Doctor Who Is Finally Coming Back To Streaming
The Doctor is back in, thank goodness.
For a while, it seemed like Doctor Who would never disappear. In 2005, the long-running British time travel series was rebooted with a new format and a new star and entered a Golden Age, amassing a gigantic online fandom and launching the careers of huge actors like David Tennant and Karen Gillan. But with the show’s 60th anniversary in 2023, something changed.
The BBC made a deal to co-produce Doctor Who with Disney, and while that meant fans around the world could catch new episodes on Disney+, three years later, the fate of the entire franchise is now hovering in limbo. What’s more, the previous 13 seasons of Doctor Who dating back to the 2005 reboot were unceremoniously removed from HBO Max last July. While we may not know the future of this series, thankfully, we can soon revisit the past a lot easier.
AMC+ recently announced that the 2005-2022 run of Doctor Who will be available on the streamer starting on June 11. This is huge, as those 176 episodes were completely unavailable on streaming services after they were removed from HBO Max, and it didn’t seem like that would change any time soon. Even the Doctor Who BBC America X (formerly known as Twitter) account, which had been dormant for over two years, was revitalized to celebrate.
However, that’s not the only place Doctor Who is streaming. To view the three different eras of Doctor Who, you’ll need three different apps. “Classic Who,” the pre-2005 era of the series, is streaming for free on Tubi, though many episodes are famously missing, thanks to the BBC’s shoddy archiving practices. The 2005-2022 era, often called “Nu Who,” will soon be available on AMC+. The 2023-present era is new enough that it doesn’t really have a name, but it’s streaming on Disney+.
The 2005-2022 era of Doctor Who introduced Jodie Whitaker as the first female actor to take on the role of the Doctor.
With Disney+’s deal with the BBC over now, we still don’t know where new episodes will land for fans outside the British Isles, but considering how AMC+ has taken over the Doctor Who on BBC America account, it’s possible the 2026 Christmas special could be available for streaming alongside its old episodes.
The 2005-2022 era is the one that many current fans grew up with, and having it completely unavailable on streaming services not only kept old fans from rewatching their favorite episodes, but also kept new fans from discovering this show that has entertained the masses for over 60 years now. Hopefully, the Doctor Who family can grow even bigger with this latest move.
