News has broken now that 2022 will see Jodie Whittaker depart as the 13th Doctor and Chris Chibnell is leaving as show runner. It's certainly been a controversial run for Chibnell as show runner with the elephant in the room being the Timeless Child retcon.
As far as I'm concerned, on It's own merits, as far as storytelling goes, I'm ok with it, however I don't like the implication that William Hartnell's Doctor wasn't the first, etc.
So much of classic and even new series Doctor Who is based on the Timelords having 12 regenerations. Clara's begging the Timelords to give the 11th Doctor (who by counting the War Doctor and the 10ths regeneration without changing bodies was out of lives) for another regeneration is now pointless. I'm hoping it gets resolved in the next series which will be 6 episodes with 3 specials.
Speaking of which, I normally stay away from rumors and leaks but have found myself paying more attention to those this time.
Word is we will not get a 60th Anniversary special in 2023 but instead a centenary special in 2022 for the 100th Anniversary of the BBC.
I'm OK with this because the centenary Special is rumored to feature past Doctors, David Tennant is the main rumor with rumors also circulating of Paul McCain getting a long overdue main screen appearance as the 8th Doctor. If the centenary Special is going to be a multi-Doctor affair, then I see no reason to turn around and do a 60th Anniversary special in 2023. 60 is not a big milestone and I think it would be overkill.
The other big rumor going is that we are in for a big change, much along the lines of differentiating between classic Doctor Who and the new series.
I've seen fans on Twitter debate over whether or not Doctor Who needs to "rest" for a bit with many saying we already wait long enough between series.
One thing I wouldn't mind seeing is a move away from a "series" and more towards 3 or 4 specials a year. Make them really good, gives us something to look forward to. What I don't want to see is a whole series being "dropped" at once on a streaming service, I'd miss the communal discussion of a new episode every week, although I imagine it would still be broadcast in that way.
The other issue is there is so much Doctor Who content out there already that I don't think a pause would be the worst thing to happen.
Classic Doctor Who airs M-F at 8:00 & 8:30 on retro TV here in the states with occasionally episodes at 9:00 & 9:30 on Thursday and Friday (usually to "even out" a story with an odd number of episodes). It also airs Saturday and Sunday from 6:00-8:00. There's Pluto TV which airs a collection of classic episodes, although it's a limited run. The classic series is also on Britbox with the new series on HBO Max. Not to mention all the novels I bought and never read.
I think if we are going to see a big change in production, certainly we can do with a pause. We Whovians have had our share of long pauses between new televised stories what's one more?
