'Doctor Who' Announces New Multimedia Story While TV Hiatus Continues

The Doctor Who fandom expanded tenfold when the series regenerated on Disney+ in 2024, with new viewers drawn in by star Ncuti Gatwa, the series' first Black man to inhabit the role, and the first openly gay portrayal of the two hearts alien. The series reached a fever pitch that year, filling the 50,000-strong Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on a Friday. Imagine the shock that only a year later, this same fandom would discover the massive comedown in presence by the franchise, now that its future with Disney+ hangs by a thread.

Doctor Who's presence was limited to a single off-branded panel (i.e., not sponsored by the BBC or Disney+). The sudden resignation of Gatwa, and the lackluster finale rewriting it to accommodate his exit, produced a poor final impression. Furthermore, the lack of a renewal by Disney+ (depending on which rumor you believe is either due to low ratings or the changing political climate or both) has landed it the label of a troubled production. The show didn’t even have a proper spot on the exhibit floor. Instead, it took the TARDIS set outside and turned it into an “activation” where its paltry merchandise is also on display for sale, but only online, about as far away from the Disney+ logo as one can get.

But that doesn't mean there's no Doctor Who news this week. Instead, the BBC has announced Circuit Breaker, a story collaboration between BBC Studios, BBC Audio, Big Finish Productions, Doctor Who Magazine, East Side Games, Penguin Random House, and Titan Comics. The new story will star PBS favorite Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor in an "ambitious interconnected narrative that will unfold across multiple formats, inviting fans to experience the mystery from every angle," crafted by best-selling author Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson. 

The synopsis states that the story will spin off from the forthcoming Doctor Who spinoff, The War Between the Land & the Sea, as strange alien artifacts begin to appear inside UNIT’s Black Archive. 

Each object is unmistakably linked to a different regeneration of the Doctor, but they’ve been tampered with. A corrupted energy signature of unknown origin pulses through them, and their sudden arrival has torn tiny ruptures across time and space.

UNIT is out of options. To repair the damage and restore the timeline, the objects must be returned to the exact moments they were taken from. If not, the Doctor’s adventures – and the universe itself – could unravel. To solve the mystery, UNIT calls upon a little-known incarnation of the Time Lord: the Fugitive Doctor who returns in a central role. But how does UNIT know about her? And is she the Doctor they expect?

Martin, whose first Black Female Doctor was introduced during the Thirteenth Doctor's reign, said in a statement: "I’m thrilled to tell more stories about the Fugitive Doctor and cannot wait for fans to unlock all the twists and turns across the Circuit Breaker story. This character has always meant so much to me, and it is a joy to continue building her legacy and dive back into the Whoniverse."

This is the second BBC project announced without Disney's involvement. It has also recently revealed a children's series focused on children's children for the Children's network, affectionately known as CBeebies. Fans don't seem to mind either, with the mood of the one Doctor Who panel full of those cheerfully ready to kick Disney to the curb and move to Netflix, a streaming service with actual global ambitions.

But until The War Between the Land & the Sea arrives, the future of Doctor Who will remain in limbo. The spinoff series is set to debut on the BBC and Disney+ before the end of 2025.