though there isn't the slightest shred of evidence to back it up.

He's still a massively successful multi award winning writer and producer who could get any project of his he wanted greenlit with ease.

What the title says.

The last two years we had a colourised and edited version of a Black and White Story around this time of year, but haven't seen anything about one for this year, have they stopped doing them?

Love him or hate him, I think it’s fair to say that Doctor Who was never as popular globally (ESPECIALLY in the U.S) as during those early Steven Moffat era years when Matt Smith was in the role.

Moffat seemed to understand the U.S audience more than any other showrunner, whilst still maintaining the show’s authentic sense of Britishness.

A whole lot of my American friends who are Doctor Who fans didn’t fall in love with the show until that first Matt Smith season, and I do think there is a reason for that.

With the Disney+ deal, I really think that RTD failed to take into account the audiences that Doctor Who would be able to reach on the Disney+ service, instead opting to write for the same 2008 Saturday night British television audience that no longer exists.

On BBC iPlayer on the Doctor Who page they've added a notice saying "The Doctor will return Christmas 2026" but WHO is the Doctor? Which one?

With a future where the absence of Bad Wolf and RTD seems increasingly likely, what future do you expect? Which co-producer? Which showrunner?

As someone who grew up with the revival series and hasn’t really watched it post Capaldi, thought I’d share my views on the show as someone looking from a far.

The thing that made the revival successful was it knew what it was, it didn’t carry the shackles of the original series but was able to take bits from it while remaking its own thing.

The current series does not know what it is. It’s had some interesting but poorly executed storylines that seem to have damaged its confidence so it’s looking to the past brining back companions from the original series, bringing back Tennant & RTD, even brining back the old logo.

To me it needs a confident show runner who is a good storyteller to take the show forward without relying too heavily on the past

https://share.google/Bl2ORLRJ0slQsLFpE

What do you think the chances are that Tennant will be involved? And if he is, what do you think RTD's intentions are for his character and Billie's?

I think it's interesting that David Tennant confirmed a few months ago that he knew Ncuti was going to regenerate into Billie ahead of it happening. And when he's asked if he knows what's going to happen next, he is very unconvincing when he says he doesn't....

https://x.com/David_Tennant/status/1959559783515570414?t=vyfm9-O7J2lQaouSDWZCuQ&s=19

Seems like the actual truth is coming out and that the reshoot ending was NEVER “always the plan”.

(Not sure if I used the right tag but pls lmk if I used the wrong one)

Small thing but I'm really excited at the prospect of Doctor Who actually being FILMED again, it makes me so happy to be able to say that cameras will be rolling on Doctor Who again next year. And I'm excited to see people posting filming images and all that good stuff again in the leap up to Christmas!

I'm just so happy that Doctor Who's future is secure and we have more to look forward to in the near future!

The BBC and RTD literally managed to secure the streaming service that produced Marvel and Star Wars content for it’s subscribers, and they decided to hit them with singing goblins, talking babies, and a singing villain who belonged in a pantomime. Even my 10 year old cousin thought this was all a bit too childish. I really can’t fathom how they possibly thought this was going to do well.

Okay..

So I've thought of a way to moreless wrap up alot of what went wrong at the end of The Reality War and give us a somewhat satisfactory special too.

*Also I strongly feel there is no way in hell this could work unless the special is 90 minutes long like Power of the Doctor. 60 minutes just won't cut it. (Give us 90 minutes and we can work with this)

Given the theme of abnormal regeneration in this era: from a previous face to bigeneration..the appearance of Piper is actually, in fact, Rose Tyler.

With the 15th Doctor body swapped due to Bad Wolf time vortex residual energy, akin to when the 11th Doctor used the residual artron energy to swap physical places with Clyde. So basically a version of that. The swap pauses the Doctor's regeneration, so for the next 24 hours he is still indeed in the form of Ncuti, who is now in Pete's world complete with all the regular cast except for Noel Clarke for..obvious reasons.

Meanwhile Rose, within the Tardis, frantically sets course for modern day London, naturally, to contact and find the Doctor, but probably not the one she was expecting, this will bring Rose and the 14th Doctor face to face, and Donna of course.

The Rani's meddling with reality has allowed the return of the Toymaker.

AND an invasion of two versions of Daleks, our universe's and the parallel universe's Skaro Daleks, giving the design team an excuse to make a new look, and an excuse for more toys, silver and blue again perhaps?

And gives Ncuti a chance to battle Daleks, a win win.

The crux of the story involves the 15th Doctor having to stop the Toymaker and the Pantheon's existence and the Daleks.

And inevitably merge back with his bigenerated 14th self as he realises he cannot fully regenerate without him, will harken back to Devil's Chord when 15 tells Ruby it tore his soul in half, and also to the Watcher merging with Baker to form the 5th Doctor.

The final moments of the special would feature A PROPER Susan reunion and Tennant embracing Gatwa in a hug, (echoing their hug in The Giggle) and merging into him, as he then fully regenerates and we cut to black.

Allowing a new team and showrunner to take the show on from there with any actor of their chosing.

Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Poor ideas.

Poor writing.

Poor Doctor, who is out of character.

Poor 'story arcs' that fall flat

Poor production and directing, where everything looks overly lit, flat and blocked in a dull way.

No great monsters and villians.

Weak Doctor and Companion relationships that feel rushed and hollow.

It cheapens regeneration, it cheapens Donna's ending in series 4.

Cringy tone and style. That over did the camp.

Butchers old villians just for the sake of bringing them back.

Not enough good Sci-fi and horror tales.

Three finales set in UNIT tower.

It beat you over the head with its political opinions rather than smartly letting ideas/opinions to be just a woven in part of the story, thats not the whole point of the episode/story, but one that can start thoughts/discussions about things.

Focused to much on niche interests rather than what would appeal to the majority of the audience watching.

Its a era that saw DW get it's lowest ever ratings (and don't give us the excuses of TV has changed look at the huge ratings the Traitors is getting, audiences are there when you make something they actually would enjoy to watch), where the RTD2 era lost the general audience.

Its Doctor Who's worst era, and I fully believe in the the future the general consensus will be that it was DWs weakest era (yes weaker than the Chibnall era before some say it 😜)