Doctor Who Bidder Wants Next Era to Recapture Tennant and Smith Magic

BBC Studios scripted boss Jamie Hall has said he wants to see Doctor Who return to the magic of the David Tennant and Matt Smith eras when the series makes its next full comeback.

Speaking to Deadline, Hall was asked what he would like to see from a revamped Doctor Who, and his mind went straight back to two of the modern series’ biggest eras.

“It feels to me that there is an opportunity to get back to what the core offering was in that time,” he said.

Exactly what Hall considers that “core offering” to be is left open to interpretation, but invoking the Tennant and Smith years certainly gives fans a pretty clear idea of the period he has in mind.

Hall’s comments are more than just idle thoughts about the show’s future. BBC Studios is in the running to produce that future itself.

Hall told Deadline that BBC Studios has “probably got one, potentially two companies” considering bids for the multi-million-pound Doctor Who tender, although he stopped short of naming them.

He said he would be “100%” happy for multiple BBC Studios labels to compete for the job, while acknowledging that putting together a bid is a “quite an onerous undertaking” and can cost companies a significant amount of money.

There is clearly some appetite to bring Doctor Who closer to home, too. Hall said he “firmly believes” the series “should sit within the BBC” so the wider group can “reap the rewards” of one of its biggest franchises.

BBC Studios previously produced Doctor Who in-house before production moved to Sony-owned Bad Wolf for the short-lived Russell T Davies 2 era that began in 2023.

And Hall thinks the show’s expected break could work in its favour. With Doctor Who likely to be away for two or three years before its next full series, he suggested audiences could have some time away before rediscovering it, while the gap could also help bring in new viewers.

The BBC opened the new production tender in September, looking for a company to take charge of the next era of the programme, currently expected to arrive in 2028 or 2029.

The process could also shake up how the series is run. Companies are allowed to pitch a model using individual episodic writers rather than relying on the traditional modern-era showrunner setup.

Bids are due on 2 October, with the BBC currently expected to choose the next producer in spring 2027.