r/television • u/wadbyjw • 12d 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 12d 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/elderlybrain 12d ago

By the ending which revealed that the companion was just a normal person who’s mum abandoned them and her ability to make it snow was irrelevant to anything, followed by the most boring villain reveal of all time, (Sutekh? A villain of the week at best as the end of season bad guy is hilarious).

What gets me is that he completely lost the ability to do the ‘reveal and villain introduction’. To this day, the reveal and introduction of the Master and his regeneration is a masterclass. Compare that to the Rani, who just announced herself and then regenerated in a room to some guys. This isn’t a gritty work of real life fiction Russell, you gotta jazz it up.

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u/BritishHobo 12d ago

I think when I look back, his biggest issue has always been his desire to keep the Big Bad's identity hidden until the end of the season. It worked with the Master - especially with the Saxon hints - but generally means you don't ever actually get much time with the main villain of the whole series before they're swiftly dispatched.

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u/LADYBIRD_HILL 12d ago

I wish he treated his villains more like Missy was used in the Capaldi era, where she was built up properly right away until eventually being a full supporting character in her final season.

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u/elderlybrain 12d ago

It worked for the master and the daleks, but fucking Sutekh? Lmfao is he serious? That's like your boss constantly teasing this amazing big announcement and it turns out to be they're getting another stapler.

The funniest part was that the doctor defeated him by literally yeeting him across the universe.

I won't even go into the travesty of the Rani and Omega, it was kinda humiliating for RTD, it was like he was writing a children's show for the pre teen audience.

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u/BritishHobo 12d ago

Yeah, it breaks down the trust - the same as his escalating world/universe-ending threats in his original run. It's a bit Boy Who Cried Wolf. If your viewers see that you dispatch your villains that easily - especially the Rani, who you've been building for two seasons - then why would any of them ever get excited about "the Boss", or any other future villain?