Former Doctor Who Writer Robert Shearman has said the beleaguered British sci-fi series is now “probably as dead as we've ever seen it.”
It's an instructive statement, not least because the series previously had a 16-year hiatus from 1989 to 2005 (interrupted by a single TV movie).
Now, however, Shearman has suggested that the show's current predicament – which has been suspended indefinitely – is even worse than during the series' previous hiatus, with the wait for news about Doctor Who's future compounded by the fact that it has been left without an established protagonist.
“It's strange because the show is probably as dead as we've ever known it,” Shearman said in the Official Doctor Who Magazine (thanks, Cultbox).
“We had a current Doctor for many years after 1989,” he said, discussing the period during which Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor continued to inhabit the TARDIS in a variety of spin-off books and comics. The same situation occurred after the airing of the Doctor Who TV movie, in which McCoy regenerated into the Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann.
“Now anything ever produced in the spirit of Doctor Who will be seen as regressive,” he continued. “At least when you watched New Adventures and then BBC Books you thought, 'This is the current Doctor – McCoy or McGann.'
The current situation with Doctor Who appears to be different, Shearman explained, due to the unique circumstances in which its storyline was left. Showrunner Russell T. Davies' decision to add Ncuti Gatwa's regeneration sequence during filming and then sudden appearance of Billie Piper in an unconfirmed role means that the show's ongoing narrative is also on hold until what's going on with Piper's appearance is officially explained.
“Nobody is going to start writing Doctor Who books with Billie Piper's Doctor because nobody knows what that means,” Shearman said. “Oddly enough, the final moments [series finale] The Reality War seems to have put an end to this matter. We didn't have this before.”
Back in August Davies says he doesn't know what the future of Doctor Who will holdand was not involved in ongoing conversations between the BBC and financial partner Disney. Meanwhile, amid criticism of the script and storylines of the series, Doctor Who actor and screenwriter Mark Gatiss suggested the series needs a break.
Tom Phillips is news editor at IGN. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky. @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
