The Oldest Sci-Fi Show Will Return Even Later Than We Thought
A decades-old TV tradition will be completely upended in the next year.
Doctor Who has been a television tradition for over 60 years now. From kids in the ‘60s and ‘70s hiding behind sofas to speculation over who the Doctor will regenerate into next, the sci-fi series has dominated British culture even when it was off the air. For over 20 years now, the series has kept up a new tradition: a Christmas special, an often holiday-themed adventure that the whole family can enjoy. There was a brief stint where these Christmas specials would come a week later during the New Year, but it seemed like an annual tradition you could count on.
But in the midst of a time of upheaval for the show, the 2025 Christmas season came and went without any Doctor Who. Now, it looks like that will be repeated with a completely new tradition to follow.
“Joy to the World,” the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special, may be the last episode released at Christmas for some time.
The Sun claims an insider reports that the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special may not happen at all. Instead, we could see a special airing at Easter 2027, instead, meaning there will be almost two years without any new Doctor Who episodes. This would contradict the BBC’s previous statement that showrunner Russell T. Davies will write a Christmas special for 2026. It should be noted that The Sun is a tabloid newspaper so there’s no confirmation just yet, but considering we haven’t heard anything about the upcoming special lately, it does seem likely.
Doctor Who has been in limbo recently. Ever since the 60th anniversary specials in 2023, Doctor Who has been produced in conjunction with Disney, which distributed the show outside of the British Isles. However, that partnership has since ended, and Disney+ hasn’t even released the latest Doctor Who spinoff despite the fact it aired on the BBC back in December 2025.
The cliffhanger of the latest Doctor Who episode may pose an issue for the show’s future.
Complicating matters is where the story left off, with the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, regenerating into Billie Piper, the actress who portrayed Rose Tyler back in the 2000s. That’s quite the cliffhanger, but it seems to be the focus of this hypothetical 2027 Easter Special. According to this insider, finding someone else to take the role after Piper is proving difficult. “The problem is that they have found it difficult to find anyone who’ll take on the part of the 16th Time Lord, partly because it now feels like a role that comes with all the baggage of the most recent series,” the report says. “There are fears that even if they do manage to pull something together, it is going to be a poor cousin to previous Christmas specials, which have always been adored by fans.”
But moving the special to Easter won’t stop comparisons to other episodes. In fact, Easter specials aren’t anything new. There were two different Easter specials, each separate from the Christmas specials, in 2009 and 2025. The comparison will still be there, but hopefully the extra time will make it a little more flattering.
This may just be a rumor for now, but it certainly does explain why we haven’t had any updates about the Doctor Who Christmas special. But if there’s one thing the show has taught us, it’s that time is immaterial when it matters, and for millions, Doctor Who matters.
