BBC Production Chief Signals Russell T. Davies' Tenure At 'Doctor Who' Ends With The Christmas Special

BBC Production Chief Zai Bennett recently signaled that Russell T Davies’ tenure over Doctor Who will come to an end with the upcoming Christmas special.

Speaking to Deadline, Bennett shared an update on the franchise after Disney axed its deal with the broadcaster. He said, “We’re a big important part of Doctor Who and are all motivated to make sure Doctor Who has a long and flourishing life.”

“We’ve got the Christmas special coming. After that, it’s time for us all to work on it,” he concluded.

This is not at all surprising. Davies himself has indicated that his time at Doctor Who was coming to an end. Back in March 2025 during an appearance on David Tennant’s podcast he said there were already conversations regarding who would replace him. He said, “So yeah there's thinking about that, there's conversations about that, but it's hard. It's a tricky one. But they'd better exist."

A month later and he told Newsround that the show will likely go on hiatus, “Sometimes there might be a pause, and during that pause, the viewers of Newsround now will grow up a few years and start writing stories and they’ll bring it back.”

In June, following abysmal viewership ratings for his second season, Davies told Doctor Who Magazine, “We don’t know what’s happening yet, and while everyone works that out, I’ll take a pause on this page. Thanks for reading! And thanks to DWM, a delight to work with you on this wonderful magazine. Hopefully, we’ll have news soon, and certainly, The War Between the Land and the Sea is about to break out, so there are great things ahead.”

As for why Davies is seemingly done as well as why the Disney deal fell apart, one executive told Deadline that it was “too woke for Trump’s USA.”

The list of woke propaganda in the show is extraordinarily long. Here’s just some things:

• Ncuti Gatwa as the first black and gay Doctor

• Promotion of gender ideology with characters like Jason Noble

• Storylines about gender identity, pronouns, and transgenderism

• Race swapping historical figures like Isaac Newton

• Attacks on Christianity

The BBC and Doctor Who are good to be done with Russell T Davies. However, given the fact they hired him in the first place it begs the question if they actually learned any lessons regarding his disastrous tenure or if they will double down again.

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