Doctor Who… Xmas Special in 2026

You're thinking of streaming rights, currently Disney has those rights for the episodes they helped with. The pervious seasons streaming rights were on HBOMax but that ended back in july. Currently only Classic Who is streaming for free on services like Tubi/PlutoTv.
Yeah, it's really annoying. We wanted to introduce the show to our kids recently, and ended up having to buy the DVDs (just 9, 10 and 11. My wife never liked 12, and neither of us have seen 13).
 

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Classic Who is streaming for free on services like Tubi
This has been fantastic. I have been catching up on Old Who I had never seen before starting with Doctor One going forward in order and currently I am in the first season of Doctor Five. I had seen everything Netflix had on DVDs before that service went away, but there were big gaps.
 

You're thinking of streaming rights, currently Disney has those rights for the episodes they helped with. The pervious seasons streaming rights were on HBOMax but that ended back in july. Currently only Classic Who is streaming for free on services like Tubi/PlutoTv.

I'll note this don't apply to the UK before some one points it out
Right. What I'm getting at is that it would be pretty annoying if the BBC makes a deal with, say, Netflix for new seasons and the old stuff (both classic and revival), but Netflix ends up with a two-season gap because of long-term Disney contracts.
 

I suspect the xmas special will be Billie Piper as Not-Doctor on a search for actual Doctor.
(Im still going with my theory thats she's an avatar of the TARDIS)
It would be great to see Susan Foreman come back too
One bit of the news is that Russell T. Davies is writing this 2026 Christmas special. So, on the one hand I'd be surprised if he didn't reshoot or re-edit the Carole Ann Ford stuff into this Christmas special.

On the other hand, it's RTD2, so I also wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

Here's my cockamamie prediction for the 2026 special:

Billie Piper is The Doctor, or the spirit of the TARDIS like Suranne Jones in "The Doctor's Wife".

Tennant is in it, too, as the 14th Doctor, with the TARDIS that the 15th Doctor gifted him by hitting the TARDIS with a big cartoony mallet.

Anyway, by the end of the special the two TARDISes fuse back into one, and Tennant and Piper fuse into the next Doctor.

Yeah the Disney money was nice, though I didnt see much difference in the output and am one of the many who like the hookey Doctor Who sfx. The success and future of the show does come down to good writing that kees audiences engaged with the shows quirks and very British style.
Yeah, part of the charm of the show is that it's often very silly and doesn't take itself too seriously overall.
This has been fantastic. I have been catching up on Old Who I had never seen before starting with Doctor One going forward in order and currently I am in the first season of Doctor Five. I had seen everything Netflix had on DVDs before that service went away, but there were big gaps.
I'm doing the same thing, and I'm currently in the Tom Baker era, too! I've never watched an classic Who until this, so it's been quite an experience!
 

I'm doing the same thing, and I'm currently in the Tom Baker era, too! I've never watched an classic Who until this, so it's been quite an experience!
Tom Baker on PBS when it first came out was my first experience with Who but it was very irregular so it was occasional single episodes only with no context, then occasionally saw an episode or two of Davidson and Colin Baker (Five and Six). I really got into it with New Who a couple years after that came out then I old Who on Netflix. They had some in streaming which I did and then more on DVDs but not a complete collection of stories for any old Doctor (except Doctor Eight, Paul McGann's single movie).
 

Tom Baker on PBS when it first came out was my first experience with Who...

Same for me. The problem was that they were doing half hour episodes and some story arcs could take as much as 10 episodes to get through. That was annoying as they only showed one episode a week. They did end up switching to hour long episodes which was better. Then they went back to Pertwee (#3), jumped ahead to Davison (#5), went back and showed the Hartnell and Troughton episodes that still existed (#1 and #2), and then I went to college and saw no Dr. Who for 4½ years. By the time I saw another episode, McCoy (#7) was nearing the end of his run and the show was about to be cancelled (it probably already had been; US viewing was well behind the UK).
 

Similarly, I came across Who on PBs when I was a kid, but I simply did not get it. I was all-in with Star Trek (still am), and had basically no exposure to British tv at that point, so Doctor Who was just weird and off-putting. So I never watched more than a minute or two here and there.

When nuWho was on Netflix, my kids discovered it and then I quickly joined in the fun. For reasons that my reason cannot comprehend, in the past 5 years or so I've really fallen in love with the show. So I've taken to watching classic Who from the beginning, reading novels, listening to audio dramas, etc. It's like I've discovered a new Star Trek, but as an adult.
 

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