{"id":422639,"date":"2026-02-13T00:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422639\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:08:10","slug":"pete-mctighe-addresses-doctor-who-showrunner-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422639\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete McTighe addresses Doctor Who showrunner speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Gallifrey One<\/a> convention in Los Angeles on 6-8 February 2026, screenwriter Pete McTighe<\/a> addressed speculative questions regarding the future of Doctor Who and his possible role going forward. I will exclusively chronicle several panels I attended featuring the writer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In a 6 February feature interview with Big Finish and Doctor Who Magazine writer Rossa McPhillips, McTighe was asked if he\u2019s be interested in showrunning Doctor Who.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have said, and you can confirm or deny this if you want, a lot of people have said that You\u2019re very much the logical choice, if Russell T Davies were to leave, that you would be the next person that would be suited to be the showrunner,\u201d McPhillips began with knowing chuckles from the audience. \u201cYou probably can\u2019t say things but is there\u2026 do you have a view on that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for me to say,\u201d McTighe explained diplomatically. \u201cIt\u2019s not my decision. I will give you my party line, which is that position is not vacant. Russell is the showrunner and he\u2019s a friend of mine and whenever he calls, I will come running but he\u2019s the showrunner and I\u2019m fine with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This being neither a \u201cYes\u201d nor a \u201cNo\u201d, it\u2019s clear that, among his penning the Season Two episode Lucky Day and the spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, Doctor Who holds a marked appeal for McTighe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only show that I will write for\u2026 By the time Doctor Who came around in Lucky Day<\/a> \u2014 at the stage where I am, I had been creating my own shows for a while, and I kind of want to do that. So I\u2019m not really a writer for hire any more. I don\u2019t go in to do other shows. Not because I wouldn\u2019t because I\u2019m too snobbish for it but purely because there\u2019s a limited amount of time I have and I need to concentrate on my own shows. But one exception to that rule is Doctor Who. When Russell said \u2018I want you back\u2019, I was like, \u2018Yes. Absolutely. I\u2019ll be there.\u2019 So, yeah, Doctor Who is the only exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI still, to this day, get a thrill from stepping on the TARDIS set<\/a>. And I was on the TARDIS set five or six weeks ago just because I was in the studio [Wolf Studios Wales] and I was like \u2018I\u2019m going to pop in and see the TARDIS.\u2019 And I still get that fanboy kind of fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

When McPhillips asked what is next for the writer, McTighe was circumspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, er, lots of things I can\u2019t talk about,\u201d McTighe answered to engaged laughter from the audience. \u201cIt\u2019s funny because I\u2019ve been doing Doctor Who for so long that I kind of have a bank of ideas so, parking Doctor Who for a minute, there six or seven big scripts that I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A panel on The War Between the Land and the Sea<\/a> took place on 8 February with Pete McTighe, Alexander Devrient (Colonel Ibrahim) and moderator Steven Warren Hill, host of the Chicago TARDIS convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to manifest this out there. Pete, when are the next showrunner,\u201d an audience member asked hopefully. \u201cCan you please bring back Alexander as a villain?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a really cool idea,\u201d Pete McTighe answered. \u201cNever say never. And I\u2019m not the showrunner so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

As a follow-up to this exchange, Hill asked: \u201cCan you contemplate about Doctor Who\u2019s future for a moment?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh, no,\u201d McTighe demurred.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For an idea of what a series of Doctor Who helmed by Pete McTighe might include, the writer expressed an interest in a return to classic Doctor Who plot staples at the Doctor Who Writers Roundtable discussion at the con on 8 February.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Doctor Who works best as a cliffhanger serial and those should be back in force.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special<\/a>, produced by Bad Wolf and penned by showrunner Russell T. Davies<\/a>, is expected to go into production in some time in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles on 6-8 February 2026, screenwriter Pete McTighe addressed speculative questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[155538,155539,96,155540,125471,155541,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-422639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cliffhangers","tag-doctor-who-showrunner","tag-entertainment","tag-pete-mctighe","tag-russell-t-davies","tag-tardis","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}