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Doctor Who EP on "Really Rude" Comment: "The Doctor Will Be Back"

Doctor Who EP Jane Tranter responded to writer Robert Shearman's "really rude" comments while explaining where things stand with Disney.

Ever since those final moments of "The Reality War," when Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor regenerated into Billie Piper's Sixteenth Doctor (maybe?), the BBC and Showrunner Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who hasn't exactly lacked in "experts" who are more than willing to drop their "expertise" on what the future holds for the long-running series. For some, the Disney factor and the waiting game are just examples of how television works in the streaming age. For others, it's a whole lot of Chicken Little/"The Sky Is Falling!" regarding the show's eventual fate – despite folks on the production side making it clear that Doctor Who will carry on, with or without "The Mouse." One individual whose comments have been getting a ton of attention is writer Robert Shearman (2005's "Dalek"), who shared in a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine that the show was "as dead as we've ever known it" and that the Gatwa/Piper moment "put a full stop on things," something the writer claimed we hadn't seen in previous seasons.

Speaking with BBC Radio Wales earlier today, EP Jane Tranter wasn't letting Shearman's comments go unchecked (and it was nice to hear). "'As dead as we've ever known.' That's really rude, actually. And really untrue," Tranter shared. "The plans for 'Doctor Who' are really simply this: the BBC and BBC Studios had a partnership with Disney+ for 26 episodes. We are currently 21 episodes down into that 26-episode run. We have got another five episodes of [spin-off series] 'The War Between The Land And The Sea' to come. At some point after that, decisions will be made together with all of us about what the future of 'Doctor Who' entails."

"It's a 60-year-old franchise. It's been going for 20 years nonstop since we brought it back in 2005 [when I worked at the BBC]. You would expect it to change, wouldn't you?" Tranter continued. "Nothing continues the same always, or it shouldn't continue the same always. So it will change in some form or another. But the one thing we can all be really clear of is that the Doctor will be back and everyone, including me, including all of us, just has to wait patiently to see when — and who."

Tranter's comments come approximately two months after Kate Phillips, BBC Chief Content Officer, and Lindsay Salt, Director, BBC Drama, addressed the show's future during the Edinburgh TV Festival. "Any Whovians out there, rest assured – 'Doctor Who' is going nowhere," Phillips noted at the event. While acknowledging that "The Beeb" and "The Mouse" have had a "great partnership," Phillips added: "With or without Disney, 'Doctor Who' will still be on the BBC … The TARDIS is going nowhere." While there were no updates at the moment, Salt added that the BBC will "always stay committed" to the long-running series.

Doctor Who All Up to BBC, Disney Now: Russell T. Davies

Checking in with the Pilot TV podcast in August, Davies has some very promising things to share about the spinoff series The War Between the Land and the Sea, currently in post-production. But before we get to that, it was nice to see that we had some hosts who asked the big question about the franchise series. "I didn't come on this podcast to announce any news. There's nothing to report, nothing's happening. You'll know when you know, when we know. I don't know," Davies shared. "Conversations are between the BBC and Disney. I don't work for either of them. I work for Bad Wolf, so I'm not part of those rooms. So I literally don't know. And even people I work with every day, so they couldn't know what's really going on. I'm going, 'I don't know.' I really don't know."

As for the Doctor Who spinoff, Davies couldn't say enough good things about it, sharing, "I'm immensely proud of it. I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's like we had a good idea." Regarding when we can expect it to hit screens, Davies noted that he wasn't made aware of when that would be happening, but it sounds like it's going to be worth the wait. "Sometimes you finish a show and they're, 'Great, good, we did a really good job.' Sometimes they go through post-production, where everything comes in. You work on the effects, on the music, and the grading of it. Sometimes magic happens — and it's happening with this. It's even better than we thought it was! I'm delighted with it."

Here's a look at the Pilot TV podcast, which was filmed in front of a live audience on August 8th, 2025:

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