Russell T. Davies Suggests Doctor Who May Be Canceled

Television

Is this the end of the line for Doctor Who? Russell T. Davies, the long-running British sci-fi series’ current showrunner, seems to think it might be. In an interview with Radio Times (via Doctor Who TV), Davies admitted what many have been reporting for weeks, that the ratings for the show’s new season – the one that brought the LGBTMORELETTERS agenda to the forefront and had seemingly everyone associated with the show telling fans not to watch – have been pretty bad.

“I’m very proud of it! You know, they might not be the ratings we’d love. We always want higher. But they are building over the 28-day period. Episode 1, ‘Space Babies’, is already up to 5.6 million and counting. So it is getting there.”

By “not the ratings we’d love,” Davies means the worst ratings in the show’s history. Each of the first three episodes garnered the lowest ratings Doctor Who had ever seen until the following week; according to That Park Place, episode 4 seems to have been its first reprieve, with higher ratings than episode 3, but not as high as episode 2. Davies then talks about how nobody watching is actually a good thing, or an illusion, or something:

“I was brought back in to bring in a youthful audience. That’s been massively successful… The audience no one ever gets are the under-30s. They just don’t watch television anymore. But those figures are astronomic for Doctor Who, it’s their top programme in that bracket… I never thought it was possible, to be honest. But according to the people who juggle the numbers, all targets have been reached and exceeded. The BBC are running around like mad things.”

Yeah, sure; fewer people are watching than at any time in the show’s very long history, but somehow, you’ve cornered the youth market. Aside from how asinine that sounds, I’d wager a lot more kids are no longer watching (and kids definitely watched Doctor Who in the past) because their parents don’t want them exposed to Davies’ sexual politics, much like the parents of all the child viewers Disney has lost. John Del Arroz has a video that pokes holes in Davies’ claims that you can see below:

Once he was done with his spin, Davies admitted that Doctor Who hasn’t been renewed yet, though he expects it to be:

“I’m working on the fourth script now for [Series 16]. It’s not actually commissioned, That’s still up in the air. But that’s the same for every TV programme.”

To be fair, he’s somewhat correct; a lot of shows don’t get renewed this early, and he’s still got one more contracted season to go, which is currently filming. They could be waiting to see if it catches on eventually, but I don’t think that will happen. It could very well be canceled, and I don’t think Davies cares. When he says he’s proud of what he and his crew have done, I believe him; as I keep saying, the activism is all this crop of “creatives” cares about anymore. Russell T. Davies could have stayed away and let his Doctor Who legacy be the one fans loved him for; instead, he returned and used a beloved series as a mouthpiece for his agenda, and now, it may end.

However, I don’t think it will go away forever. I’ve spent a good deal of time in England; Doctor Who is an institution over there. If it gets canceled, I think it will remain stagnant for a while, maybe a good five years or even a decade, then be resurrected, hopefully by someone who actually likes it. But damned if Davies isn’t doing everything he can to kill it.