Doctor Who | Christmas special cancelled, show now going out to tender

by Simon Brew |
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The Doctor Who Christmas special 2026 has been cancelled, and Doctor Who is no closer to a return. More on the news right here. —- Ah, here we go. A week or so ago, current-ish Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies suggested that news was incoming about the future of the show – and here ... Doctor Who | Christmas special cancelled, show now going out to tender

The Doctor Who Christmas special 2026 has been cancelled, and Doctor Who is no closer to a return. More on the news right here.

—-

Ah, here we go.

A week or so ago, current-ish Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies suggested that news was incoming about the future of the show – and here it is. Fairly gloomy news too.

The plan had been for the BBC to secure another commercial partner to fill the void left by Disney’s decision not to renew its own deal. The BBC would then – penned by Davies – put out a Christmas special this year, but ominously, not a frame of footage had been shot.

Doing interviews for his new drama Tip Toe, Davies was broadly hinting it seemed that nothing was going to be filmed, either.

Now the BBC has formally announced some fairly glum news. There’s going to be no new episode of Doctor Who this Christmas, to pick up the admittedly-stilted cliffhanger at the end of the last season.

Furthermore, there’s clearly no commercial partner in place. As per the announcement, “the BBC will put Doctor Who out to competitive tender this year.”

That leaves lots of questions straight away. Is the BBC now funding it by itself? Is this a tender to produce the show, or a co-production tender?

As for the Christmas special, that’s officially scrapped. “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.”

The BBC announcement, that you can read here, insists that Doctor Who still has an important future. But it feels like we may be slipping a little back to the hiatus in the 1990s. If a tender is secured and a partner comes in even by the end of the year, we’d still be a good year and likely change away from seeing anything fresh.

Separately, an animated series in the Whoniverse is actively in production.

It seems pretty likely, but it’s not said, that Russell T Davies is no longer involved going forward. But we’ll see. The announcement is relatively brief, and it’s as much what it doesn’t say as what it does. A lot of detail remains to be filled in.

Time will tell, then. Always does.

UPDATE: Russell T Davies has now confirmed on Instagram that he’s left the show. Bad Wolf, too, will no longer be producing it.

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