10 Things The Doctor Who Reboot MUST Do
1. Sprinkle In Lore Slowly And Carefully
Every time Doctor Who resets itself there’s a question of when to bring in existing lore – and how.
NuWho started and ended with two contrasting approaches: the cautious reintroduction of iconic elements in RTD1, and the nostalgia overload that was RTD2, where every other episode featured an obscure returning character or villain.
Needless to say, the former was more successful.
The RTD1 approach of bringing back a new big-bad each year (the Daleks in 2005, the Cybermen in 2006, the Master in 2007, the Sontarans and Davros in 2008, and the Time Lords in 2009) worked perfectly. And enough time has passed for it to be repeated.
Even the order in which those returns happened was smart. Daleks, Cybermen, Master, Sontarans, Time Lords – that's basically in order of how popular and iconic they are, from most to least. By the time we got to Series 4, the show had earned bringing back the Sontarans, Davros, the Time Lords, and visiting Gallifrey. And the audience was ready for it.
The next era doesn't need to follow that template to a tee. But certainly with the Daleks and Cybermen, there’s a real opportunity to do some big RTD1-style, headline-making comebacks, because neither has appeared in the show since 2022. With other stuff, it’s simply about striking the right balance.
The whole point is to attract new viewers and you have to earn their trust and get them onboard before going crazy with Doctor Who history. If the first season is about the Zarbi and the Wirrn having a war outside Totter's Lane while Romana returns to help the Doctor fight a new CGI Black Guardian, then we've already lost. Certainly, give the Daleks an episode in Season 1. But Sutekh is a Season 3 villain, at best.
Above all else, the new production team has to understand that viewers don't like feeling as though they're missing an inside joke. That's one way to have people reaching for the off button.