Russell T Davies doesn’t sound so sure Doctor Who will get a third series anymore

There’s been a lot of ‘will it/won’t it’ when it comes to Doctor Who’s third (yeah, third) series happening and now it seems that even showrunner Russell T Davies isn’t as sure as he was.

When the series came back late last year, it reset to series one (for the third time) again with Ncuti Gatwa stepping into the iconic role and despite the big Disney money behind it, lacklustre writing and other things meant that it just wasn’t very good or embraced by the fans and, like Star Wars and many other franchises in recent years, studios and showrunners cannot grasp why changing a show significantly and seemingly deliberately alienating large chunks of fans will work out poorly for a show or franchise, but here we are. Again.

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Anyways. So, when Gatwa was cast, they were so confident that they filmed three 6oth anniversary specials, two seasons and a Christmas special and we’ve seen the anniversary specials and the first series and it’s been, well, it’s been pretty dire – maybe even worse than Chibnall’s era and that’s a pretty high (low?) bar to hit but here we are.

Anyway, in a recent interview on the Graham Norton Show, Gatwa was asked about filming series three and he said he believed it was kicking off next year but when the show re-aired, that whole section was gone, raising alarm bells in the fandom that series three is on the rocks.

Now, on BBC Radio 4, Davies has finally acknowledged that he doesn’t really know if a third series was even going to happen and it will all depend on how well series two is received when it airs next year: “I’m loving it. We don’t know if there’s a third series yet. This [Series Two] will go out in the summer and then they’ll decide it. The BBC will decide, as well, its future. But I’m happy to stay with it. I love it. It’s more fun than anything else.”

When the series came back, there was a big push for it on BBC iPlayer and then also on Disney+ and Davies explains the decision to push the show down the digital path: “The BBC made a move to go to a streamer. It’s still on BBC One here. It’s still on the iPlayer. It’s just the rest of the world it goes out on Disney+ and the BBC thought, and they went to me, because they thought that the show deserved to look as good as Stranger Things, as the Star Wars shows.

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“Why should we be the humble little show being made in a shoe cupboard? And I think that’s the way everything is heading. Let’s face it, every single drama you ever watch on television has had American money or co-production money in it for about 25 years. So, this is actually nothing new. This is just the next step. And it’s a lovely experiment. We’ve had a great time and think we’ve made shows that really show that off and we show Britain at its best as well. British crews, entirely British crews, entirely British writers and directors. It shows us off worldwide!”

Reflecting on the fact that many fans feel the show has run its course (straight into the ground, over the last few years, sadly), Davies says that Doctor Who will go on forever but admits that doesn’t necessarily mean on TV:  “It’s a fool who doubts Doctor Who’s future! I think it’s like 61, this year and yes, it would have found some different shape, some different form. There is a version that could go out late at light on BBC Three. It has always has survived like this. There have been radio shows. It has been novels. It has been comic strips. It’s a great, fundamentally brilliant, idea all the way back in 1963.”

I was very excited to have Davies come back to Doctor Who, bringing it back like he did all those years ago with Christopher Eccleston and I loved the early looks at Gatwa’s Doctor but sadly the show has failed to deliver on almost every front since it returned and, after the Chibnall years, I just don’t know if it can survive like this again.

Whatever happens, we have Joy to the World airing on Christmas Day and series two hitting early next year with a limited spinoff show The War Between the Land and the Sea set for the end of 2025, so even if it’s not getting more after series two, there’s the guts of a year of content still coming. Let’s hope it gets better because it will not survive staying like this or, God forbid, getting worse.

Thoughts? I want to hear them all…

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