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Oct 16, 2024

BBC Doctor Who's future up in the air amid doubt over Ncuti Gatwa’s return after mysterious edit - Mirror Online

The future of Doctor Who is officially up in the air with a gap of two years expected after Ncuti Gatwa’s second outing as the Time Lord hits the screen next year. The wait means there is now a big

The future of Doctor Who is officially up in the air with a gap of two years expected after Ncuti Gatwa’s second outing as the Time Lord hits the screen next year.

The wait means there is now a big question mark over whether the Scottish actor returns at all, according to insiders. And at the weekend he added to the intrigue surrounding the BBC1 drama’s future when he told Graham Norton he was “filming the third series next year” - only for the remark to be mysteriously edited out when the chat show aired.

So what on earth is going on with the BBC’s huge global sci-fi brand? Well, the prospect of a lengthy delay for any third series featuring Ncuti as the Doctor is real.

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Writing in the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, showrunner Russell T Davies officially confirmed that Disney will not decide whether to renew its funding deal with BBC Studios until after the second series starring Ncuti airs (probably from May).

"The decision to commission season three won’t be made until season two has transmitted, and that’s always been the deal since the start,” he explained, adding: “Hey, we might even have a day off!” Russell said he and three writers have started working on scripts for the future but they are about to “park them” because of the upcoming hiatus, caused by the wait for Disney’s decision next summer.

It’s a big deal because the US streamer’s cash injection for the first two series is thought to total £100million, which doubled or even trebled the budgets for each episode. Pulling out could mean a return to the old-style budgets, which would surely feel like a huge step backwards…

Whatever happens, any future series is unlikely to film until the start of 2026, as time needs to be allowed for scripts to be pulled together and guest stars booked. And that means no new Doctor Who on screen until 2027 - with or without the Disney cash.

But couldn’t Russell just get the whole series ready to go either way? Absolutely not, sources say, arguing that it would be “impossible” to fully plan eight episodes of action without knowing the scale of the budget. “It massively affects the stories and the scripts,” one insider said. “It’s much harder to film a battle scene with 800 aliens, for instance, if there isn’t the budget for CGI or for some spectacular staging.”

And where does all this leave leading man Ncuti? Doctors from the reboot era typically stay for three series before leaving with Jodie Whittaker, Stephen Capaldi and Matt Smith each loosely following this model, excluding specials.

The 15th Doctor put the cat among the pigeons last week when Norton asked about Doctor Who and he replied: “It is all going well. We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up - at Christmas - and we are filming a third series next year.” The final remark was edited out of the broadcast version leaving some fans wondering what it all meant.

“Everything is up in the air and they need to brace themselves for a two-year wait for a new series once this next one airs,” one insider reports. "We have been told that nothing will be filmed for Doctor Who in 2025.”

The ongoing doubt about Ncuti’s involvement in any third run also stems from rumours he is keen to capitalise on his higher profile since becoming the Doctor and also landing a cameo in Barbie - his first taste of Hollywood. Now the 31-year-old, currently rehearsing in London for his first West End play - Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest - is expected to receive movie and TV role offers to fill the Doctor Who hiatus.

“If he did go off to do other things, no one would blame him,” one source says. “He’s hardly likely to sit on his hands for the next couple of years while everyone waits to find out what is happening with Doctor Who. The truth is there’s a chance he simply won’t be available to film again in 2026.”

And then there’s the ratings. The doom-mongers always point out that in the heyday of the David Tennant and Matt Smith eras the show was getting an audience of 8million, compared with less than 4million now.

But a lot of that is down to TV being consumed differently thanks to streaming and catch-up services. Overall there is still a deep love for Doctor Who shared by fans who range from die-hard, lifelong Whovians to kids who have only recently discovered the TV time-traveller.

So it feels as though Doctor Who’s future is hanging in the balance, with US reports claiming Disney executives were left underwhelmed by Ncuti's debut season - no viewing figures are made public, so it’s hard to tell how it did in terms of audience size. However, there is still hope that all will be fine. Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival a few weeks ago, Disney original productions boss Liam Keelan described Doctor Who as a “really good fit”.

Calling the show a “fabulous series”, he said: “Really, really happy to have it. I think just, the quirkiness of it, the fact that it’s in that sci-fi world and when you think about what Disney offers in other regards, I think it feels like a really good fit to me. I mean it’s great to have it. And also speaking in Edinburgh, BBC content boss Charlotte Moore insisted the new big-budget version of Doctor Who had “done so well for young audiences”.

A BBC spokesperson declined to comment on speculation about the show’s future but Charlotte hinted she was remaining hopeful for a new deal, adding: “It’s been a great collaboration, we’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a great ride to be on.”

For now, fans will have to make do with spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea, featuring the ominous sea devils, to plug the gap in 2026.

Make the most of it!