Saturday’s night’s season finale, concluding with Ncuti Gatwa’s departure as the fifteenth Doctor, recorded just 2.2m viewers, according to Barb figures, the lowest for a Doctor Who conclusion since its launch in 1963.
Gatwa’s regeneration into Billie Piper, a hit with viewers when she first appeared in the show in 2005 as Rose Tyler, companion to Christopher Eccleston and then David Tennant, was seen as a plea to the streaming giant to stick with the series.
Ncuti Gatwa regenerating in his final episode of ‘Doctor Who’ (Photo: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)Fans shared suggestions that Piper would not be returning as the sixteenth Doctor after all.
After the episode aired, Piper shared photos on Instagram with the caption “A rose is a rose is a rose !!!”
Others said the popular Piper’s appearance was a practical solution to a real-world headache following Gatwa’s exit, after just 18 months on screen.
Gatwa and Jodie Whitaker, who returned for a guest role, in his final episode of ‘Doctor Who’ (Photo: Bad Wolf/BBC Studios/Disney)
Other suggested bringing back Piper, who made her last appearance in 2010, was “stunt casting” and a “desperate” act of “nostalgia bait” at the conclusion of a series which has shed one million viewers compared to the 2024 run, amid criticism of its storylines.
The BBC added: “Just how and why she is back remains to be seen…”
Doctor Who was beaten in Saturday night’s ratings by the final of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, which averaged 4.1m viewers.
“Doctor Who is the BBC’s biggest drama for the under 35s and remains one of the most popular brands on iPlayer, with over 70 million viewing hours in 2024.”
Disney’s £80m investment and global distribution muscle allowed the BBC to pump up Doctor Who’s production values.
Doctor Who episodes have a long afterlife, with the 2024 Christmas special going on to rack up 7m views on iPlayer.
Critics have claimed that “woke” storylines, including the introduction of transgender and binary characters, under showrunner Davies’s stewardship, had turned off viewers.
One said: “There would still be Doctor Who audiobooks, games and other spin-offs if the main series is cancelled. The BBC could support a one-off feature-length episode next year so that the brand still has continuity.
Davies has also suggested there could be a hiatus, telling Newsround that Doctor Who is like Robin Hood, meaning “there might be a pause” in the story.
“So I’m very relieved that they’ve found a new Doctor and she’s a brilliant actor and I’m sure that’ll be terrific, so Doctor Who continues.”
“It’s lazy writing, hodgepodge of exposition, escapism, nonsense, (Russell T Davies) was throwing every toy from the Doctor Who box at the telly, hoping that some of it would make sense in the way of entertaining you.”
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