To the surprise of nobody who has been paying even the slightest attention to the situation, Doctor Who is officially back on ice. The BBC has today released a statement saying the show will not air a Christmas special, as previously announced. Instead, the corporation will once again put the show up for tender, to find a new producing partner for the series. “Rather than bridge the gap with a one-off special,” says the BBC, “we are choosing 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.”

For most of its life, Doctor Who was an in-house production, but it found it increasingly difficult to make such a pricey show on its own. In 2022, it put the show up for tender, allowing third parties to produce it in its stead. The ensuing deal with Bad Wolf and returning executive producer Russell T. Davies taking the reins opened the door for a financing deal with Disney. Unfortunately, Davies’ writing and the behind-the-scenes chaos that followed meant Disney pulled out of its deal at the earliest opportunity.

On Instagram, Russell T. Davies wrote that he had cooked up the Christmas special “to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it.” He added “there was no script,” and no actors approached to replace Ncuti Gatwa and/or Billie Piper (it’s complicated) in the title role. It’ll be doubly interesting to see how any incoming production team deals with the narrative knots the show finds itself tied up in as a consequence of the aforementioned behind-the-scenes issues.

Inevitably, the news means we’re not likely to see another episode of Doctor Who for at least three years, at least not on the mainline series. The BBC did remind everyone that an animated series, aimed at pre-school children on its CBeebies arm, is currently in production.