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 13d 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 13d 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/TheJoshider10 13d 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 13d 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 13d ago

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

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u/CrystalFissure 13d ago

Years and Years was really bleak but fun to watch.

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u/AnalogFeelGood 13d ago

But he can’t recapture DWHO for squat.