Media Essays: Doctor Who On Hiatus

Freddy: Okay, this is gonna get less viewers than Gatwa’s whole run on Doctor Who.

Teddy: Yeah but hey let him get his feelings out there.

Freddy: Yeah fair enough. He looks happy.

Teddy: Well I don’t think I can be angry at him, after seeing what went on with Doctor Who I’d be happy about this as well.

Yep I am! You know what this means? More audios to get, more McGann! Come this weekend I’m gonna spoil myself with the food! I’m gonna be dancing at the next place I’ll be going to! But still what is that I, the Wandering Fox, am happy about?

Doctor Who is on hiatus!

Some fanboy: NOOOOOOOOOOO! IT’S NOT CANCELLED!

Uh, I’m sorry to say but it kinda is. Yes, we still have the magazine. Yes we still have Big Finish. But Doctor Who’s primary home, TV, hasn’t made a Doctor Who episode since 2025. With nothing going on and no actors in a role and no cameras about, that TARDIS set is gathering dust, it is basically cancelled. And I’m happy it’s in another hiatus. But like the Wilderness Years there’s still an effort to bring it back. So basically it’s just like 1989 all over again. They never said it was cancelled but we knew it was gone for a while. But we knew it’d be back at some point. Right now we know it’s gone. It will be back. How long for? We shall see soon.

So, what do I mean by Doctor Who being on hiatus?

On June the 10th, the BBC and former head writer RTD released a statement confirming the Christmas special was cancelled, RTD and Bad Wolf were leaving Doctor Who and the BBC are having Doctor Who out on a tender. Now the out on tender comment will have you confused so I’m going to explain what this means:

Out on tender means that they are now going to let other companies compete in pitches of the show to them. It’s like the Wilderness Years again where you had various attempts to bring Doctor Who back, be it the Dark Dimension, Steven Spielberg’s pitch, an animated series, the TV Movie. This is just like that only now the BBC are actively trying to bring Doctor Who back whereas they had little interest in the Wilderness Years.

And while because this is going to be competitive this means it will take longer for Doctor Who to come back. The BBC will have to hear out each company’s pitch, which takes up a lot of time to do, there will be hefty meetings about budget, maintenance, deals of who distributes what. Then there’s the actors and writers, there’d be auditions, pitches from multiple writers. The sets have to be built which takes time. The earliest we’re looking at is 2028 and the latest is 2030.

You could be shocked at why I’m happy because if I’m a Doctor Who fan, then why am I happy it’s been cancelled? It’s because I did not like what happened to the show, around Moffat’s era things went wrong and the stuff he introduced started the death phase of Doctor Who that has left it in a dire state. I was not happy it was being run by incredibly toxic people who thought it was fine to pick fights on Twitter with those who expressed their opinions civilly, I wasn’t happy Doctor Who’s past was being butchered all because of a man’s ego. That applies to all of the head writers in Doctor Who. RTD’s recent era was promised as a fresh start, a new era for Doctor Who, with no looking back. And that was a fake promise. With a miscast actor as the Doctor, a series of preachy and weak stories, mining the show’s past and urinating on its riches, writers and actors being ultra nasty to viewers and fans, this was the nail in the coffin for the era of the show that was made in 2005.

Doctor Who’s downfall was brought about by ideas that shouldn’t have been introduced. If Moffat showed restraint on his fan fiction by not inserting his little doll in Classic Who and making the Doctor this mentally and emotionally inept man who couldn’t choose the right TARDIS unless Moffat’s little puppet was involved, then maybe we wouldn’t have had a Doctor that cried his eyes out every episode he was in or the Doctor’s past retconned by Chibnall and RTD. If Moffat didn’t introduce the War Doctor there’d be a strong chance that Chibnall would not have invented the Timeless Children or the Fugitive Doctor, or RTD bringing back the Shalka Doctor. If Moffat actually gave a proper closure to the story he set up in Day of the Doctor then maybe we wouldn’t have had half assed finales or ultra trash stories by Chibnall and RTD.

Of course Moffat isn’t to blame for everything. RTD chose to be nasty to fans who politely criticised him for the changes made to Davros.

Ncuti Gatwa told his critics to “go touch grass”. Instead of showing maturity, healthiness and empathy, RTD and his inner circle chose to be confrontational with fans who placed their faith in them. Are there some fans out there who take things to the extreme? Yes. But not every fan who’s critical of the series is like that. And those who you painted with the same brush you painted the extreme critics are now gone, hurt and agonised by your words and your butchering of the show.

With other companies out there now up for competing for it, I’d have some blunt discussions with them. If Amazon was interested, I’d tell them pointedly they can’t do with it what they did with other properties they’ve accumulated, Doctor Who can’t just have a bunch of money injected into it and throw in what they want. We just had that with RTD and Disney. Netflix is another iffy company as they are very much all over the place with whatever they touch. Doctor Who needs care. It doesn’t need to be this epic sci-fi show or movie like Star Wars. Nor does it need more controversy. It needs to be, at its heart, an adventure story that is about stopping monsters and focuses on good acting, tone and less CGI and preaching from those taking a social or political stand.

With Doctor Who on hiatus now this could be a chance for the BBC to reflect on everything that went wrong with Doctor Who. Perhaps this will be their chance to actually listen to people who were not happy with things being introduced from Moffat’s era, but especially what didn’t work with Chibnall and RTD. Maybe they can talk with whatever competitor out there to avoid doing. But I have little faith in the BBC. Maybe they will triple down on what was introduced. Maybe they will continue to inject divisive storytelling into Doctor Who when viewers and fandom just want escapism.

Now, if I had my own company I’d be getting in there and pitching my own ideas. But I’m simply a guy who has no experience in the industry. But the most advice I can give is this:

Start With A New Doctor:

Whether it’s old or young, the Doctor has to be new. The character has to be played by a proper actor who has a strong gravity that makes them endearing to you. They need wisdom, they need a strong figure that commands everybody to look at them. They need a proper outfit. The new Doctor should be fresh but also familiar, make him a more core Doctor who takes the best elements of the Doctor into a single character, be it the wise old man who was quick on the action like Pertwee, the strange alien like Tom Baker, the charming and snarky McGann, the energetic Tennant. But also make sure the actor is good enough for the role.

Give Us A Different Companion:

By that I mean a companion from a different time period. With the exceptions to Jack, River and Nardol, the companions from Modern Who were majorly from the present day, mostly young women who were either bored with their lives or travelled with the Doctor by accident. We need something different. She could be from the late 19th century. She could be from another planet. Make her fresh. But don’t make her a plot device. Don’t make her a love interest. Make her a daughter or student figure. She may be scared at first, but she finds courage in her travels, she learns a great deal from the Doctor, she becomes a stronger character by the end.

Don’t Reference The Past:

This was something RTD lied about. This time you don’t reference the past. Don’t mention the old Doctors, old companions, previous stories, or plot elements like the Time War, the Bi-Generation, the Timeless Children or the mystery Doctors. Start fresh. The only things you need to bring back are the Doctor, the TARDIS and a few old baddies.

Lastly:

Avoid a lot of the pitfalls Modern Doctor Who fell into. Avoid the over complicated stories. Avoid the double standards. Avoid the soap elements. Stop making the Doctor or the companion the most special people in the universe. Don’t make the Doctor this complex godlike figure or this emotionally weak man who needs a sexy woman to hold his hand. Don’t chase the trends. Don’t behave like you’re clever. It’s the whole revival you need to take a good look at and see what went wrong. You look at what is the basic template of Doctor Who, a brave and charming traveller who is the smartest person in the room, is a guide to his companion, and battles monsters.

Going forward as well I recommend that to really try and test the waters with what people want, then take a pitch and do a pilot based on that pitch. Make sure it’s got a good time slot, a good actor and a good enough plot. I say a pilot because giving a greenlight to an entire series is far too costly and risky. A TV pilot is less costly and can be a good enough place to start with in working on the future. Once it’s been given out to the public, hear their thoughts and see what can be done.

If the new Doctor is well received, keep that new Doctor. If the companion is another plot device and people don’t take well to that then leave it. If there’s a moment in the story people aren’t comfortable with then leave it. Is the new monster any good? Then yes, keep it. That’s what I think.

The only shameful thing is right now we have no Seventh or Eighth Doctor to go anywhere with. We have no Doctor reading a book in the TARDIS. We are currently still stuck in the past with the other Doctors. The Eighth Doctor’s ending, whether you like it or not, has been shown and thus we’re now wondering how much more stories he will get until the night. I’m not sure there's people clamouring for a spin-off about the Tenth (oops I mean Fourteenth) Doctor sleeping in his garden.

Doctor Who is in a tender moment right now. Right now the BBC needs to reflect on their mistakes. The fandom who clung on hard needs to come to terms with all that went wrong and accept that they placed their faith in the wrong people. Those who were told to go away need to be approached again about reconnecting with the show. Doctor Who is a time travel show and right now it needs time. Time to heal a lot of pain, a lot to reflect on, and time to move forward properly. That is what it needs right now.

Freddy: Yeah and you need time to take in the fact this won’t get much viewing figures.

Oh you. But hey, this could be my last Doctor Who essay for ages. Until we hear anything else.

Teddy: Yeah. And you still won’t get much viewers.

Oh well.