10 Fixes For Doctor Who's Future

2. Fresh Blood Across The Board

It’s one thing to reinvent old villains, but the Disney era also brought back a load of people who’d worked on Doctor Who before.

Most egregiously, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor was bookended by two established Who actors, who were the lead cast of a series from 20 years ago.

Add to that the fact that the whole thing was overseen by Russell T Davies (plus basically all of the execs from his original era), with episodes written by Steven Moffat and music by Murray Gold, and you can't argue when people say the show is too focused on the past.

If you want a really interesting/bleak statistic, consider the fact that 2024's Rogue was the first episode since The Haunting of Villa Diodati in 2020 not written, or co-written, by a current or former showrunner.

RTD deserves all the respect in the world for bringing Doctor Who back so brilliantly in 2005 and without him, this list wouldn't exist. But it's time to let someone else have a go.

Doctor Who has always benefitted from bringing in fresh talent. Just look at the more “unknown” Doctors and companions like Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, or the wide range of writers and directors that have contributed to the modern era. Even in 2005, RTD was a fresh, somewhat leftfield choice, coming off the back of acclaimed dramas like Queer as Folk and The Second Coming. The BBC didn't just go back and get the same writers and producers from '80s Doctor Who, did they?

This isn't to say that new talent would automatically make the show great. But we can't just keep passing the baton between the same group of people either.