Not strictly true of course, so long as an Anniversary is observed it continues to live in memory, but this year, more than any other in a very long time (we’d peg it since 1990 to be fair) it feels as though Doctor Who is as adrift as it has ever been. An certain future, the unknowable potential of a Christmas Special still more than a year away made by the same production team (more or less–possibly a lot less) that made such as confusing hash of the 2025 stories, and no lead in any real sense of the word.
Not great.
Thing is, of course, that this has all happened before. In 1990 when it had become all-too-obvious that the classic series was not on another ‘hiatus’ but was on a terminal rest and thoroughly unloved from the higher echelons of the BBC. It repeated again in an even more attenuated form six years later when the brief flicker of hope given out TVM, a British and American co-production it’s worth noting, was extinguished given the realization that the one-off special was just that, and not leading to anything more.
We noted the omnibus echoes of 1988 repeating in 2025 when it happened earlier this year, but that still doesn’t make the present situation any easier to contemplate. A wilderness of mirroring.
Still 62 isn’t such a bad age to be, as some in the Tour have experienced, we only hope that 63 and beyond hold something to look forward to.