The wacky adventure of The Doctor and the Tardis is facing difficult obstacle in the eyes of one former writer, but a key producer is adamant in defending the iconic sci-fi series. According to Screenrant, this cruel remark refers to the previous season finale in which the Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education, Barbie) regenerates into a familiar face, Billie Pepper (Wednesday, Kaos), who played Rose Tyler.
The producer in question was Robert Shearman (Jubilee, The Chimes of Midnight) who goes on to discuss in an interview with Doctor Who magazine and that the series isn’t ‘dead as ever’. Reported by Screenrant, Shearman goes into further details,” It’s weird because the show is probably as dead as we’ve ever known it. After 1989, we had, for years, a current Doctor. Now, everything that is ever going to be produced in Doctor Who terms is going to feel retrogressive“.
The writer continued with Screenrant, “No one’s going to start writing Doctor Who books with a Billie Piper Doctor, because no one knows what that means. In a funny way, the closing moments of The Reality War seem to put a full stop on things. We didn’t have that before.” The producer’s forceful response serves as a rallying cry, especially amid fan confusion following the ambiguous season finale and the BBC’s production deal with Disney.
He further goes into detail with Screenrant stating,“It’s a 60-year-old franchise. It’s been going for 20 years nonstop since we brought it back in 2005 when I worked at the BBC. You would expect it to change, wouldn’t you? Nothing continues the same always, or it shouldn’t continue the same always. So it will change in some form or another. But the one thing we can all be really clear of is that the Doctor will be back and everyone, including me, including all of us, just has to wait patiently to see when — and who.”
Stated by Screenrant, it was unclear on whether if Billie is set to play the next doctor, and even Sherman was quite confused with his surprise cameo and that it ruins the narrative. We even get a statement by the Sixth Doctor, played Colin Baker (Tales of the T.A.R.D.I.S, Timelash), who says that he returns was ‘load of old malarky’.
Viewers can stream all seasons for the popular sci-fi series, Doctor Who on Disney+.