According to the head of one of the BBC’s most successful franchises, the broadcaster’s end is inevitable.
Speaking on television podcast They Like to Watch, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies explains that there is a good reason for the fantasy drama being co-produced with Disney: it means that its survival doesn’t require the continued existence of the BBC.
“You’ve got to look in the long term at the end of the BBC, which is undoubtedly on its way in some shape or form,” says Davies.
“Is Doctor Who going to die then? No! You’ve got to prepare for that kind of stuff.”
The lack of lavish BBC budgets is another reason that Davies claims Doctor Who’s future requires Disney’s involvement – particularly in a world where high-budget productions are increasingly the norm, as Doctor Who needs “to be up there with the big hitters”.
“If Disney collapsed tomorrow and we had to go back to making Doctor Who on a normal BBC budget, you know what? We’d all rally round and make it and suddenly the stories would become claustrophobic ghost stories,” he says.
“A lot of people would like that very much, so I’m not saying you have to have this happen. But while it’s happening elsewhere, I think it’s unfair that it doesn’t happen to Doctor Who.”
Davies’ comments are part of an interview with podcasters Geoff Lloyd and Sara Barron, on topics including camera techniques, scriptwriting and the unlikeliness of Disney creating a Doctor Who Disneyland-style experience, given that a previous, Cardiff-based experience closed due to lack of profitability, costing tax payers £1.1m (“That Doctor Who experience lost a lot of money”).
Davies also claims that despite the success of his Doctor Who reboot, the BBC doesn’t have him contractually tied down.
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“It’s kind of a rolling contract. It’s very free. Look, if I had enough tomorrow, I could walk out. Well, I wouldn’t walk out, because I wouldn’t let people down. But nothing could trap me … I would never be in a situation where I had to write things,” he says.
“I’m talking as though that’s about to happen. That’s not about to happen. I love it. But … oh my God, I’d never be stuck sitting somewhere going: I must do five years here. Never. I’m too old for that now.”