The Next Chapter For Doctor Who Still Doesn't Have A Release Date
The War Between the Land and the Sea is restricted to across the sea.
Trying to watch Doctor Who in the U.S. was a Herculean task for decades. From reruns on PBS to catching up on BBC America to the three different streaming homes for the archive, things just aren’t simple. But in 2023, it seemed like those days were finally behind us as the BBC formed a partnership with Disney to not only stream new episodes for American viewers, but make them available at the very same time they aired on British TV.
Now, three years later, that partnership has ended, and The War Between the Land and the Sea, a miniseries spinoff announced in 2024, has now become an unwitting casualty in this breakup. Despite already airing in the UK, there’s no sign as to when — or even if — it will come out in the States. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is The War Between the Land and the Sea?
The War Between the Land and the Sea is a five-part miniseries following UNIT, the terrestrial military organization that deals with alien threats, as they cope with the emergence of the Sea Devils, now known as Homo Aqua. The Homo Aqua have seen the way we’ve been treating the world and threaten to start a global war.
The series was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and is often compared to the previous Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood. However, The War Between the Land and the Sea has always been described as a miniseries, so there are no plans for a Season 2.
Who is in the cast for The War Between the Land and the Sea?
The cast of The War Between the Land and the Sea.
The War Between the Land and the Sea stars a number of cast members from Doctor Who, as many of the UNIT staff have appeared in the recent seasons of the series, but there are some new faces too. The series stars:
- Russell Tovey as Barclay Pierre-Dupont
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Salt
- Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
- Alexander Devrient as Christofer Ibrahim
- Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham
- Colin McFarlane as Austin Pierce
- Ann Akinjirin as Barbara Pierre-Dupont
Interestingly, the two main stars of the series, Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, both have previously appeared in Doctor Who as different characters during the Tenth Doctor era. Mbatha-Raw played Tish Jones, sister of companion Martha Jones, in Season 2 of the 2005 reboot, and Tovey played Alonso Frame, a midshipman on the starship Titanic in the episode “Voyage of the Damned.”
What is The War Between the Land and the Sea Release Date?
The Homo Aqua have already made their debut to the Brits, but American viewers are still waiting.
In the U.K., The War Between the Land and the Sea aired in December 2025. However, in the U.S., the series still has the vague Disney+ release date of “2026.” But what part of 2026? Apparently, that’s up to the powers that be at Disney+. In a recent interview with Doctor Who Magazine, co-writer Pete McTighe gave an update on the specifics. “I hear that it's happening soon,” he said. “I don't know — I don't have inside info, but all I've been told is that it's happening soon.”
However, if you’re still impatient for more about this series, the earlier release in the U.K. led to a making-of documentary now available on YouTube. McTighe, for what it’s worth, endorses not waiting for the U.S. release at all. “Guys, just VPN it! Or buy the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray's got lots of cool extra stuff in it. The Blu-ray has got deleted scenes in it. It's got the documentary — the making of, which is really, really great,” he said. “I'm hoping there's a longer cut of that coming out sometime because there was so much footage. We were shooting footage the whole time. It was great.”
