Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has responded to last week's major news, which confirmed that the show would be put out for competitive tender for an unknown amount of time, in which production companies would bid for the chance to make the show for the BBC.
But it turns out that it's not the tender process that Moffat has a problem with.
Part of the announcement was that the Christmas special that was set to air this year had been cancelled, with Russell T Davies then stating that a script hadn't even been written for it.
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Appearing at the Utopia fan convention over the weekend (via TikTok), Moffat lamented that the festive season won't feature any new adventures in the TARDIS.
"Doctor Who has not been cancelled. Yes, Christmas has been cancelled. Well, to be clear, not all of Christmas, the day will still take place, even if Doctor Who's not on it", he said.
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"Quite honestly, I'm not altogether sure why they bother doing that... and that's a black mark.
"I don't like the fact there's not gonna be a Christmas special. There should always be a Christmas special. There's not going to be that, but the show will return. Very, very definitely."
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He insisted that the current state of Who isn't the same thing as the 'wilderness years' between 1989 and 2005, stating: "Those of us who are old, remember it was 16 years of, 'Well, we'll maybe tell you something next week'. It's not that situation.
"So, out to tender is not out to grass. Out to tender means actively seeking a future for Doctor Who."
He suggested that fans can make the wait for the next era of Who easier on themselves by delving into the show's history on BBC iPlayer, which has "every episode ever made, except for the ones we accidentally lost".
Doctor Who and its spin-offs can be streamed on BBC iPlayer.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
