There’ll be no Christmas fun for the Doctor this year.
On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter received an update on the future of the BBC series, which said that the British public broadcaster has scrapped the previously promised Christmas special and will put Doctor Who out to “competitive tender.”
It’s a formal, open process in which the BBC invites independent production companies to pitch for production rights on an existing series, and they then pick a favorite. Basically, legendary showrunner Russell T. Davies and production company Bad Wolf are exiting the show.
“Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC,” said the statement, “and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who, ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come.”
In line with that announcement, the BBC, Davies and production company Bad Wolf explained that they collectively decided “not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode.”
They said: “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 new Doctor Who animation series for CBeebies is currently in production, and details of the tender will be announced in due course, they added.
The BBC retains all IP in Doctor Who, but it’s been something of a tumultuous period for the Time Lord and his companions. At the end of the latest series, which recorded the franchise’s lowest-ever viewership numbers, Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into none other than Billie Piper, who played the Doctor’s former friend (and love interest) Rose Tyler during the Christopher Eccleston-David Tennant era.
The now-scrapped 2026 Christmas special was announced last year when Disney+ also confirmed they’d be exiting its Doctor Who partnership with the BBC. The streamer had become the worldwide home of the sci-fi series outside the U.K. and Ireland, and though the BBC’s director of drama Lindsay Salt assured fans “the Doctor is not going anywhere,” the news still begged the question: What will become of Doctor Who?