DOCTOR WHO – IS THIS THE END?

That veritable tome PRIVATE EYE is as concerned as Bendict and I about the future of Doctor Who, a show that seems unsure of its general direction, assuming that it has any future at all. The problem as I see it is that the series has lost track of what a comprehensible plot looks like and has seen some rather superfluous assistants come and go, or as “Private Eye” put it has alienated the show’s 50+ audience who struggle to figure out what the heck is going on. While complementing The Story and the Engine as “a complex fable about identity and power that might have graced Play for Today” PRIVATE EYE comments that to conservative commentators at least (although I would not put myself or Benedict in that bracket) the show has become ‘Doctor Whoke’ with time lords, aliens and assistants delivering “pro-diversity speeches.”

Benedict tells me that another series had not been officially commissioned, and if it is, may not appear until 2027. As PE points out the 31st May episode may become the new 6th December, 1989 which is when the Doctor was first pulled from the airwaves. The final series was ironically entitled ‘Survival’! The current viewing figure of 2.17 million is circa one fifth of the audience when Doctor Who was its peak so the signs are ominous albeit the context is different. Personally, I hope that the series reverts to the 1963 - 1989 multi-part model - 25 minutes or so allocated with a cliffhanger to end each episode.