Doctor Who Is Now A Disney+ Exclusive Internationally!
Doctor Who has a lengthy and eventful history on the BBC. The show, which premiered in 1963, follows the Doctor, a human-like alien who travels across space and time in the TARDIS, a time machine resembling a blue police box, with a succession of human (and occasionally non-human) companions.
The Doctor regenerates into a new persona on a regular basis, a plot mechanism designed to accommodate the departure and replacement of the primary actors. The show was killed off in 1989 due to falling viewership; an aborted 1996 resuscitation resulted in a single TV movie. But the show was definitively revived in 2005, gaining a high degree of international popularity that continues to this day.
Doctor Who is now a Disney+ exclusive
Now, according to a report by Deadline, new Doctor Who episodes will be available exclusively on Disney+. The change will take effect in time for new episodes to begin streaming on the platform in 2023. Nothing will change for viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland; Doctor Who will continue to stream on the BBC. Doctor Who, on the other hand, will be available exclusively on Disney Plus in 100 countries.
The BBC and Disney began talks in July, which resulted in this new agreement. It’s unclear whether the streamer will also carry previous episodes of the show from its post-2005 revival or from its original run from 1963 to 1989, or any of its many spinoff shows. In conjunction with the agreement, the BBC unveiled a new, retro-styled logo for the show, evoking the diamond-shaped logo worn by Tom Baker as the Doctor in the 1970s.
David Tennant, who played the Doctor from 2005 to 2010, will reprise the role in three specials next year. And Russell T. Davies, who first revived the then-dormant series in 2005, will take their place. Catherine Tate and newcomers Neil Patrick Harris and Yasmin Finney will take their roles alongside Tennant. Following Tennant’s specials, Gatwa will take over as the Doctor, making him the first actor of color to do so.
Doctor Who will return in late 2023 on Disney+. Stay tuned with us for future updates.
