Jane Tranter, the executive producer of Doctor Who, has bristled at the suggestion that the iconic sci-fi series is “as dead as we’ve ever known it.”
The claim was made by Robert Shearman, who wrote Christopher Eccleston episode Dalek in 2005 and has penned several Doctor Who novels. Commenting in Doctor Who Magazine, he argued that Season 15’s ambiguous ending, when Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, had “put a full stop on things” in a way previous season finales have avoided.
The remarks also captured a mood of uncertainty around Doctor Who, with many unanswered questions over whether Disney will continue to co-produce the series, and if Russell T Davies and Tranter’s Bad Wolf will remain involved in the BBC Studios-owned show.
Tranter mounted a spirited defense of the Time Lord when confronted with Shearman’s quote. “‘As dead as we’ve ever known.’ That’s really rude, actually. And really untrue,” Tranter said during an interview with BBC Radio Wales on Friday.
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“The plans for Doctor Who are really simply this: the BBC and BBC Studios had a partnership with Disney+ for 26 episodes. We are currently 21 episodes down into that 26-episode run. We have got another five episodes of [spin-off series] The War Between The Land And The Sea to come. At some point after that, decisions will be made together with all of us about what the future of Doctor Who entails,” Tranter said in the interview, marking the 10th anniversary of Bad Wolf.
“It’s a 60-year-old franchise. It’s been going for 20 years nonstop since we brought it back in 2005 [when I worked at the BBC]. You would expect it to change, wouldn’t you? Nothing continues the same always, or it shouldn’t continue the same always. So it will change in some form or another. But the one thing we can all be really clear of is that the Doctor will be back and everyone, including me, including all of us, just has to wait patiently to see when — and who.”
Tranter’s comments echo those of BBC content chief Kate Phillips, who told the Edinburgh TV Festival in August: “Rest assured, Doctor Who is going nowhere. Disney has been a great partnership — and it continues with The War Between The Land And The Sea next year — but going forward, with or without Disney, Doctor Who will still be on the BBC … The Tardis is going nowhere.”
Despite the confidence in Doctor Who’s future, Season 15’s seven-day ratings did suffer. The season averaged 3.2M viewers over its eight episodes, which was half a million viewers down from Gatwa’s first season, and 1.7M below Jodie Whittaker’s final outing as the Time Lord.