Doesn't sound impossible from the way it's written in the ITT 🙂
Yeah, the BBC don't mess around once they get going.
They expect a longlist of tenders by October 9, the shortlist by Nov 6, final tenders hand-in early December, and then interviews by end January.
Took me a while to open the actual document available on the Invitation to Tender page. Here is the part that I assume to be of most interest (forgive odd formatting, I'm on my phone):
Doctor Who is one of the most enduring and distinctive brands in global television. For over sixty years, it has captivated audiences through imaginative storytelling, compelling characters, and ambitious adventures that span all of time and space. The series occupies a unique position in popular culture, combining entertainment for a broad audience with sophisticated science fiction concepts, emotional depth, humour, and spectacle.
We are commissioning a new flagship series of Doctor Who. The series should feel contemporary, and creatively ambitious, whilst remaining true to the values and characteristics that have made Doctor Who a beloved series across generations.
We invite longlisted eligible producers to first pitch, in no more than three (3) pages, a brief editorial outline for a new multi-episode series, including ideas for specials. Shortlisted producers will then be invited to put together a comprehensive editorial pitch as part of their ITT submission.
Aside from the central character of the Doctor, you will need to develop at least one companion for the series. Companions should be distinctive, authentic characters in their own right, whose lives, relationships, ambitions, and personal journeys enrich the series. They should serve as an access point for audiences whilst also challenging, supporting, and influencing the Doctor.
We see this pitch as an exciting opportunity to innovate and surprise us. Stories should balance high concept science fiction with strong emotional narratives, ensuring that spectacle is always grounded in character and human experience. Episodes should transport audiences to extraordinary times and places, ranging from historical settings to distant futures, alien worlds, and contemporary Earth. Successful pitches will deliver ‘back of the sofa’ scares, jeopardy and tension, whilst remaining suitable for a broad family audience. Doctor Who embraces themes that celebrate curiosity, courage, intelligence, and compassion, themes that interrogate the human condition and most of all, it should and will always be distinctively British storytelling. We are flexible in the way the series is structured i.e. serialised or ‘story-of-the-week’ and the number of episodes which make up the series.
Iconic, established villains are a mainstay of the series over 60 years and we invite you to use them, but we will want to begin to get an understanding of the original characters, aliens and themes that producers wish to bring to the show and are keen not to be overly reliant on existing Doctor Who lore. We are looking for a new perspective that ensures Doctor Who remains relevant, surprising, brave and inspiring for both long-standing fans and new audiences.
At this stage of the process, it is not a requirement to formally attach a writer. You may want to pitch with writer suggestions, or if you are already working with a writer, please do include them and their ideas/vision in your submission. We are not necessarily looking to work to a strict showrunner model and would expect once in production that the series will also use episodic writers.
Visually, the series should feel cinematic, distinctive, and ambitious, capable of competing for audience attention in a highly competitive global market. We encourage innovative approaches to production, world-building, visual effects, and storytelling that maximise the scale and emotional impact of the Doctor Who universe.
We are seeking a creative vision that embraces the breadth of what Doctor Who can be and could be. Doctor Who is a show that has sparked conversation, taken risks and inspired audiences for decades and we are looking for this series to continue that tradition. Be brave, have fun and we look forward to hearing from you.
It's just a formality. I need to keep up the public appearance that I'm not a BBC exec.
"I submitted my tender on a fan forum but the buggers never responded!" 😄
We have a preliminary guesstimate, folks. Mark your calendars!
And they're still on a trek through the stars? Seems to do what it says on the tin.
Okay, that was rude and nitpicky. But I'll bite:
Read the article. Her voice was heard on every episode, but recorded separately. So, for example, the cast of TNG never met her until she showed up for her first guest spot as Lwaxana. Sirtis relates their (or her) initial reservations:
I didn’t meet Majel until she was a guest star on our show in the episode ‘Haven,’ and we didn’t bond immediately because she was the boss’s wife, and we were all a bit nervous because as a cast; we were a little rowdy
Note the distinction I put in italics.
That was a good read, it's nice to have both her acting peers' as well as Rod Roddenberry's perspectives on her. I'm not sure I've read more than the equivalent of her Wikipedia entry before. Polite secondhand info, that is.
I've always enjoyed watching Majel whenever she's on Trek. The first Number One, Nurse Chapel, Lwaxanna... and all the while, also the voice of the Enterprise. Geez, Gene may have been the mind behind the show, but she probably embodied it more than anybody outside of the main cast(s) 🤩
abandon [conservative] crew members on the planet.
I think introducing conservatives to an alien ecosystem is against the Prime Directive. Better to yeet them into the nearest ion storm without a space suit.
So that's what the de-con chamber in Enterprise was for. Silly me, I thought it meant decontamination.
It only took forever (well, from May until now) for this vinyl to become available in my local b&m record store... But holy hell, is it worth the wait! 🤘🤩
https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-world
Big caveat up front, I have no illusion that this was ever planned out, or that it's ever going to be made. I just connected some dots from Eccleston's season to our current mess. I do think that if the BBC had Pete McTighe make a 15 minute special along these lines and put it on Youtube, the fans could rest easier and the next production team might start on a blank slate.
To summarise, the last couple of seasons had a convoluted arc concerning a companion's parent issues. She was saved as a baby through time travel intervention, but not without a lot of temporal disturbance in the process. In fact, babies have been a throughline in both Ncuti Gatwa's seasons, a pattern that culminates in the Doctor rupturing the Time Vortex in order to save one child's existence. For just a probable moment there, that child is his own. Succeeding in his mission, the Doctor is then replaced by somebody looking suspiciously like Rose Tyler.
Bring on the Time Reapers to sterilise the wound in time! That's why the Doctor regenerated into this face, à la 12 looking like Caecilius from "The fires of Pompeii". She needs to channel Rose as a catalyst to heal the reset 15 did to save Poppy. Besides, where Pete sacrificed himself to sort the timestream out, this time around the Reapers are attacking the Doctor and their police box. And the Doctor's current face has a very special relation to the TARDIS' living heart.
To be fair, the rest of the story doesn't really matter, this is only meant to resolve the Billie Piper twist of "The reality war". It doesn't fix fan quibbles over the Timeless Child or the Doctor being half human on their mother's side for a hot minute in 1996. Pretty much everything other than that latest regeneration cliffhanger can be ignored or picked up upon by future writers. So end this minisode on a regeneration without showing what happens next, or just leave it open ended.
Now, would I love for Susan to pop up for no other reason than to ease her "grandfather" into the credits crawl, and a future season where neither actress are seen again? Maybe an exchange to echo the Seventh's exit monologue to Ace at the end of "Survival"? Absolutely, but this could well be a one hander between Piper, some 2005 archive footage, and the janky old low-poly CGI monsters from back then.
[made a few edits for clarity(?)]
Had to recheck when I was less tired. You're right, good to see punctuality is a priority 😄