On the Radio Free Skaro podcast recorded at the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, California on 14 February 2025, Bad Wolf executive Julie Gardner relayed a positive outlook regarding Bad Wolf’s co-production partner Disney, which streams Doctor Who on Disney+.

“I live in America now and so I look after mostly the Disney relationship and they are fantastic to us. You know, what was so good right from the beginning was they understood the show. They wanted what the BBC show was. They weren’t coming on board to make it something else – which is always a fear when you have a meaningful, big co-production partner. But they were really interested in what the show was, had been, the legacy of it, what [showrunner] Russell [T Davies] wanted to do, what [writer] Steven [Moffat] would do coming in.”

Gardner spoke on how the television and streaming industries have changed over the years and the current tough climate. This goes a long way to explain why a decision to commission a third series of Doctor Who won’t come until after Season Two completes transmission. Disney, like other streamers, appears to be taking a cautious, wait-and-see approach.

“I think it feels really scary because I live in LA and we’ve had the pandemic, we had the writers’ strike, we had the actors’ strike and then we had the fires. And, at the same time as all of that was happening, the streamers were beginning to say that phrase, ‘The model doesn’t work.’ And I think if you’d worked in TV for a long time, you kind of knew that. You could see the prices were going up and episodic orders were coming down and you can see that it’s unsustainable, which is now where we find ourselves. So, you can see that there’s less being commissioned. Things that are being picked up, there’s less money.”

Nevertheless, Gardner has confidence she can navigate through tough times.

“That’s okay for me because I’ve worked on shows, lots of shows, with very little money. So you can kind of box and coax your way through. You kind of know, to a degree what you can do but, for some producers, they’ve never worked in that climate. So, there’s a lot of uncertainty and fear. But, at the same time, we have the best jobs in the world. And I really believe in television. I am who I am because I’ve watched so much TV as a kid and it’s where I found my window into the world and where I understood people and narrative and story. So, there will always be a way. It’s very, very tough time.”

Doctor Who Season Two, starring Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Varda Sethu, will transmit in April and May 2025 on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ where available.