Doctor Who is being consumed by its own canon. The BBC's longest-running science-fiction TV series, Doctor Who was originally envisioned as a basic historical show, with the TARDIS serving as a way to travel to the past. In essence, it was conceived as a continuation of the BBC's traditional remit, to educate and inform rather than simply entertain. It has become something creators Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, and Donald Wilson could never have imagined.
The secret to Doctor Who's success lies in its ability to embrace change. By 1966, star William Hartnell's health was deteriorating, and he was becoming increasingly difficult to work with. Script editor Gerry Davis came up with the idea of regeneration, allowing Doctor Who to change lead actor while retaining a sense of continuity, and this power has given the series a remarkable degree of flexibility. Regeneration doesn't just change the actor; it gives a showrunner a good jumping-on point for new viewers, and a regeneration episode has frequently served as a relaunch.
Sadly, declining ratings led the BBC to TV movie starring Paul McGann failed to breathe new life into the show, and it lay dormant until Russell T. Davies relaunched it in 2005. Since then, Doctor Who has gone from strength to strength with five new Doctors and three successive showrunners. Unfortunately, viewing figures in the Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker era are declining once again, and the fans are growing disgruntled. The stories have tremendous potential, but it's failing to be realized because Chibnall has forgotten some of the key lessons of Russell T. Davies's tenure.
How Russell T. Davies Relaunched Doctor Who
A long-time fan of Doctor Who in his own right, Davies believed the show had the potential to be one of the BBC's best-performing TV series. "[The X-Factor] was the biggest Saturday night show then," he told The Guardian in an interview a few years later. "We used to gather around at a friend's house to watch the final and vote, and I wanted to do that with drama. If we could have the voice at the beginning of The X Factor introducing each episode I would do it." This ambition was key because it meant Davies wasn't just hoping to appeal to his fellow old-school fans, but rather wanted to make something that drew in everybody. That led Davies to change the format of Doctor Who, pivoting away from the traditional multi-episode adventures. The Davies era was characterized by one-and-done stories with occasional two-parters, and the narrative moved at a breathtaking speed. This is perhaps symbolized by the introduction of the Doctor in "Rose," with the Time Lord bursting onto the scene and telling his future companion to run for her life. Under Davies, the Doctor never stopped running.
While the Doctor is undoubtedly the hero of Doctor Who, Davies considered the companions to represent the audience. He didn't want viewers to empathize with the Doctor; he wanted them to connect to the companion, to be plunged into an insane world of renegade Time Lords and alien invasions. As a result, he devoted a substantial amount of time to fleshing out his companions' respective worlds, giving them families, boyfriends, and professions of their own. The original series had frequently relegated the companions to B-plots, but under Davies they drove the narrative. In "The Parting of the Ways," it is Rose Tyler who defeats the Daleks; in "Last of the Time Lords," the Doctor was defeated by the Master, but Martha Jones was not.
Finally, Davies looked back at classic Doctor Who, and realized it would be all too easy to become absorbed in the show's own complex mythology. He came up with the Time War, a cosmic conflict between the Daleks and the Time Lords that had happened between the TV movie and the relaunch, to wipe the slate clean, meaning old-school and new viewers had exactly the same questions. "Aliens of London" implicitly wiped out UNIT, the Doctor's old allies on Earth, serving the same kind of purpose as the Time War. It's true Davies relaxed over time, incorporating aspects of the past - from old enemies like the Master and Davros, to former companions Sarah Jane Smith and K9 - but he didn't do so until he was convinced the audience was on board with his vision.
Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who Has Forgotten These Lessons
A comparison with the Russell T. Davies era neatly explains why Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who has lost its way. Like Davies, Chibnall is a long-time fan of the show; he was a lead figure in the Doctor Who Appreciation Society back in the 1980s and appeared on BBC discussion programs criticizing the quality of the Colin Baker era. Unfortunately, that experience means he's gone back to the classic series for inspiration, forgetting many of Davies's most important lessons. While Chibnall has retained the one-and-done approach, he's commissioned - and written - scripts that feel like old-school Doctor Who. It's not hard to imagine "Orphan 55," for example, split into four half-hour segments; the story structure even has quasi-cliffhanger moments.
What's more, Chibnall has forgotten the importance of developing the companions as viewpoint characters. In fact, in Doctor Who season 12 the companions have often felt surplus to the script, and they've been bundled off on various side-missions. This was most noticeable in "Fugitive of the Judoon," when they were literally whisked away through time and space by Jack Harkness, and the Doctor barely seemed to notice at all. With the sole exception of "Can You Hear Me?" not a single episode in season 12 has helped to flesh out the world in which the Doctor's companions operate - their friendships, their family ties, their hobbies and interests. Oddly enough, this script even seemed aware of the problem, signposting it in the fact Graham, Yaz, and Ryan's friends and family resented their mysterious absences. But the series then moved on, forgetting all about those characters for the rest of the season.
The Doctor Who season 12 finale, "The Timeless Children," perfectly represents the problems of the Chibnall era. The season finale rewrote Doctor Who history, revealing the Doctor isn't a Time Lord at all; rather, she is David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, or even Jodie Whittaker as their first Doctor.
Is The Chibnall Approach Working?
It is possible this change in approach is deliberate. The BBC and ITV, two of the U.K.'s premiere channels, have recently launched a new streaming service, BritBox, containing most of their classic shows. The BBC's marketing for BritBox has focused on the fact it contains all the classic episodes of Doctor Who, including animated restorations of lost episodes. Adverts have been aired on BBC1 immediately after every single episode of Doctor Who season 12. It's possible the BBC hopes viewers will subscribe to BritBox and binge classic Doctor Who, thus becoming as invested in the show's continuity as Chris Chibnall is.
If this is the case, however, there's currently no sign the strategy is working. Viewing figures are, sadly, dropping; far from appealing to an expanded audience, Chibnall's approach seems to be shrinking it down to its core. Ironically, this was the same kind of problem Doctor Who encountered in the 1980s, when Chibnall himself was so critical of the stories. Now, he seems to be repeating the very mistakes.