Mark Gatiss Sounds “Doomy” Warning Over Doctor Who’s Future: “We’ve Been Here Before”

Mark Gatiss fears Doctor Who could quietly disappear from television again, warning that the BBC’s current plans for the series feel uncomfortably familiar to what happened after its cancellation in 1989.

The long-time Doctor Who writer and actor said he has a “doomy” feeling about the programme’s immediate future, despite believing it will eventually return.

Speaking to Radio Times, Gatiss addressed the BBC’s decision to put the future production of Doctor Who out to tender and suggested that fans should be cautious about assuming a new version of the show will necessarily materialise.

“I think the BBC putting it out to tender is a perfectly great idea, but we’ve been here before,” Gatiss said.

“When it was cancelled in 1989 the BBC made a big statement saying, ‘We’re committed to taking Doctor Who through the ’90s.’

“They put it out to tender then, and then it just quietly didn’t happen, and I have a feeling maybe that’s what’s going to happen.”

Gatiss is hardly an outside observer when it comes to Doctor Who. A lifelong fan, he became one of the revived series’ most regular writers, with credits including “The Unquiet Dead”, “The Idiot’s Lantern” and “Cold War”. He has also appeared on screen several times, most notably as Professor Lazarus in 2007’s “The Lazarus Experiment”.

His warning comes as questions continue to surround what happens next for the long-running BBC series.

For Gatiss, however, another absence would not necessarily be a bad thing.

“My two penneth is, I genuinely think… [F] Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives, and I think that sort of sometimes goes for showbiz as well,” he said.

“I think the fact that Doctor Who had a second act of 21 years is absolutely amazing. Amazing!

“And for it to come back possibly even more popular than it was in the first run… but I think maybe it’s just time for a break, because all good things come to an end.”

Although Gatiss sounds pessimistic about the show continuing in its current form, he remains confident that Doctor Who itself is unlikely to be gone for good.

“I feel very doomy, but it’s true. It’s fine. I think the fact it’s come back so successfully means it will come back again,” he said.

“It’s not a one-off 26-year [sic] run, but I think maybe it’s just time for a proper break, because you want people to miss it and have fresh ideas, and probably someone to run it who grew up with David Tennant as the Doctor, rather than Tom Baker.”

For fans, Gatiss’s comparison with 1989 is likely to be the most striking part of his comments.

The original series ended that year and, despite repeated discussion of bringing it back, Doctor Who did not return as a full television series until 2005.

Gatiss appears to believe history could repeat itself, with the programme slipping quietly off television before another generation eventually finds a way to bring it back…