Doctor Who’s Future Needs A Painful Lesson Original Fans May Not Like

The world’s longest-running science-fiction TV show, Doctor Who feels like it’s at a crisis point. When Russell T. Davies returned in a Disney-BBC partnership that meant the series had a budget like never before, the future looked certain at last. Two seasons and one spinoff later, the partnership between Disney and the BBC is over, and things have seldom looked more bleak. Ncuti Gatwa lasted just two seasons as the Doctor, stories failed to delight viewers, and the show is even down in the ratings.

The BBC has confirmed that Davies will return for another Christmas special, one that presumably wraps up the Doctor’s apparent regeneration into Billie Piper. Beyond that, another season is in the works, but it will surely have a much smaller budget now the streaming bubble seems to have burst. What’s more, given a decade now of declining viewership, Doctor Who will need to take bold steps if it is to secure a future. Forget the Doctor; it’s time for the entire show to regenerate.

Doctor Who Needs to Relearn 2005’s Biggest Lesson

Ironically, Doctor Who needs to learn a key lesson from Russell T. Davies’ first tenure as showrunner. Doctor Who was canceled by the BBC back in 1989, only returning in 2005 under Davies’ skilled leadership. Rather than indulge in fan-service, Davies decided to aim for a much broader audience; he used a Time War to wipe the slate clean of continuity-heavy plots and to leave new and established viewers on a level footing in terms of exploring a whole new arc. Looking back, Davies’ first era was notable for its reluctance to focus on the show’s decades-long history.

This, fundamentally, is where Davies has gone wrong during Doctor Who‘s Disney+ era. Davies seems to have believed that more modern viewers are keen on deep franchises with complex lore, and that they’ll love deep cuts that require investment in past stories to make sense of them. That’s why the Disney+ era featured a “Whoniverse” of content released on iPlayer in the U.K., and it’s why Davies’ two seasons (and three specials) have featured returning characters like the Celestial Toymaker, Sutekh, and the Rani.

Davies may have been right had Doctor Who launched just six years ago, at a time when films like Avengers: Endgame could dominate the box office through continuity and lore. But franchises like Marvel and Star Wars are declining now, with nostalgia plays now seeing diminishing returns. Audiences are beginning to look for something new, something fresh, something original. Davies made a critical mistake, misreading the current mood, and Doctor Who has suffered as a result.

Doctor Who Needs to Do Something New

Continuity and lore has dominated Doctor Who for far too long, and the viewership has shrunk to the hardcore who are most engaged with the show’s history. If Doctor Who is to have a future, then the show needs to focus on drawing in a whole new generation of viewers – people who aren’t interested in heritage and history, but who can instead be drawn in through a smart regeneration. It’s what Davies did in 2005, and something just as radical is needed now (perhaps moreso). Continuity needs to take a back-seat, and we need new monsters to boot.

In short, modern Doctor Who needs to stop aiming for people who loved the show 20 years ago, 40 years ago, or 60 years ago. Instead, it needs to consciously try to bring the next generation of viewers on board, Generation Z, and that means taking a radically different approach. It means a more dramatic regeneration than ever before, one that changes everything in terms of tone and style, that embraces transmedia and social media, and that focuses on intense and authentic emotional journeys and character arcs. It’s time for Doctor Who to intentionally target this new audience.

But here’s the catch; this will be controversial. Ironically, the established Doctor Who fanbase is notoriously resistant to change; Davies learned that in 2005, when the fanbase routinely complained on internet forums, and those habits haven’t changed over the decades. Whoever takes over as showrunner must dare to earn the ire of yesterday’s Whovians if they are to win over today’s, and in doing so earn the world’s longest-running sci-fi TV series a future.

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