Turn on your TARDISES (TARDII?) because Doctor Who fans will be travelling through time and space from the ABC to Disney+ soon. Apologies for the laborious metaphor, but basically the BBC has struck a deal with Disney meaning the ABC will no longer have broadcasting rights for Doctor Who.
The BBC announced the news and said its new partnership would turn the show into a “global franchise”. Cannot wait for the rest of the world to discover Catharine Tate‘s legendary performance as Donna Noble.
Russell T Davies — who relaunched the show in 2005 — is helming the next iteration of Who.
“I love this show, and this is the best of both worlds – with the vision and joy of the BBC and Disney+ together we can launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK,” Davies said of the change.
It’s exciting to see what the new season will bring, but sad it’ll no longer be free to watch for Aussies.
Doctor Who has aired on the ABC for more than 50 years, which is a fair old slog.
“We are incredibly grateful to the generations of Whovians who have enjoyed Doctor Who with us on the ABC,” the broadcaster said.
“Everyone at the ABC wishes the Doctor well on their adventures and we hope the Time Lord will visit us again at some stage in the future.”
The next season of Doctor Who will actually see icon, legend and star David Tennant — who played the Tenth Doctor — back in action as the Fourteenth Doctor for a three episode arc. He’ll be joined by Tate as Donna Noble. Thrilling stuff if you ask me.
Then my absolute fave Ncuti Gatwa will be taking on the mantle as the Fifteenth Doctor.
“If you thought the appearance of David Tennant was a shock, we’ve got plenty more surprises on the way! The path to Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun!” said Davies in a press release.
“And how is it connected to the return of the wonderful Donna Noble? How, what, why? We’re giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose!”
No matter what platform it’s on, I’m bloody excited — though I am expecting to see some seriously high budget Daleks please Disney.
