Whovians everywhere are in limbo now. The most recent season ended with a regeneration as Ncuti Gatwa turned into Billie Piper – but no one, not even Davies himself, seems to know if Piper is the next Doctor or not. And now, on the heels of that, there’s more bad news. Doctor Who is leaving HBO Max (previously known as Max) come July 31.
HBO Max only had the rebooted series, so everything from the Ninth Doctor to the Fifteenth – but there were some absolute gems of episodes in there. For example, fans could enjoy Dalek, Doomsday, Blink, Midnight, and Vincent and the Doctor – all highly acclaimed stories – on HBO Max. Now, fans are going to find it just that little bit harder to get their Doctor Who fix.
It’s not the end for Doctor Who on streaming, however. British fans can watch any episode they like on the BBC iPlayer – it has all the episodes since the beginning. And fans of the Fifteenth Doctor can watch his episodes, and the David Tennant/Catherine Tate specials, on Disney+. But now that the Disney+ era of Doctor Who appears to have come to an end, it may be the case that those episodes eventually disappear from that streaming service as well.
It May Be A While Before Doctor Who Returns
Insiders are unfortunately not optimistic that Doctor Who will return to screens soon. No episodes are currently in production, and the BBC are reportedly looking around for a new partner – but they haven’t found one yet.
Tom Spilsbury, the one-time editor of Doctor Who, delivered some particularly bleak news recently. “I suspect the show will indeed come back at some point, but as of right now, nothing is commissioned and nothing is guaranteed,” he said in a post on the Doctor Who forum Gallifrey Base. “Those are the facts. Time will tell, of course, but I don’t get the sense of much optimism for anything very soon from anyone I’ve spoken to.”
He said that everything was moving very slowly, more slowly than fans would like, but that was simply the nature of television these days. “I just think people may need to adjust their expectations about how long this will all take,” he continued. “As I’ve always said, Doctor Who might not be officially ‘canceled’ – but for now, the absence of a commission essentially amounts to the same thing. I’m sure that commission will come at some point, but the longer it takes, the more likely it will be that the show will return as a completely reimagined relaunch. And maybe that would be a good thing?”
