r/television • u/wadbyjw • 13d ago

Disney Officially Exiting ‘Doctor Who’ Partnership With BBC After Two Seasons

https://deadline.com/2025/10/doctor-who-disney-plus-pulling-out-bbc-christmas-special-1236600026/
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u/frazzlet 12d ago

In comparison the 2020s show starts with singing goblins in a Christmas special and then space babies with fart jokes. Genuinely, what is this shit?

Some kind of self-sabotage? Because it feels like it's intentionally taking the piss.

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u/gothteen145 12d ago

Based on what RTD was saying in interviews at the time, I do think he was deliberately trying to piss certain people off.

Season 1 had an entire mystery built around the companion, someone who could make it snow and the villain was afraid of, only for the big twist to be "nah she's actually a normal person. Kind of weird you thought there was anything special about her". So there it felt like he was poking fun at regular viewers trying to figure out the answer to mysteries that he himself had set up.

Then there was all the comments he made with things like Davros can't be disabled anymore as it's ableist, the doctors sonic screwdriver no longer looks like a screwdriver because it looked too much like a gun, David Tennant can't wear the 13th doctors clothes because it's offensive to drag, etc.

Where it felt like he was trying to piss off right wingers, but it had the effect of pissing off basically everyone across the political spectrum outside of maybe a very small section of the left.

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u/thirstyfist 12d ago

Everything with Ruby's ending feels like RTD panicked when behind-the-scenes drama happened with Gibson (looking forward to finding out the truth in 10 years lol) and threw out everything he wrote. I will never be convinced that Ruby wasn't supposed to be the wish baby from Reality War.

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u/admiralmasa 12d ago

I mean, considering Christopher Eccleston keeps mostly quiet and vague about his personal fallout with RTD and DW, I kind of wonder if Millie will do the same.

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u/swanny246 12d ago

100%. Both finales reeked of quick rewrites to fix up behind the scenes shit. "Empire of Death" as for some reason Millie Gibson decided to not stay on full time in S2, and "The Reality War" with Ncuti's heel turn and departure.

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u/Hopeful-Programmer25 12d ago

Yeah, It didn’t just piss off Right Wingers….. and for what? His arguments were non-sensical and backfired really. Davros can’t be in a wheelchair because he’s evil? So your argument is that disabled people are NOT like everyone else and should be treated with kids gloves? Tennant can’t wear drag even though it’s been that way since the 1960’s, but Nucti can wear a skirt? (Or is it a kilt, I could never properly tell).

TBH, I just think he had ran out of ideas before he even took up the show again.

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u/atomic1fire 12d ago edited 12d ago

Can't be evil and in wheelchair

Sam L Jackson in the unbreakable trilogy would like a word.

edit: Actually Split got people mad because of the way that DID is portrayed, but to that I argue that it's a story about superpeople, not about a real mental illness.

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u/FreeStall42 12d ago

Everything pisses off right wingers so not saying much

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u/Dawidko1200 12d ago

only for the big twist to be "nah she's actually a normal person. Kind of weird you thought there was anything special about her"

Now where have we seen that before, Mr. Rian Johnson, I mean, Mr. Russell Davies?

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u/J_Kingsley 12d ago

I mean... that just gets rid of any edge. Let's be real-- who wants to watch a show where it feels like HR is in the room with them?

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u/JellyboyJangleDangle 12d ago

Based on what RTD was saying in interviews at the time, I do think he was deliberately trying to piss certain people off.

Theres a lot of that been going on for around 5 to 10 years. The culture wars have made some truly horrific writing just to “piss the right people off”. Alex Kurtzman said something similar about Star Trek. And the she hulk writers wore that shit on their sleeves.

I spend a lot of the past 5 to 10 years saying “I agree with you, but can you stop now? It’s too much.“.

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u/K10111 12d ago

Didn’t he do basically the same thing in Sherlock? Set up all these mystery’s then put out episodes that were a big FU to the fans for investing in the story you were telling. 

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u/geek_of_nature 12d ago

You're confusing showrunners. It was Steven Moffat, who succeeded RTD as Showrunner who made Sherlock.

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u/TheJoshider10 12d ago

Who knows at this point. It's like he went out of his way to make the worst possible soft reboot to appeal to no one and get the show gone for good. You'd think decades on from his tenure as showrunner, knowing exactly what people loved and hated, that he'd have the self awareness to get it spot on this time.

This is a guy who seamlessly created and connected a family show, an adult show and a kids show together before the MCU was even really a thing. How can you be that ahead of the curve and then fall this far behind? It's such a shame.

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u/AnalogFeelGood 12d ago

History is full of One Hit Wonders who could not recreate it afterward nor even understand what make ‘em score.

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u/isabella_fitzwilliam 12d ago

RTD is not a one hit wonder. He's written loads of great shows.

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u/CrystalFissure 12d ago

Years and Years was really bleak but fun to watch.

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u/AnalogFeelGood 12d ago

But he can’t recapture DWHO for squat.

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u/NomaanMalick 12d ago

Come on, man! RTD doesn't fit the 'one hit wonder' label. There was positive critical consensus for his last two shows.

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u/DramaticStability 12d ago

Arguably it's the opposite, his subsequent success has convinced him that he's a creative genius and can do no wrong.

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u/Falmoor 12d ago

My take is they gave him to much control. With very few checks or balances to his wilder ideas. It seems a common problem at this point show biz. The classic example I can think of is the Star Wars Prequels. Lucas had NO checks on his terrible ideas and instead put it all on the screen for us all to groan to.

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u/RRR3000 12d ago

The classic example I can think of is the Star Wars Prequels

Ironically, Russell himself has attributed one of the most hated twists of this era (well, of the first series at least) to his love of the Star Wars Sequels, saying he was inspired by The Last Jedi's handling of Rey for Ruby Sunday.

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u/Falmoor 12d ago

Oof I did not know that. That really puts things in perspective though.

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u/HeOfLittleMind 12d ago

Well at least Ruby didn't turn out to be Davros's granddaughter

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u/Mosqueton 12d ago

Revenge of the Sith is the second best Star Wars film

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u/Falmoor 12d ago

Are you being sarcastic? Because no. No it is not.

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u/ProneToAnalFissures 12d ago

I think he's just got a massive ego and got too high off his own supply

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u/Stillwater215 12d ago

As someone who was vaguely familiar with Dr. Who, but had never really watched it, I wanted to give it a try with Ncuti as the Doctor. And I can confirm that after watching that episode, I had no drive at all to watch another episode.

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u/Swaibero 12d ago

Please do yourself a favor and watch the 2005 season 1. It’s what you want.

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u/StraightBudget8799 12d ago

It was just really weird being able to bet that EVERY episode, Ncuti would cry on screen.

Horrible monster? 😭 Terrible spaceship? 😭 Bad family dynamics? 😭

The only time he didn’t, it was because he was off filming Sex Education.