According to a Disney press release, Doctor Who was among the top five of series streamed on Disney+ globally.
“Quintessentially British, Doctor Who is one of the longest running action-adventure television series in the world with legions of fans across the globe since it was launched by the BBC in 1963. Ncuti Gatwa took on the role of the Fifteenth Doctor in The Church On Ruby Road. Doctor Who remains one of the most watched programmes on iPlayer and was a top 5 series on Disney+ globally every week it aired, as well as being the BBC’s top drama for under 35’s this year making it one of the biggest programmes for the demographic across all streamers and broadcasters.”
This belies a recent report that the BBC plans to rest the show. A tabloid outlet that employs a reductio ad wokeum argument as the reason a television show is allegedly unpopular enough to cancel doesn’t hold much credibility. Yes, I just invented a quasi-Latin phrase for when a media organization uses the word “woke”, or the even more ridiculous “wokery”, as a buzzword to claim that viewers are unhappy with more than a narrow range of humanity and cultural views sympathetically represented in cast and storylines.
The BBC responded that Doctor Who has not been shelved and that the decision to commission Season Three will be made after Season Two airs.
“Doctor Who has not been shelved. As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 will be made after season 2 airs. The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes – and exactly half of those still have to transmit.”
Why the wait? Julie Gardner, an executive at Bad Wolf — the company that produces Doctor Who, explained how executives in the television and streaming industries are taking a more cautious, wait-and-see approach of late.
“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.”
“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.”
Gardner also praised Bad Wolf’s good relationship with Doctor Who co-production partner 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.”
Doctor Who Season Two will officially launch with Episode One on Saturday 12 April at 8am on BBC iPlayer and later that day on BBC One in the UK. Those outside of the UK can watch Doctor Who Season Two on Disney+ where available begining simultaneously at 3am ET/12am PT. The remaining seven episodes of the series will transmit on subsequent Saturdays.