The Doctor Who Gossip No One Is Talking About - Because No One Knows About It
The Christmas Day Special is already being - or has already been - filmed with whoever is playing The Doctor
There has been a lot of fuss in the British media right now about the fate of Doctor Who, suggesting that, despite promises that there won’t be a Doctor Who Christmas Day Special, from showrunnerRussell T Davies. That they are finding it hard to find someone to play The Doctor, given the baggage that seems to come with the role. And it is being pushed back to Easter 2027, if at all. This fuss stems from a recent story in The Sun that rewrote a Reddit thread from January. And everyone has followed up on it, as if it’s true. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But I have heard something different.
Now I warn you, this is third-hand. It is from a friend of a friend, who works in a very tangential part of TV production, has worked on Doctor Who, and has been told their services are not required on the Doctor Who Christmas Special 2026. Not because they are terrible, but because Bad Wolf, the studio that has made recent Doctor Who, is doing everything in-house.
There is such an air of secrecy that most people don’t even know there is a secret to be kept. Which is that the Christmas Special has been written by Russell T Davies (quite some time ago), the Doctor has been cast (also quite some time ago) and that the episode is being - or has already been - filmed on the existing sets left over from the Disney production. No location shooting. Small cast. Small crew. A dialogue-focused episode with long takes, minimal effects, minimal editing, minimal everything. When talking about the future of Doctor Who, RTD said there’s a version of the show in which all the money disappeared, and it was all just filmed in a cupboard. He wasn’t making a joke; he was telling you exactly what he was planning to do. But there’s more.
Not the new Doctor. I promise. In RTD’s first go on Doctor Who, BBC PR problems led to the news that Christopher Eccleston would only be the Doctor for one season and would be replaced by David Tennant, months before the regeneration. Russell’s original plan was that it would come as an utter surprise to the audience. After David Tennant announced he was leaving the show, the BBC announced Matt Smith with a little video featuring him talking about the role. But not after I had already scooped the news myself, hours before…
Five months later, I started Bleeding Cool. That was seventeen years ago tomorrow. Blimey. Anyway, it seems that this time Russell T Davies is going to try it again. That means no BBC PR, no press previews, a trailer at some point with the date “Christmas Day”, but no indication of who is in it. And on Christmas Day, it will air on BBC One with an insane amount of speculation, and people having to watch the damn thing live. If only to see what the fuss is about. And everyone is going to watch.
It will be made available to other countries at that moment, pre-localised. Broadcasters can run it as it is, wait to check it’s all okay, or localise and edit it themselves at their leisure. But it will be going out on the BBC, and no one will know what’s coming.
And that’s also true about much of the BBC. I am told that a tiny number of people at the BBC know any details of what’s coming, Bad Wolf wants to keep it that way, and they have the agreement of the new Director General and Doctor Who fan, Matt Brittin. He knows and is very keen to keep it a secret. He likes things that way, as this meeting with BBC Newscast captured on TikTok reveals.
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Everyone will make guesses, and people will do their best to get producers and actors drunk enough to spill the news. But those making the show are sworn to secrecy; the Bad Wolf family wants to make this as watertight as possible, using friends of the show they trust. Actors they trust. Agents they trust. Previous productions have used codewords to keep secrets, such as Torchwood being an anagram of Doctor Who. This is far beyond that.
Also, there will be deliberate releases of red herrings and a decision not to counter any reports from bad actors in the media. Let them speculate as much as possible, and when proven wrong, have the finger pointed at them. It is, of course, possible that all of this is also a red herring, distracting from what is actually going on, and that finger will be pointed at me. Not for the first time.
But this is what I have heard, from a tangential link to someone who might have the tiniest idea of what is going on. I guess we’ll find out.
Doctor… Who? For the very first time, it may be a secret until the show airs on Christmas Day… and finally live up to its name.