{"id":727977,"date":"2026-06-10T18:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727977\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:57:10","slug":"russell-t-davies-says-goodbye-to-doctor-who-as-special-is-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727977\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies says goodbye to Doctor Who as special is scrapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell T Davies<\/a> has said \u201cgoodbye\u201d to\u00a0Doctor Who<\/a>\u00a0as the BBC<\/a> confirmed the long-running sci-fi series will be put out to competitive tender, allowing production companies to bid to make it.<\/p>\n

The showrunner addressed fans directly on Instagram following the announcement, revealing that plans for a previously announced Christmas special have now been abandoned.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show, as the BBC announces it\u2019s putting the show out to tender,\u201d Davies wrote alongside a Tardis sketch.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who\u2026 but you\u2019ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off\u2019 \u2013 Russell T Davies on the show\u2019s future<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, there won\u2019t be a Christmas Special \u2013 we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there\u2019s no need for it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who\u2026 but you\u2019ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it\u2019s worth it! For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You\u2019ll wait a lonnng time Now I\u2019m as excited as anyone to see what comes next! Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It\u2019s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future, vworp vworp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans\u201d \u2013 the BBC in a statement<\/p>\n

Ncuti Gatwa<\/a> bowed out as the Doctor last year and the Series 15 ended with Billie Piper<\/a> regenerating into the iconic role.<\/p>\n

The BBC has confirmed it will retain ownership of all\u00a0Doctor Who intellectual property. BBC Studios will continue to handle the show\u2019s global distribution, licensing and consumer products.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster wrote in a statement<\/a>, \u201cAfter careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode. This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also confirmed that the previously announced\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0animated series for CBeebies remains in production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies has said \u201cgoodbye\u201d to\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0as the BBC confirmed the long-running sci-fi series will be put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,1576,77006,134,352157],"class_list":["post-727977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bbc","tag-doctor-who","tag-entertainment","tag-russell-t-davies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}