Doctor Who's Cancellation

Doctor Who is somewhere between “semi-cancelled” and “for-real cancelled”, with news confirming that the forthcoming Christmas special is being cancelled (and was not really far along in production at all), and that Russel T. Davies and his Bad Wolf production company are stepping back from the show. The BBC is also now shopping around the show, putting it up for a bidding process to external producers (though BBC will still continue to own the show, as best I can tell!) And of course this is all coming off Disney backing out of its co-production deal, which was presumably a huge financial hit to the show’s production!

I historically say that I have an equal-weight triumvirate of favorite shows between Doctor Who, The Chris Gethard Show, and Veronica Mars. But there was certainly a period ~2010-2014 where I would squarely put Doctor Who in the number one slot! I have watched up through the first season of Jodie Whittaker, but my falling off is more that I just don’t watch tv basically at all anymore than me disliking the show.

All of this to say that I have the bonafides to be able to decree: this is good. Yes. Please cancel Doctor Who for a bit.

There is no show outside of maybe Star Trek that is so structurally built for “hey just take a break for a few years and come back refreshed” (and in Star Trek’s case, it’s a franchise of different shows. Doctor Who is really one-of-one!)

So do that! Chill out for a bit! The reboot has run for almost as long as the original version!!!!

Sure do your fiduciary duty and try to shop it around, but if you don’t get bites (or you get bad bites) then just like…. Relax for a bit! Let the generations that grew up with Doctor Who get older and have kids of their own. And then bring it back when the time is right.

When will the time be right? When there is someone talented who is desperate to make it. Not “when you see that the old episodes are getting more popular on streaming” or “when there’s a hot sci-fi/fantasy show that you need to compete with” or even, I would argue, “when someone has a really interesting pitch.” I certainly don’t mind an interesting pitch or interesting take! But someone with a brilliant take who is half-hearted about it is less exciting to me than a completely straight ahead “we’re just doing normal Doctor Who” from someone who’s obsessed with it.

That said, the “someone talented” is important: I would hesitate to hand Doctor Who to a true first-timer, and I would like to see someone like OG RTD who has proven themselves able to successfully deliver a good show (proving they have the chops on both the creative and the logistical/administrative side of show running.) I think I would rather see someone itching to do Doctor Who come in from the outside, but if for instance you’re still doing Doctor Who comics or novels or audio dramas maybe promoting someone from one of those stables (or pairing them with someone with show running experience) could work. If you do want someone to just take a flyer on it, then maybe try an 8th-Doctor-move and do a special or a tv movie. That’s fine! Even if it’s a one-off! Again, literally no show other than Doctor Who can handle that kind of thing so well!

But the other most important part that absolutely cannot be skipped (if you’re bringing it back as a tv show and not a one-off special or movie): it has to be cheap. Partly for practical purposes: if it’s cheap and it flops, then that’s less likely to “kill the franchise” or whatever, and if it’s cheap and it’s a moderate success then you can keep making it and try and make it a bigger success! And continuing with practicality, Doctor Who can be done well when cheap. The original show was rubber masks and plungers on cardboard sets, the 2005 reboot spent half of the first season exploring the dangerous alien worlds of “2005 London and Cardiff”, and the arguable best episode of the whole 20 year reboot could’ve been made as a student film. It’s like 3 locations, mostly unknown actors, and little to no effects (VFX or practical.) Doctor Who can handle cheap.

But also…… I dunno, Doctor Who needs to feel on the back foot a bit? I never really watched any of the pre-2005 outside of scattered Very Important Episodes, but I remember it starting to go off the rails in Season 6 as it got the BBC America money and went bigger and bolder. Many of the best episodes are small character dramas, which makes the moments of sci-fi grandeur all the more impactful. The main guy is armed with a screwdriver, not a gun, which makes big bombastic expensive action scenes often feel misapplied. And insofar as there’s a thesis statement to the modern incarnation of the show, it’s about the power of intelligence, curiosity, hope, and love in a world where the powerful work to minimize or destroy that. And idk, there’s something about doing that from the back foot that imbues the show with more oomph than if it’s doing it from a place of success!!

So that’s my declaration: the BBC should let Doctor Who go for a little bit and then bring it back when there’s someone who is 1) proven to be talented, 2) really desperately wants to make Doctor Who, and 3) is willing to make it for cheap1.