10 Worst Doctor Who Moments Of 2024

One of the perks of Doctor Who’s partnership with Disney is that the show is available to a wider audience than ever before, with episodes dropping simultaneously on BBC iPlayer and Disney+.

In 2023 this worked a treat, as the streaming release also coincided with the traditional BBC One broadcast. But in 2024, episodes instead debuted at midnight in the UK, presumably a Disney-influenced decision to drop episodes in the late afternoon/early evening in America.

This presented UK fans with an impossible decision: stay up into the early hours, or wait until Saturday and risk getting spoiled.

But that wasn't even the biggest problem. The biggest problem was that this release strategy made things feel more fragmented, resulting in a Schrödinger's Cat situation where a new episode was out… but also kind of wasn’t. Post-episode chatter was almost nonexistent because that huge UK audience was asleep, while the show’s social media presence was a mess, with behind the scenes content not going up until after the terrestrial broadcast – by which time, it felt like old news.

As it stands, the future of the midnight release schedule is in doubt. It’s been confirmed that it won’t affect Joy to the World, but will it make a comeback for Season 2? Let’s hope not, especially since the 60th anniversary demonstrated a much healthier release model.