10 Simple Fixes For Doctor Who's Future

One of the best things Russell T Davies did when he returned as showrunner was to make every existing episode of Doctor Who available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

That's great for those of us in the UK, but for everyone else, Doctor Who's various eras are spread across numerous different streamers and VOD services – and that's if they're available to watch at all.

For example, in the US, BritBox contains the classic era, Max hosts the modern era, and everything from 2023 onwards is on Disney+. It's deeply confusing and very very messy to have the show divided and strewn about all over the place like this. It also means that if the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors have got new viewers curious about previous eras, they'll have to sign up to a completely different streamer to check them out, which isn't ideal.

So while there may be pre-existing deals, rights issues, and other kinds of barriers to overcome, having at least the entirety of the modern era all in one place – whether that's Disney+, or whatever streamer the BBC partners with in future – wouldn't just be convenient for viewers, it would also be of great benefit to Doctor Who itself.

Over the years we've seen countless examples of bingeable older shows exploding on streaming, as waves and waves of people discover something they initially missed, largely thanks to it just being there, easily accessible on the streaming service they flick through every single evening.

Putting Doctor Who in a similar position can only be beneficial. Let new viewers finish Ncuti Gatwa's first season and then immediately dive into the Ninth Doctor, all within the same app. Currently, those new viewers are going to watch Agatha All Along or The Simpsons instead! A centralized international Whoniverse would improve that retention, giving people more Doctor Who to discover, to watch, to talk about, driving interest and engagement in the show even during the off-season.

If a Matt Smith fan on Twitter is making waves just by watching modern Doctor Who for the first time, then just imagine what could happen if Disney+'s 150 million subscribers got access to the back catalogue too?