The streaming landscape is a hard one to contend with. While television was always a larger-than-life beast that could change its success stories on a dime, the rise in streaming has made things so much more difficult, especially for those hoping to stand out.
For starters, there is just too much content to compete with, so people are watching less programs on the night and waiting to binge them as a result of that. Or a TV series that someone might have fallen in love with by flicking on when channel surfing may remain undiscovered by that potential fan due to less people just watching broadcast TV.
Some shows just also don't translate well from one platform to another, as some TV titans struggle to find an audience on streaming (or vice versa). Unfortunately, it appears that this is what happened to one of the most iconic shows of all time as its worldwide streaming days on Disney Plus are over.
Disney officially ends its partnership with Doctor Who, effectively cancelling it as a Disney Plus original
Disney Plus will no longer be producing new episodes of Doctor Who. The iconic British sci-fi series streamed its two most recent seasons on the streaming service outside of the UK and Ireland but that will no longer happen going forward as Disney has cancelled the partnership. This comes after the BBC had tried to relaunch the series, producing its 14th and 15 seasons as "season 1" and "season 2" in a bid to appeal to the new global audience that it was reaching, but there is no longer a need for that.
The silver lining in all of this is that the show will continue to entertain audiences in the UK and Ireland as the BBC has committed to producing more episodes of the beloved series. It all kicks off with the upcoming spinoff series The War Between the Land and the Sea in December before a new Christmas Special next year. A new season is also on the horizon.
The BBC's Director of Drama, Lindsay Salt, had this to say:
We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming [spinoff series]... The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved drama... We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course, which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”
Since the global relaunch two seasons ago, The Doctor has been portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa, with Millie Gibson and Belinda Chandra portraying his Companions. Although the series has been well-received (largely due to the involvement of Russel T. Davies on the creative side of things) and an improvement over the previous number of seasons, it hasn't caught on with global audiences in the way that Disney and BBC hoped it would.
In an era in which science fiction and superhero franchises dominate the big and small screens, Doctor Who seemed like the perfect fit for Disney Plus (the streamer is home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies) but it never managed to make the kind of impression that it has on British audiences. Although the brand is well-known in the US, this was the first time that a joint-deal had been crafted to try and push it as a global franchise, so it seemingly needed to do better in order to return for more seasons.
BBC will continue to make new seasons of Doctor Who for UK audiences, but its US future is unclear
Doctor Who is a cultural phenomenon in Britain and it will be allowed to continue being so in the years ahead. The show was a staple of the BBC's schedule from its first launch in 1963 before it concluded that run in 1989. It was then relaunched in 2004, with Christopher Eccleston taking over as the new Doctor in the first series. It was a success for the station, but the moment that David Tennant took over in 2005, the franchise achieved new levels of success that revitalized its appeal and it hasn't really looked back since.
Matt Smith enjoyed similar levels of success when he took over as the next Doctor. Peter Capaldi succeeded him in the role before Jodie Whittaker made history as the first female Doctor. Although the seasons that she was involved in weren't as well-received from a story standpoint, her performance was praised by audiences and critics, eventually setting the stage for Gatwa to take over. He departed after the end of the second series he starred in.
While the ratings have understandably decreased over time, Doctor Who's existence was never really in question over in the UK because of how adored it is. With less people watching on the night due to the competition, BBC also makes the show available to stream on BBC iPlayer And there is no denying that it continues to be a success for them with each and every series.
Doctor Who is as much a part of British culture as the likes of EastEnders, Casualty, Strictly Come Dancing, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and Hollyoaks, so it won't be going anywhere anytime soon as far as UK TV screens go. And that's great news. Unfortunately, it's future in the US is once again very unclear at this point.