- 6 weeks ago
The Doctor Who Disney deal is officialy over. But... why? How was this huge opportunity squandered? Let's explore some of the reported reasons and analyse the fallout of Doctor Who's failed new era.
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for Who Culture, and as promised in yesterday's video, I am here today
00:06to take a deeper look into why the Disney deal failed. And to do that, I'm going to look at the
00:12recent Deadline article which was titled, Why Disney Ditched Doctor Who, and it breaks down
00:17various explanations, various assumptions as to why the deal failed. So I'm just going to go through
00:24some of the points made in that article and give you my thoughts on them and discuss them a little
00:30bit deeper. So one of the first things that caught my attention when reading through this article
00:35was the implication that there was a complete lack of enthusiasm from Disney with regards to Doctor
00:42Who. This is the quote from the article, it said, it was pretty apparent from early on that this wasn't
00:48for the long term, says a former Disney executive. Everyone got the impression that it wasn't doing
00:53what it needed to do on Disney Plus to be sustained. Another person close to Doctor Who adds,
00:58the writing has been on the wall for ages, there has been a complete lack of enthusiasm over at Disney.
01:04Now I don't know about any of you, but I feel that. I could sense that lack of enthusiasm from Disney
01:09pretty much from the word go. In terms of marketing, I feel like there were so many missed opportunities
01:16opportunities for Disney to market Doctor Who to a wider audience, to really sell this new franchise
01:23that they now had their hands on. And it kind of didn't happen at all. We had some trailers that
01:29were slightly different to the BBC versions, but only tiny, tiny details that you probably only would
01:35really notice if they were side by side. Obviously the Disney Plus logo was included in some of them,
01:41but there was an opportunity there for there to be so much put into Doctor Who from Disney
01:47to really get people excited about it. And I really do feel there was a lack of enthusiasm from Disney
01:54with regards to Doctor Who. When you think about merch that could have been sold, you think about
02:00Disney, you think about merchandise. And obviously there is a strong line of BBC merchandise for Doctor Who,
02:06and perhaps there were issues with regards to licensing and things, but I just feel like
02:12there was a lack of enthusiasm from Disney right from the beginning. And it only got worse as time
02:17went on, to the point where it just felt like they were just posting their obligatory announcements
02:22alongside the BBC when the time came, and they really had no interest in building up Doctor Who at all.
02:30Now the other thing that you probably could consider with regards to the enthusiasm
02:34and the push for Doctor Who from Disney. There was a time when Disney Plus was really pushing for all
02:41that content. Think about how many Marvel TV shows there were coming out all at once. And that was
02:46under CEO Bob Chapek. Right, but right as Doctor Who was signed to Disney, Chapek steps away from Disney
02:54as CEO, and a new CEO, which was Bob Iger, comes in. And he wasn't quite as content-hungry as the previous
03:02CEO, and he wanted to scale back the spending on Disney, which then probably could have affected
03:09Doctor Who. So there could be an argument for the timing being not right, and that, you know,
03:16the initial thought was there to build Doctor Who up, but the changeover of Command kind of threw that
03:24all out of whack, and Doctor Who kind of got brushed aside and didn't get the attention that it perhaps
03:31originally would have got. I mean, we'll never know unless we had Bob Chapek and Bog- Bog- I- Bob Chapek and
03:38Bob Iger in the room and asked them those questions. But quite honestly, if I think if I said to them,
03:43what are your thoughts on how Doctor Who was handled, they might quite possibly say, what's Doctor Who?
03:47Who knows? But yes, in terms of the enthusiasm from Disney, I do feel like it was lacking with
03:54regards to Doctor Who right from the beginning. Moving on, of course we get to the topic of the
04:00ratings. So the article says, quote, Doctor Who's performance has been far from stellar in the US.
04:05This year's season failed to register in Nielsen and Luminate's streaming charts. The ratings were
04:10not up to much, someone involved in the series ruefully acknowledges. And then it later goes on to say,
04:15on the BBC, Doctor Who has seen an alarming drop-off in viewing figures.
04:20Okay, so there's two things I kind of want to look at with regards to the ratings and the viewing
04:27figures. First of all, when it comes to comparing viewing figures and ratings, it's quite difficult
04:34in the current climate of television. Because when you look at the viewing figures for something
04:39released now compared to something five, ten years ago, the metrics are just completely different
04:46because things are not released as they once were. It's not, if you don't catch it live, you're going
04:53to miss it until it's then on BBC Three tomorrow at 4pm. In the age of streaming, looking at 24-hour
04:59viewing figures is not necessarily the best way to measure how many people are actually watching
05:05your show. Now, a lot of comparison might be made to something like The Traitors, for example.
05:11And they might say, well, The Traitors has got X number of viewers every night that it's on. And
05:16that is true. But the difference is that Doctor Who is such a different type of programme. The Traitors
05:22is the kind of thing, I'm just using this as an example, but The Traitors is the kind of programme
05:25that people watch as it airs. And they watch it every day that it's on while it airs. But it's not
05:31the kind of programme that you're going to look at and then three months down the line decide, I'm
05:36going to re-watch The Traitors. That's the kind of programme that is very much an in-the-moment
05:40thing to watch. Whereas Doctor Who is something that has re-watchability. It's something that three
05:45months down the line, you might decide, actually, I'm going to binge all of this season of Doctor Who.
05:50And so actually, I think when you look at things like Doctor Who, you need to consider the 28 days
05:54ratings and viewing figures because it is something that slowly builds over time. And that's not
06:01necessarily a bad thing. It's designed in such a way that you now don't have to watch it as it airs,
06:07as it drops. It's more accessible to people who don't have the time to watch it at 6pm on a Saturday.
06:13And so when you're looking at the viewing figures and they are always lower than they used to be,
06:17you have to consider those other factors as well. So sometimes I think the viewing figures is
06:22something that isn't necessarily that beneficial or helpful to look at in terms of how successful
06:27something might be. In terms of it being far from stellar in the US, I think this can circle back
06:33to the point I just made about the lack of enthusiasm and marketing. Because as much as there are plenty
06:39of viewers and fans outside of the UK, Doctor Who fundamentally is a British institution. It's a
06:45British programme. And so it's naturally going to have a bigger UK fan base than anywhere outside of
06:52the UK. And when Disney takes on something that has a big audience in the UK, but isn't necessarily
06:58so well known outside of the UK, and then does very little to kind of push it to any new viewers,
07:04you're only relying on those existing viewers outside of the UK to bulk up those viewing figures.
07:10Whereas the intention should have been to bring in new viewers, but the lack of enthusiasm,
07:14the lack of marketing meant that that didn't happen. And so you only had those existing viewers
07:19and the select few who might have stumbled across it on Disney+. But you didn't really sell it.
07:25Disney didn't do much to really sell Doctor Who to a wider audience. They just gave it a platform
07:30outside of the UK. But naturally, the viewers are going to be majority UK viewers because it's
07:38something that's existed in the UK for 60 plus years. So I think it's hard for them to measure that
07:43when they didn't put the effort in to really build the viewership in the US beyond just having a
07:49platform for it to be watched on. And existing viewers, as we've seen in the comments of our
07:54previous video, would have found ways to watch it without Disney if they really, really wanted to.
07:59So I think that is something that needs to be considered. Did you do enough Disney to really
08:04build the viewing figures outside of the UK? And if you didn't, can you really blame,
08:10can you really be surprised when it comes to the viewing figures and you haven't really built up much
08:14of an audience? Now, the other thing that I want to talk about is something else I've seen
08:18in this article. And I think one thing has led to the other. And that is, it also spoke about there
08:26was also a serious lack of awards buzz around the series. I don't like that this is something that
08:31was considered when Disney took over Doctor Who. Because to me, it feels like Hollywoodisation of
08:39Doctor Who. And Doctor Who has never been this big Hollywood show. That's not the point of what it
08:45is. And if Disney are putting so much effort into trying to make it an award-winning, Emmy-winning
08:52Hollywood thing, then that tells me they're not putting the focus on the things that make it
08:57fundamentally what it is. That then, in turn, means that those British viewers, the BBC viewers,
09:04are watching something that they know very, very well, have grown up surrounded by, has existed
09:11within our atmosphere for 60 years. And all of a sudden, the fundamentals, the basis of this show
09:20that we've known and love, and seen change and evolve over time, but still has those core elements,
09:24suddenly aren't there anymore. Then you lose your UK viewers as well, because you've changed
09:30what is the core of Doctor Who. In favour of trying to focus on the things that are going to win
09:38awards, the special effects, the choreography. Oh, there's a choreography category for the Emmys or
09:45whatever it is. So let's put this wacky dance number in this episode, regardless of whether it fits or
09:51not, because then it could be eligible for winning an award for that. If that's the focus, then you're
09:58changing what makes Doctor Who what it is. And so, you're taking a risk by trying to do something
10:03different to win the award, but by taking that risk, you're losing the viewers who have stuck with
10:09the show and watch it for certain elements that suddenly feel like they're not being prioritised.
10:15So I think that has actually caused the ratings to drop as well, the focus on the wrong things.
10:22I don't know, let me know if I'm completely wrong here, but I feel like I'm onto something here.
10:27What do you think? So something else that was mentioned was regarding Shuti Gatwa and the
10:32idea that he never fully embraced the role of the Doctor. So the article says, quote,
10:38a Doctor Who source says, the show suffered because Gatwa never fully embraced the role.
10:43There is more to that role than performing, this person says. You've got to be an ambassador for
10:48the brand and embrace being that generation's doctor. Matt Smith and David Tennant fully understood
10:53the responsibility it carried. I think to a degree, there is a fairness there in what's being said.
11:00It's very difficult. I think Jodie Whittaker actually was a great ambassador for the show as well,
11:06and still is to this day. So to not mention her here maybe feels a little bit like there's some
11:11bias towards the kind of the golden era of Doctor Who, the Tennant and Matt Smith era of Doctor Who.
11:17But I don't think that's the case. I don't think they've purposely left out Jodie. But it is
11:20interesting to hear this idea that Shuti Gatwa hasn't fully embraced that. And there is, there is a
11:25degree of truth to it in as much as there has been a lot of gossip and talk about issues behind
11:31the scenes. We obviously know that he left before he was supposed to leave. And there have been
11:38whispers and rumours that perhaps he was a little bit difficult behind the scenes, maybe a bit of a
11:44diva. I've heard that from various sources. How much truth there is that I don't know. But I do feel
11:52like compared to other actors playing the Doctor, there wasn't a lot from him in terms of putting
12:00in that extra effort as the Doctor, which isn't necessarily a requirement of the job. But it does
12:06kind of, you can't, when you think of David Tennant and Matt Smith, you almost imagine them dressed as
12:11their character to go and see some sick children. And I'm not saying they actually did that. But
12:16there is, there are times when they did do things that maybe were beyond what they were expected to
12:22do. Whereas I feel like in the last couple of years, Shuti Gatwa has done the things that he was
12:28expected to do, but not much beyond that. I don't know how much that says for whether it impacted the
12:36show itself. But I do feel like with the reduced episode count, especially, we never really got a
12:43chance to get to know Shuti Gatwa's Doctor as a character. And because we didn't really have much
12:50opportunity to see Shuti Gatwa being an ambassador for the show outside of the obligations, you didn't
12:57really feel like you got a sense of it outside of the show as well as inside of the show. I don't know
13:01whether that speaks for more of an age of, or his age. It's interesting because Matt Smith was very
13:07young when he took on the role of Doctor, of the Doctor. But I feel like at that time, things like
13:12social media and everything weren't as big of a thing. And so it is interesting, this is the first
13:18time really we've had a Doctor who is of an age where, you know, social media and public image and
13:25all those things are much more important to perhaps the individual. And there's kind of an air of having
13:32an image to uphold or things that they do or don't want to be doing. They don't want to be typecast.
13:37I don't know, unless we again sat down with Shuti Gatwa and asked him these questions and he was
13:42willing to answer them. We don't know what his thought process was, what his ideas were, how he
13:48approached the role of the Doctor and all of the responsibility that came with that. So further
13:53down the article, we have the dreaded political climate and too woke for Disney comments. This is
14:00what the article says, and I quote,
14:02Another well-placed industry source says Doctor Who became too woke for Trump's USA and this was
14:07a factor in Disney minds when it came to a renewal. Disney is incredibly unlikely to ever admit that
14:13politics were a factor in Doctor Who's cancellation. But Jimmy Kimmel's brief suspension was revealing of
14:19the company's desire to minimise MAGA wrath. Yeah, I don't really have much to add here. The article
14:26basically spells it out here in this quote, that's the mindset of some people with regards to Doctor
14:32Who. Now obviously Deadline here does mention the Jimmy Kimmel suspension. So that does maybe indicate
14:40that that was a factor in Disney's minds, perhaps, maybe. But having said that, it's no secret,
14:47we've already learned from other things revealed in this article, that Disney has kind of been feeling
14:53quite lukewarm towards Doctor Who for at least the last year or so. So I don't think that this was the
15:00biggest issue with regards to Disney's decision making for moving forward with Doctor Who. I think
15:06if the season one had smashed the ratings and it had been a raving success, well I wouldn't be sitting
15:12here making this video. Disney would have renewed the contract ages ago and we'd probably have season
15:17three by now. Having said that though, it is clear from the outcome that we have had that Disney clearly
15:22weren't happy with some elements of the deal and with Doctor Who as a whole. So perhaps this was
15:31one of the things that pushed it over the edge, but again, we just don't know. So further on down
15:36the article, it does talk about the future of the show and it does suggest that the show will probably
15:41have to take a big budget cut moving forward and how that might be for the better. This is what the
15:49article says quote, and you'll notice I'm smiling here because I just want to say I've been saying
15:54this the whole time. It says quote, others point out that some of Davis's cheaper episodes were his
16:00best, such as season one's 73 yards, which was praised by critics and Whovians. Budget limitations
16:07used to help the idiosyncrasies of the show, adds an executive who used to work on Doctor Who.
16:12Big budgets can cause a problem. A huge variety of voices tend to push towards the mediocre,
16:17but then the budget was nowhere near as big as shows like The Mandalorian, so they were stuck
16:22in the middle. You can have planets, flying cars and robots, but ultimately you're always going
16:26to get better versions elsewhere. What have I been saying the whole time? I honestly think this is
16:33one of the biggest reasons that this era has failed, because there is such a thing as too much money
16:39and these last two seasons have kind of proved that. All I've been saying for the last two years
16:48is that I feel like the focus has shifted from good storytelling, good character development,
16:57good relationship building in favour of how can we show that we've now got a big Disney budget?
17:02Let's throw all the money we can at it and build this giant unit HQ in the middle of London and let's
17:09have this giant LED screen that could be used when actually we could have just filmed it in a quarry
17:16and nobody would have cared that we'd filmed it in a quarry because that's what Doctor Who is.
17:21And this is right. Some of the simpler episodes are some of the better episodes because we don't
17:28need extravagant special effects. Doctor Who has never relied on extravagant special effects to
17:34be successful. So to have here more confirmation that this is part of the problem, I mean it makes
17:42me feel quite good because I've been saying this the whole time. I don't care how much money the show
17:49has. I genuinely think take the money away which force, if you don't have the money, you're forced
17:55to rely on the things that you do have, which is your writers, which is your actors. I don't care
18:01if it's in a quarry, I don't care if it's on a council estate, I don't care if the whole episode
18:05is set in one room, as long as the story is gripping, the characters are engaging, the relationships
18:12are believable and well established. That's all I care about. You could have a whole episode where you
18:17never see the monster, but if it's creepy enough, if it's built up well enough, it actually doesn't
18:23matter. Take the Vashda Narada for example, it's just shadows. You literally never see
18:28a monster and yet it's terrifying. And I feel like the focus has just been completely shifted
18:34in this Disney era to focus on all the things that were the things that I liked Doctor Who
18:40for not using. I didn't want it to be this big Hollywood thing. If you were to ask me out of all
18:47the things that have been listed in this article, I think one of the biggest things to have made this
18:52deal fail is that it's tried to change Doctor Who into something that it fundamentally has never been
18:58and shouldn't be. And what's interesting is actually back in March 2024, this is what Russell T
19:03Davis said, quote, if Disney collapsed tomorrow and we had to go back to making Doctor Who on a normal
19:08BBC budget, you know what, we'd all rally round and make it and suddenly the stories would become
19:12claustrophobic ghost stories. Good. Give me claustrophobic ghost stories. I'm totally fine
19:19with that. That is Doctor Who to me. It's not about how extravagant can we make this episode,
19:24how much money can we spend on this episode. I really don't care about those things. If you've
19:29got a monster that looks a little bit weird and wacky, all the better. That's part of what Doctor Who is.
19:35That's what it is. You need to be able to look at that monster in 10 years time and go,
19:39that hasn't aged so well. That CGI is not great. That's what we want. So quite honestly,
19:44if moving forward Doctor Who goes back to being just on a BBC budget, being scaled back down to
19:49what it always has been, I would be absolutely fine with that. In fact, I would be really happy
19:56if that happened. Obviously we don't know what the future holds. Deadline did hint at a possible avenue
20:01for the show moving forward that actually almost came to bear before Disney. They said, quote,
20:07We understand that prior to Disney Plus and the BBC striking the Co-Pro deal,
20:12an alternative option was presented to then BBC drama boss Piers Wenger, which would have raised up
20:18to £5 million an episode without input from a big American player. This plan could yet be revisited.
20:26I mean, if you can get more money, sensibly, without involving a big American company who's going to
20:33want to try and Americanize and Hollywoodize the show, do it. But don't ever, ever, ever
20:39prioritize money over good storytelling. That is my message to the BBC. If anyone out,
20:46if anyone watching is at the BBC on the Doctor Who team, for the love of all that is holy,
20:52prioritize story and character over money. Obviously I know money literally is everything to everyone in the
20:59world. Money is what makes the world turn round. I get it. But if you want your show to be successful,
21:06prioritize the stories, prioritize the characters. Just take a look back at RTD1. Take a look back
21:13at the classic era. Take a look back at even the Steven Moffat era. That is what we want to see.
21:19But let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Have I completely missed the point?
21:23Am I completely wrong here? Or am I actually talking some sense? Let me know in the comments down below.
21:28But remember to be kind. You don't have to agree with me. That's fine. But don't make it personal,
21:32huh? Anywho, I hope you're all doing well. I hope you're looking forward to the war between the land
21:36and the sea, which we will, of course, be covering when it releases in December, whenever that might
21:41be in December. So keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture,
21:46and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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