Peter Davison: Current Doctor Who Has Huge Narrative Gaps and Risks Prioritising Effects Over Story

Peter Davison has shared his thoughts on the direction of Doctor Who, suggesting that the show’s current style sacrifices storytelling for speed and spectacle.

Speaking in an interview on The Lewis Nicholls Show, the Fifth Doctor actor expressed concern over what he sees as a shift away from narrative clarity in favour of constant action and visual effects.

“They seem terribly worried now about people’s attention spans,” he said. “If something isn’t happening every two minutes, they think people are going to turn off, but I don’t believe that’s true.”

Davison described current episodes as feeling more like “trailers” than fully formed stories.

“It’s like watching a trailer for a Doctor Who show you’d like to watch later,” he added. “There are huge gaps in the narrative. They’re just leaping onto the next bit and hoping your brain fills in the rest.”

The former Doctor compared the current series to blockbuster superhero films, which he believes often prioritise spectacle over substance.

“As the special effects got better, there’s a danger it becomes just about special effects,” he said. “They’re just sequences of enormously impressive effects with no real story.”

He also questioned the assumption that modern audiences demand constant stimulation, pointing instead to the success of slower-paced crime dramas.

“People became more gripped,” he noted. “But for some reason in science fiction, they think it all has to go at 100 miles an hour.”