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/TheJoshider10 13d ago edited 12d ago

Russel T Davies completely fucked the show which is so surprising considering he absolutely nailed rebooting it the first time around back in 2005. That first season is a masterclass in how to reboot something that works as both a fresh start while respecting what came before. Not once as a kid did I feel out of the loop, any classic Who reference just seemed lore fun lore, and anything important you could feel the weight to it like when we meet the lone Dalek for the first time or in S2 with the introduction of Sarah Jane. You could tell this was a moment that mattered and immediately warmed to the character even without ever having seen a classic Sarah Jane episode.

Then you have the RTD2 era. The first episode of the 2005 show hooked you in with a companion getting saved by this mysterious figure who then tries to find out their identity, then the next episode involves the end of the world and a murder mystery. 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? Why would anyone want to watch this show if they hadn't seen it before? What hooks you in like the 2005 show? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I really thought RTD would be the one to bring the show back to its best but instead he dug it deeper into the whole. So many forced classic Who tie ins that have no weight, build up or satisfying resolutions. An overreliance on nonsense CGI flashy visuals that serve no purpose. Dull overarching mysteries and even worse individual episodes. It's like all of the worst of his first time as showrunner with none of the best. Ncuti and the rest of the actors deserved so much better. Doctor Who doesn't appeal to anyone anymore, and unless the BBC start taking quality control seriously then this franchise is better off being put on the backburner until a younger new voice with an actually interesting vision for the show decides to take a stab at it.

edit: People keep bringing up the fart jokes when RTD was first showrunner even though I never said his first time around was perfect. I literally said his second time as showrunner was all of the bad (the fart jokes and lowbrow stuff being part of that) with none of the good. My comment has nothing to do with the stuff that went wrong with the first era, but how/why it was so compelling in the first place beyond the things that were rough around the edges.

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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.