10 Biggest Mistakes Of The Doctor Who Disney Era

Let’s talk about the corporate elephant in the room.

Disney did almost NOTHING to push Doctor Who to a new global audience. Minimal trailers. A handful of social media posts. Zero merchandising (and Disney LOVES its merch, as we all know). Not even a visible spotlight on Disney+. One of the biggest upsides of a partnership with Disney was its potential as a platform for marketing the show, but this didn’t happen. It’s all good putting the show on a huge global streaming service, but you’ve got to tell people it’s there.

It often felt like Disney had no idea what it was sitting on (and if rumours are to be believed, it’s actually Bluey they wanted off the BBC, and Doccy Who came as a package deal). They had a 60-year-old franchise with a built-in fanbase, iconic branding, and unlimited storytelling potential. Instead of shouting about it from the rooftops, they mumbled its name into a cushion and kept milking Marvel and Star Wars for every last scrap of intellectual property.

Even something as basic as how the show was labelled on Disney+ was fumbled. The Church on Ruby Road was called both “Special 4” AND “Season 1 Episode 1”. There have been a shocking amount of comments and Reddit posts from people who actually aren’t sure which episodes they’re supposed to watch, in what order. How do you mess this up?!

The show deserved a platform that actually recognised its value. What it got instead was apparent disinterest. There was a huge audience out there ready for the taking, but Disney didn’t seem all that bothered about trying to reach them.