Doctor Who ended its latest season on an exciting cliffhanger with a big mystery to unravel regarding why The Doctor looks like Rose Tyler. However, there’s a bigger issue for the series to solve in the real world. There’s still no official ruling on a season renewal for the series, and with persistent rumors that Disney may pull out of its co-partnership with The BBC, the network has some big questions to address ahead of any new episodes.
Fortunately, there is a positive rumor to shine some potential light on what could’ve been a dark time for the franchise. The news comes from Who insider Daniel Richtman, who notes that while the days of streaming new episodes of Doctor Who with a Disney+ subscription may be at an end, there’s optimism it will end up elsewhere (via SFFGazette.com):
Doctor Who is only dead at Disney, but there are active talks to revive it elsewhere, and things are looking promising.
Max subscription. Having the back catalog plus new episodes would make it a hot destination for fans, though it remains to be seen if Disney will hold onto the anniversary specials and Ncuti Gatwa’s run as The Doctor.
Russell T. Davies has talked about wanting to do a Trek crossover, and he even did a panel with Alex Kurtzman at San Diego Comic-Con last year, talking about the potential of one. Speaking as a fan of both franchises, I would love to see them on the same streamer. However, I can’t speak to whether that would actually happen.
It’s also worth mentioning that, as of writing, Disney has not officially backed out of being a co-producer with The BBC on Doctor Who. Until that happens, it’s hard to speculate who could be the next home for the best episodes of the series, and who will help usher in a new era with Billie Piper as the lead.
One potential hang-up with Doctor Who finding a new suitor is that Piper’s involvement suggests the series is more into catering to its current fan base rather than attempting to draw in new fans. Bringing the actress back after she appeared as Rose Tyler in the earlier seasons is bound to bring forth a lot of classic references to the show, which would work for a streamer like HBO Max, which has those episodes for new fans to look back on. For other streamers, however, they may not like the idea of viewers needing to go elsewhere to get all the information they need following a new episode.
For now, we can only wait for more information and see what becomes of Doctor Who as the months go on. All I’m hoping for as a fan is to see more episodes in the future, so whatever scenario leads to that is the one I’m going to support.