Quote · The Rest Is Entertainment
Has The BBC Really Cancelled Doctor Who?
Where this was said
Why the Doctor Who Tender Happened: Disney, Ratings and Russell T. Davies
At 37:10 · chapter starts 36:15
Marina is candid about why this is happening: the ratings weren't there for Disney, and Disney operates on very different logic to the BBC. Kate Phillips's 'three Gs' — all generations watching together — was what Doctor Who used to embody in its 2005-era glory, but that was a different, linear era. The show has been on Disney Plus and iPlayer simultaneously, and neither home has quite worked as a destination in the way Saturday evenings at 6 PM used to. Richard adds that Charlotte Moore's departure created churn at exactly the moment these decisions needed making. Russell T. Davies issues a pointed public statement — 'no script, no actor approached, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right' — which Marina reads as both reassuring and containing a small niggle.
The BBC cancelled the planned Doctor Who Christmas special because putting the show out to tender mid-process would have created impossible canon continuity issues for pitching production companies.
