The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will be put out to competitive tender this year, marking a significant shift for the 63-year-old science fiction series.
Showrunner Russell T Davies and production company Bad Wolf are departing the franchise as part of this transition.
The corporation also announced that the previously planned 2026 Christmas special has been scrapped, making it the second consecutive year without a festive episode.
“Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come,” the broadcaster stated.
The BBC will retain all intellectual property rights to the programme, with BBC Studios continuing to handle global distribution, licensing and consumer products.
Mr Davies took to social media to bid farewell to the programme, making several surprising admissions about the cancelled festive episode.
“For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor,” he wrote.
The former showrunner revealed that the Christmas special had been devised purely as a safeguard during uncertain times.
“There won’t be a Christmas Special — we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it,” he explained.
Mr Davies encouraged fans to remain patient, noting that waiting longer would ultimately mean receiving more content than a single standalone episode could provide.
The BBC acknowledged that abandoning the festive special would disappoint viewers but insisted the decision had been reached after thorough deliberation.
“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 corporation stated.
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A competitive tender involves inviting production companies to pitch for the chance to produce an existing returning series on a work-for-hire arrangement.
The broadcaster indicated that specific details regarding the tender process would be released at a later date.
The science fiction series first appeared on BBC screens in 1963, chronicling the adventures of an eccentric Time Lord who traverses time and space in a police box that is larger inside than out.
The original run featured actors including William Hartnell, Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy before the programme was axed in 1989.
Mr Davies revived the show in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Jodie Whittaker among those subsequently taking on the lead role.
The most recent series concluded last May with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerating into Billie Piper.
The BBC confirmed that a previously announced Doctor Who animated series for CBeebies remains in production.
Mr Davies expressed enthusiasm about the programme’s uncertain future, asking: “Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box?”