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Despite new Doctors and companions, the creative heart of Doctor Who has been beating to the same drum for nearly two decades. Join us as we break down why the series is facing a monumental shift that could redefine it for a new generation of viewers.
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00:00I'm Ellie for Who Culture and today we're going to talk about why Doctor Who is about to change forever.
00:15So let's go all the way back to the early 2000s.
00:19Doctor Who is a dormant yet still very popular franchise that's about to make a comeback under the guidance of
00:25acclaimed drama writer Russell T. Davis.
00:28Working alongside him not just on that first series but in subsequent series were writers like Mark Gatiss, Paul Cornell
00:35and Stephen Moffat.
00:37All of whom had some sort of Doctor Who pedigree in one way or another.
00:42Be it contributing to the expanded Who-niverse, writing comedy sketches or simply just being known as a big fan
00:48of the show.
00:49Russell was also joined by composer Murray Gold who he'd worked with previously on Queer as Folk and The Second
00:56Coming and producers Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson who would all go on to have significant impact on Doctor Who
01:04across the modern era.
01:05Ever since 2005 it's been this general ballpark of creatives that have been at the core of Doctor Who.
01:13Literally right up to the present day.
01:15Russell is still here, Murray is still here, Julie and Phil are still here and Stephen Moffat was just here.
01:21Billy Piper and David Tennant are also here.
01:24Even the show itself still using a 45 minute Monster of the Week format feels a bit archaic at this
01:30point when a lot of its peers have moved on to more complex serialised narratives.
01:35Again, despite all the change we've seen over the last 21 years, Doctor Who has sort of stayed the same.
01:41I think a perfect example to compare this to would be Star Trek.
01:45If you look at how Star Trek used to be in the 60s, in the 90s and in the early
01:512000s, it still followed that same structure that Doctor Who is following still.
01:5645 minute episodes, Monster of the Week episodes, very episodic.
02:01Not a lot of crossover across its stories.
02:04And that absolutely did work.
02:06But where Doctor Who hasn't, Star Trek has then moved into the more serialised format.
02:13Some of those shows, it really, really worked for.
02:15Others, they've attempted to kind of create a combination of both.
02:19Strange New Worlds is a perfect example of where they're trying to stick to that episodic formula.
02:24But also introducing elements of that serialised storytelling as well.
02:28And for me, I would actually say that that's probably the best structure of all of the more modern Star
02:35Trek shows.
02:35And it is something that I feel Doctor Who could embrace more in the future.
02:40Trying to find a good balance of having an episodic of sorts structure.
02:45And making sure we do have Monsters of the Week and aren't sticking to the same monster across all of
02:50the episodes.
02:51But also finding a way to have more of a through line.
02:54And it is something we have seen explored in Doctor Who, but not necessarily as much as we need to,
02:59to kind of embrace the modern landscape of television storytelling.
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04:10Now I know what some of you are saying.
04:12What about the Moffat era?
04:13What about the Chibnall era and the Disney era?
04:16Those are all big changes too.
04:17And on the surface, it does seem that way.
04:20If you really think about it, they actually weren't that different at all.
04:23The handover from Russell T. Davis to Moffat brought a fresh, enchanting vibe to the show
04:28and a new lead cast, but it was very much a continuation.
04:31Storylines like River Song, the best character, and things like The Time War
04:36helped maintain a sense of rhythm with what had come before.
04:39And behind the camera, it was a similar story as well.
04:42Moffat, of course, having penned some of the most acclaimed episodes already in the Russell T. Davis era.
04:48And Murray Gold continuing his brilliant work into the Moffat era as well.
04:52And there was even a brief period where David Tennant was going to stick around
04:56for one more series under Moffat, demonstrating how close-knit everything was at that time.
05:02The Chibnall era brought with it probably the biggest change in the show since 2005
05:06with a vastly new creative team and a completely different direction for The Doctor.
05:12But with Chibnall himself being raised in the house that RTD built,
05:16having written Doctor Who episodes like 42 and The Power of Three,
05:20and contributing significantly to Torchwood, that DNA still remained.
05:25Particularly as the era progressed.
05:27You know, it started off with, we're not going to be bringing back any known monsters,
05:31we're going to be doing new things.
05:32But then it kind of got to all the Gallifrey being destroyed again,
05:35Captain Jack Harkness returned, and so did the Bronze Daleks.
05:39And then we have the Disney era.
05:40It was billed as a seismic change for Doctor Who in just about every way.
05:46But really?
05:46It was basically 2005 Volume 2.
05:49Hey, look, I'm not complaining about that.
05:51It was absolutely great to see all of my childhood favourites come back to our screens.
05:55Whether that was David Tennant, whether that was Catherine Tate,
05:58or whether that was Murray Gold, or even Russell T. Davis himself.
06:01But all of this undeniably contributed to the feeling that there's been a bit of stagnation
06:05around Doctor Who for a while now, with the show seemingly stuck in the past.
06:10Old storylines, old characters, old villains were aplenty.
06:14And that tried and true Monster of the Week format with hints at a wider arc
06:18had never felt more tired than in the Disney era.
06:21You could not have picked a more perfect lingering note for an era
06:25that many have accused of being unable to move on from the glory of those early revival years
06:30than the face who set that glory in motion.
06:33Now don't get me wrong, maintaining all these familiarities has made the show feel safe.
06:38And it's probably a really big reason why Doctor Who has become this comfort show
06:44for many of us who really don't deal well with major changes in our lives.
06:48On the other hand, if the creative well becomes dry,
06:52even that familiarity just becomes less comforting and more predictable and unsatisfying.
06:57Especially when it feels like the safety of what's familiar and nostalgic
07:02has almost been twisted into a form of lazy storytelling
07:06as opposed to being a genuine desire to provide comfort to the audience.
07:24And this brings me to the now.
07:26Why I think this will be the biggest change Doctor Who has seen in over 20 years.
07:32Assuming things pan out how we all expect them to, that is.
07:35Now for one thing, it's widely expected that the upcoming Christmas special
07:39will see Russell T. Davis' departure from the show.
07:42Now you can imagine the Christmas special wrapping everything up from the last few years
07:46and then leaving a clean slate for whoever comes next.
07:50So if Russell does leave, I can see Murray Gold probably following suit as well
07:54and even potentially Bad Wolf Studios along with producers Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter.
07:59Now whether you enjoyed the Disney era or not, nobody can argue
08:03that it clearly hasn't gone as well as everybody expected it to
08:07and that falls at the feet of the people who made it.
08:10So it does feel a little bit like there's a thank you but goodbye moment
08:14going on behind the scenes right now.
08:17With the BBC ushering the previous era out of the door
08:20and taking its time to decide what will come next.
08:24Big change has to be stirring.
08:26How else do you explain such a long period of deafening silence?
08:30We have heard absolutely nothing.
08:33Anything you've heard is a rumour.
08:36Speculation.
08:37Doesn't matter how many times you've heard it,
08:39there is no concrete information about the future of the show.
08:43The last we heard was a Christmas special.
08:45Almost a year of silence.
08:48Basically, Doctor Who looks set to lose all of its ties to the 2005 revival
08:53for the first time since that revival began.
08:56Without Russell T. Davis, without Murray Gold, without Stephen Moffat,
09:00without Chris Chibnall and without all their adjacent creatives
09:03who've jumped in and out of the show for the last 21 years,
09:06Doctor Who will be the most different it has ever been since 2005.
09:12Now there are rumours of Jack Thorne taking the reins as showrunner,
09:15which does feel like just as bold a swing as getting Russell T. Davis in the early 2000s was.
09:20Now whether that happens or not, it's not going to be a case of Russell T. Davis handing the baton
09:25back to one of his mates.
09:27It's going to be someone completely new, with a completely new vision for the show.
09:32You can picture whoever comes in ditching that 45 minute episodic format and going for full serialisation.
09:38And there are even murmurs of three 90 minute specials a year akin to Sherlock,
09:43which would certainly be interesting, although I'm not sure if that's the route I would like the show to go
09:47down.
09:48But even away from the creative side, the current turmoil over getting big budget television funded
09:54actually dictates that Doctor Who will need to adapt in the future,
09:58which is surely one of the reasons why it's taking the BBC so long to decide what comes next.
10:03It's sad, in a way, because 2027 onwards will likely be the first time since I and probably many of
10:11you
10:11started watching the show that it won't have that sense of familiarity.
10:16No familiar Murray Gold music, no returning characters or storylines,
10:20no Moffat or Russell T. Davis episodes to look forward to.
10:23Look, I've got nothing but respect for everyone who's made the modern era of the show what it is.
10:28And without Russell T. Davis and Steven Moffat in particular,
10:30I mean, Who culture literally wouldn't exist. I would not be sat here today.
10:34My childhood would be entirely different without these creatives.
10:39But at the same time, I am excited and ready for something massively different.
10:47And now that I've said all that, cue the announcement that Steven Moffat will be returning a showrunner.
10:51Look, it does feel like it's time for some changes.
10:55As I say, Star Trek is the prime example to compare to.
10:59They made changes when they brought the show back with Star Trek Discovery.
11:03They opted for something a little bit more serialised.
11:07They opted for different ways of storytelling that just showed the evolution of storytelling in television
11:14in the years since the previous Star Trek series had aired.
11:18And although Doctor Who is slightly different in terms of its budget, in terms of its audience,
11:24it also has to follow the same formula and format of all of its competitors on television.
11:30Otherwise, it's going to get left behind.
11:32Now, that's not to say that I want it to become this big budget programme.
11:36In fact, that's completely the opposite of what I want.
11:39I don't want things to change in terms of the kind of foundations of what Doctor Who is.
11:44But if it wants to survive in the current climate of television, it has to adapt.
11:49An experiment, at the very least, of trying to approach something more serialised would be definitely a good move.
11:56Obviously, they did approach that with Flux.
11:58But Flux came at a very odd time, which had other things playing against it.
12:02And it would be interesting to see if they tried to approach that way of storytelling again,
12:07if it would have the same results as Flux, or whether it actually would perform pretty well.
12:12Don't get me wrong, I still want to see multiple aliens in multiple episodes.
12:16I don't want to completely eradicate the monster of the week formula.
12:19Not at all.
12:20I love that.
12:21It's nice that you can just come in one week and not necessarily need to have seen all of the
12:25previous episodes.
12:26But we know from what we saw in the previous two seasons,
12:30that with a reduced episode count, you have to reconfigure your way of looking at how you're telling the stories.
12:37Because eight episodes was just not enough time to cram in all the things they were trying to cram in.
12:44And that's not going to change.
12:45Unfortunately, we're not going to go back to having series that are 14 episodes long.
12:51It's just not the way television works anymore.
12:53So there has to be some sort of change.
12:56How do we tell the stories in a way that feels satisfying when we don't have as many episodes to
13:02tell the story?
13:03Maybe we need to simplify things, cut things back a little bit, not try to tell five great major stories
13:09all at once
13:09and not have enough time to flesh it out.
13:11Big changes are needed.
13:13I sense big changes are coming.
13:15And I'm hoping that sooner rather than later, we will hear about some of these changes.
13:20And then we can get excited about them.