Doctor Who: 8 News Stories That Never Die
2. The Show's About To Get Exterminated
The shadow cast by the 1985 hiatus is a long one. Despite the show coming back bigger and more popular than ever before in 2005, fans were still anxious that the Eccleston series would be a flash in the pan like the McGann movie. How wrong they were, but despite the popularity and the show still being on-air seventeen years after Rose aired, the future of the show feels constantly at risk.
There was the suggestion that the BBC stop Doctor Who when David Tennant and RTD left, while each drop in (explicitly UK) ratings suggests that Doctor Who is circling the drain of cancellation. And yet, all of this ignores the much larger issue. Despite low ratings in the UK, the series screens all over the World these days, it's a global brand. The series isn't going anywhere any time soon.
But that doesn't stop the tabloids and fan press exacerbating the wounds of the late 80s. Each delay between series is an indicator of a series in decline, rather than an example of the intricacies of television production. Logic and reason goes out the window when Doctor Who fans are presented with the anxiety that the TARDIS may dematerialise, never to return.