How Doctor Who grew to become the star-making function no person of their proper thoughts would need

Today, news broke that the BBC has cancelled its 2026 Christmas episode of Doctor Who. It’s perhaps unsurprising, given that last month there were reports that the BBC’s sci-fi institution was struggling to fill the shoes abruptly vacated by Ncuti Gatwa a year ago. A source claimed to The Sun that producers have “found it difficult to find anyone who’ll take on the part of the 16th Time Lord”, in part because of the “baggage of the most recent series”. You’re damned if you Who, and damned if you don’t.

Confusion abounds over the ending of the last series finale – in which Gatwa’s character regenerated into Billie Piper, the original “companion” to Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor back when the series was first rebooted in 2005. Piper has claimed it was a last-minute decision to bring her in, and reports seem to suggest she will not be taking over as the lead of the series on a full-time basis. Really, though, the mess capped off a protracted period of turmoil for one of Britain’s most ardently followed TV shows, a years-long stretch of fan dissatisfaction, tonal swings, and behind-the-scenes upheaval. Where once playing The Doctor was a plum opportunity for an actor – in its own way, as storied and totemic as playing James Bond, or Bruce Wayne – stepping into the Tardis in 2026 has become a foreboding proposition.

On paper, The Doctor ought to be an easy enough part to cast: the pool of candidates is boundless. (Replacing Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly on the controversy-laden Strictly Come Dancing was, I dare say, a far trickier task for the Beeb.) The Doctor is a character with few consistent traits, a figure who has warped and flexed to meet the idiosyncrasies of whoever’s playing them, whether that’s Gatwa, Jodie Whittaker, or Peter Capaldi. The only real requirement is charisma. There are some actors who feel like a natural fit for the role. Benedict Cumberbatch has a bit of Doctor Who about him – though his history with ex-Who writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss on Sherlock might be too much of a crossover. Boisterous Welshman Michael Sheen would seem an ideal Doctor (and, given his recent agreement to host the BBC’s House of Games, possibly a gettable one), though his longtime association with former Doctor David Tennant might make that a little trite.

It’s not hard to come up with other candidates, well-liked British actors who skirt around the lower tiers of pre-national treasuredom. You could imagine Hannah Waddingham taking the mantle, or Nick Mohammed, or Brett Goldstein. (OK, now I’m just naming the cast of Ted Lasso.) If the producers sought to go in a more challenging direction, they could do a lot worse than snarling character actor Tom Hardy, now (somewhat controversially) free of his commitment to the crime drama Mobland. But would someone like him consider taking the role?

In many ways, Gatwa’s spell on Doctor Who has been a clear warning to anyone looking to get involved in the franchise. His tenure on the show saw him weather criticism, abuse, and endless discourse; when he left, he said that the series “takes a lot out of you – physically, emotionally, mentally. So it was time.” It is, it seems, a lot of stress and work for not much glory to speak of.

For years, even the most generous responses to the show’s leads have often included a caveat. “They were a good Doctor, but their episodes were bad” has been a prevailing complaint. Doctor Who’s fanbase is, of late, perennially dissatisfied, and it’s not clear how that’s going to change. (It had been hoped that the return of showrunner Russell T Davies in 2021 would restore the show to its Tennant-era fettle – alas, complaints persisted. And he has just announced he is quitting the show too.) More so than most TV series, Who has a vocal, opinionated, and intensely knowledgeable fanbase, all with strong thoughts on just what Doctor Who should be.

Even if the response is positive, Who represents for many actors a gateway to a level of fame that can upend your life. No matter who you are, being the lead of Doctor Who will only raise your profile. Peter Capaldi has spoken about the “intense pressure” of being the Doctor: “You’re sort of on all the time and you don’t want to disappoint anyone,” he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. Tennant too has revealed how he struggled to “cope” with the fame the series brought. “It makes you very vulnerable, and very raw,” he said.

There are more logistical reasons for actors to be wary about signing onto a project like Doctor Who – an open-ended, probably years-long commitment. If other TV shows do not work, that is to say, if they suffer bad ratings and are dismissed by critics, they are almost always cancelled. If Doctor Who suffers a dip in viewership and poor reviews – as is increasingly the case these days – then it perseveres regardless, because it is Doctor Who, to all intents and purposes an uncancellable institution, stuck in time. Last year saw the end of the BBC’s short-lived streaming partnership with Disney, and now the Beeb is putting the franchise out once again to competitive tender, “as part of securing the next phase of the show for future generations”.

Really, though, a winding-down may be the best thing for it at this point: Doctor Who will surely benefit from this hiatus, a chance to go away and re-group, to wait for both the right actor and the right script. There could hardly be a louder wake-up call than the mess around the reintroduction of Piper: this is not a show that can be ad-libbed. With a looming festive episode no longer creating an uncooperative deadline, time is finally on the Doctor’s side.