Doctor Who Social Club

My sincere apologies, I just spat my coffee reading that subheading and I had to share.

Written by: Russell T Davies

Directed by: Charles Palmer

"It was a confused launch," Davies wrote. "We knew it would be, but there was no way around it. It was the sixtieth anniversary, which meant going to a streamer to say this is a brand-new show that's celebrating sixty years. It's launching and regenerating at the same time. Quite a difficult concept. I think that f****d it from the start.

"Disney's solution was to throw away the three anniversary specials, more or less. They dropped them on to the platform, but they didn't really advertise them. I don't think David Tennant did a single interview with the American press. And I accept that, because we'd created that oddness. But it was a stumbling start in America, from which I think we never quite recovered."

More excerpts from RTD's memoir revealed:

“It’s such a shame we never got to make Series Three, though. Three scripts were fully written for it, and it breaks my heart they won’t be seen.”

“We had a brilliant story set during the Great Fire of London, written by the powerhouse team of Laurence Clark and Jack Thorne, and we should have had the budget to do it properly, with the flames and panic and everything.”

“And we had a brutal horror story, written by the brilliant Lydia Adetunji, set on a NASA-type space station, all about trypophobia – look it up, it’ll make you shiver!”

“There was a really lovely episode set on a council estate in the middle of Manchester. That would have been the ultimate place to bring the Doctor; I would have just loved to see that. It was written by Sharma Angel-Walfall, who’s lived that life. It was like Doctor Who meets the film Rocks.”

“I was talking to a lot of other writers as well, and I wanted to bring Juno Dawson back for another story after her amazing Eurovision episode.”

“I was also talking to the writers Kate Herron and Briony Redman about bringing Jonathan Groff back as Rogue, which would have been glorious. That sequel was forever getting postponed. It didn’t appear in Series Two, but I would have tried for it in Series Three. We were talking about Rogue in an eighties story, maybe set in Blackpool with video arcades at its centre.”

“So we had a lot of fabulous ideas, some fully fleshed out, with a Dalek four-part epic to end the series. We were ready to go.”

Brittin joked during the town hall that he “got in trouble” for his Doctor Who comments, which generated headlines in national newspapers. He also expanded on his thinking, stressing that human-led creativity would always be at the heart of the BBC’s mission.

“I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do. It’s really important. I’ve spent a lot of time on this, as you can imagine,” he explained.

“We have to understand what it’s capable of, for good and for ill, and that means things like the risk of our journalistic integrity being undermined. You want to know that that is Steve Rosenberg in Moscow and not an AI-generated state actor-backed facsimile of him, and we need to understand those risks.”

He continued: “Equally, AI can help tools on research, journalists using things like Notebook is hugely powerful. So we’ve got to put it to work. What I want to do is accelerate the velocity of testing and learning in this space because it’s vital to the integrity of what we do. It will help us to be more effective in a more efficient in some ways, and there are some creative opportunities that come through too.”

“But I want to be really clear: Humans are leading, and I believe in human creativity, enhanced by whatever tools. We’re surrounded by technology today. It’ll be different technology tomorrow. But the BBC has to stand for human trust, using the best technology.”

Created for CBeebies viewers, the series follows the Doctor, a young Time Lord, and his friends Hannah, Beastie and Toast-IE as they embark on extraordinary adventures through time and space. Travelling aboard the iconic TARDIS, they encounter incredible creatures, discover amazing new worlds and come face-to-face with legendary Doctor Who foes, including the Daleks. (...)

Across 52 eleven-minute episodes, families will join the TARDIS Crew on unforgettable journeys where friendship, teamwork and quick thinking can change everything. (...)

Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew will arrive on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer in late 2027/early 2028.

Written by: Russel T Davies

Directed by: Euros Lyn

As I'm way outside the areas this screened, I was waiting for this particular shoe to drop...

In reading the article, it seems this is more of a "how far the industry in general, and the BBC in particular, have fallen" story than a "Doctor Who" story, but yeesh.

What a shame that the name of the series has been dragged into this muck.

Written by: Russell T Davies

Directed by: Graeme Harper

Written by: Russell T Davies

Directed by: Graeme Harper

We've published an invitation to tender for the production of Doctor Who. The contract is for a multi-episodic series (including specials) for transmission in 2028/29, with an option to extend the contract at BBC’s discretion to produce a second series. It's offered on a work for hire basis with the BBC continuing to broadcast the programme and retaining all rights.

The production will need to qualify as a regional production under two of the three Ofcom Regional criteria and the successful bidder will be expected to establish a production base in the agreed region. The BBC has a preference for a Wales qualification.

The deadline for initial submissions is 2pm on 2 October 2026.

Written by: Matthew Graham

Directed by: Euros Lyn

Written by: Russell T Davies

Directed by: Dan Zeff

Written by: Matt Jones

Directed by: James Strong

Slightly misleading headline, IMO:

“It’s had a bit of a rough time lately, and I think everyone just needs to chill out and wait for what comes from having space… and time.”

“I am not the next Doctor. I am Rose Tyler in hiatus,” she said. “Sorry, that’s a really cryptic answer, but because I’m not currently filming Doctor Who as the Doctor, I can’t lie and say otherwise. I’m sweating. I hate this.”

She continued: “I think you’ve all got to be very patient because it’ll be worth it when it comes. And I think that we need to celebrate the fact that the [revived] show has … been around for a very long time, it’s massively successful, and it’s impacting so many people’s lives positively.”

Written by: Matt Jones

Directed by: James Strong

Written by: Mark Gatiss

Directed by: Euros Lyn