Doctor Who director Peter Hoar, who created the Season 15 story “Lucky Day,” airs his thoughts on the Disney+ era. The Doctor Who partnership between the BBC and Disney was supposed to be the best thing the show had ever had; returning showrunner Russell T. Davies was the man responsible for the show’s 2005 relaunch, and now it finally had Disney money to make something truly amazing. But it all fell unexpectedly flat, and the Doctor Who deal is over after just two seasons because of low viewership and poor critical reaction.
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Speaking to Deadline, director Peter Hoar – who’s now working on a Blake’s 7 revival – considers Doctor Who to be a cautionary tale. “I don’t think anybody would doubt the skills at the front line of that show,” he observed. “But something went wrong. I think there were lots of areas you could point fingers at but ultimately it wasn’t a better show with more money. And that’s a good thing, because we haven’t got the money anymore, nobody has.”
Doctor Who’s Disney+ Era Shows Money Isn’t the Answer
Doctor Who may be the world’s longest-running sci-fi TV series, but it’s traditionally been made on a shoestring budget (one classic Dalek army was created by using a few wind-up toys and some mirrors). When Davies returned with a Disney budget to work with, Whovians assumed this was the show’s chance to shine. Instead, nothing quite worked; the scripts weren’t polished enough, character arcs were rushed, and some individual episodes just didn’t land. To be sure, there were some bold experiments in the mix, but it simply wasn’t enough.
The core problem, of course, is that money is no substitute for creative vision. We may have come to the end of peak streaming in terms of budgets, but it’s worth remembering that budgets don’t always equal quality. Game of Thrones Season 8 was one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, with each individual episode costing somewhere in the region of $15 million, but it’s still seen as an unsatisfying final season because of poor writing and narrative choices. Last year’s Andor had a mammoth budget of roughly $645 million, but it was phenomenal because of writing and acting, not purely special effects.
Looking back, it’s hard not to conclude this is the reason the BBC’s Doctor Who partnership with Disney failed. The creative team focused on the opportunities given by the new budget, rather than on the actual character arcs and direction. It’s telling that viewers have actually created alternate watch orders for the last two seasons to try to improve the narrative, suggesting how stilted things became. Meanwhile, in contrast, some of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time – such as the iconic David Tennant story “Blink” – were Doctor-light and low-budget. Hopefully the show can learn from these mistakes.
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