Has Disney+ changed 'Doctor Who'? US, UK fans discuss

The revamped 'Doctor Who' returns for a new season on Friday, with Gatwa once more playing a modern kind of Doctor, who is in touch with his feelings.

London: Last year, when Disney+ was spending big to promote Doctor Who on the New York subway, an advertising campaign wrapped trains with images of the incoming Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and his time traveling police box, the TARDIS.

"Your cosmic joyride awaits," the train wrapper read, and Gatwa's hand stretched out to invite prospective viewers -- many of whom would likely be new to the show -- to join him.

The BBC had been making Doctor Who since the 1960s, and it had been shown in the United States on BBC America and HBO Max in recent years. When Disney+ came onboard as a distribution partner and co-producer in 2023, it pumped up the budget for the show, whose special effects had become painfully outdated, and brought it to a wider audience in the US.

This revamped Doctor Who returns for a new season on Friday, with Gatwa once more playing a modern kind of Doctor, who is in touch with his feelings. Welsh screenwriter Russell T Davies, who also oversaw an earlier revamp in 2005, is also back again, as the showrunner.

Like last season, the episodes will be available simultaneously for British viewers on the BBC's streaming service, iPlayer, and on Disney+ for the rest of the world. This time around, that drop has been pushed back by eight hours, so that new episodes land at 3 am Eastern time -- perhaps in response to complaints from British fans, who had to stay up until midnight last season to watch it online. Britons who prefer to see a TV broadcast of Doctor Who (a Saturday night BBC staple) will have to avoid social media for a day if they want to avoid spoilers.

Gatwa is the first Black actor to play the Doctor and his tenure follows Jodie Whittaker's turn as first woman in the role. Gatwa's initial season featured a queer romance, in an episode called Rogue, and a racism allegory, in Dot and Bubble.

Those progressive casting moves and story lines haven't pleased all viewers. Earlier this year, The Sun, a British tabloid, cited anonymous sources to report that the show was "facing the axe" and that ratings had plummeted because of a "woke" sensibility.

Responding to the Sun article, the BBC said in a statement: "Doctor Who has not been shelved. As we have previously stated, the decision on season three will be made after season two airs."

So the stakes are high this season. Four Doctor Who fans from the United States and Britain spoke to The New York Times via video calls to share their views on Gatwa's performance, on Davies' return, and on how the show has changed since Disney+ got involved. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Christel Dee, 33, London

I have always felt that Doctor Who would naturally fit in a global franchise context. The idea that this tiny little show that has been on the BBC for 60 years can now stand shoulder to shoulder with big franchises like Star Wars and Marvel is really exciting. It creates a whole world of opportunities.

It was actually David Tennant who really got me into the show in terms of being a fan. I started going to conventions, started to meet other fans and cosplayers. In the first five years I was doing it, it was all fans my age, and we were all Tennant fans. But now, when I'm attending conventions, it's a lot of people whose introduction to Doctor Who has been via Ncuti.

The thing I really miss as a fan is that moment where you all sit down on a Saturday evening, with our families or friends, and we watch it together. For anyone who says that event television isn't a thing anymore because of streaming, just look at something like The Traitors. As soon as those episodes come out, everyone is on it -- the conversations, the memes, the reactions. It still really, really works.

It's so reassuring to see that Doctor Who is reaching new audiences, and also more diverse audiences. I'm not going to be shy of saying that -- because Doctor Who, historically, has just been an incredibly white male fandom, and the decisions that were made over the last few years to diversify the show have been really positive.

Vera Wylde, 43, Vermont

As a performer -- and I do not say this lightly -- [Gatwa] is the most charismatic person who has taken on the role. He commands the camera immediately.

I do have an issue, in that I feel like I don't truly know him as well as I would like. The surface level is complete charisma, bright as the sun. I got that. What's underneath that? I'm still working on that.

I had far, far more feelings about [Davies] coming back as showrunner than I did about Disney being involved. At a fundamental level, I am frustrated with him because I had hoped that he wouldn't just slip back like it's 2005 again and approach seasons in the same way -- which is exactly what he did. It's mostly standalone, and there's a mystery box that is really blatant, and it ends in a two-part finale with the return of a classic-era villain.

It's the exact same playbook, which is a big disappointment to me, because he has grown as an artist since he stopped doing Doctor Who, and I wanted to see more of a sense of maturity. I don't mean make it mature content -- it's not Torchwood, I'm not asking for that -- but just a sense of a more grown up and matured artistic sensibilities.

Patrick Rogers, 22, Preston, England

With Ncuti, I just instantly knew, "Ah, he's going to bring something new to it." It's like the X factor, that indescribable "Doctor-iness" about him.

I'd like to see maybe a slightly more serious side to him, but not in the sort of emotional crying way that we've seen so far. It's not that I'm not a fan of that; I do sort of agree that if a character is on the edge of tears, but is not crying, then that makes you as an audience member cry, and sometimes, if the character is always crying, it feels like they're crying for you.

It's really hard saying overall, because I just felt like it was such a roller coaster of quality. Which, ultimately, I prefer: I would rather tune in each week and think, "Well, that was great," and then next week, think, "That was rubbish." In Jodie's era, consistently, I just thought it was less than average, like four out of 10 every week.

I really want the show to look forward and to get new creative blood in. I'd really like to get us some really exciting showrunner, like a Michaela Coel, who can take it in a proper new direction -- not for box-ticking diversity reasons. I don't think I want the next showrunner to be a white man who grew up on classic series and is a super boy fan, like me.

Tad Davis, 72 Philadelphia

It's going to take a lot to get me to stop watching Doctor Who. I mean, I think it would probably take Doctor Who coming on and holding up a box of detergent and saying, "You really should buy this detergent" as part of the show to get me to stop watching it.

As long as they kept the hands off of the content, I thought [the Disney+ deal] was great from a distribution standpoint. With BBC America, a 50-minute Doctor Who episode would take an hour and 15 minutes, because of the commercials. It was impossible to build up any momentum in the stories.

Ncuti is a very engaging, outgoing kind of person. There's certainly a bit of Tom Baker in his energy. I'm not sure that he specifically reminds me of any of them, because he does spend a lot of time hugging, and he does spend a lot of time crying. I think that it's an interesting variation on the Doctor.

He has to work harder to prove himself, just like Jodie did. Jodie's the first woman Doctor, so she's got to work harder; he's the first Black doctor, so he's got to work harder. Anybody else can just waltz in and do what they do; they can't just waltz in and do what they do, because they've got all these expectations.

I'm mad at the fans that are complaining about "woke." I hate the word. In the show, there's always been a bias toward freedom, against slavery, against exploitation, against prejudice, toward dialogue.