Doctor Who Tender Invite: Now, Things Get REALLY Interesting

Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who

Doctor Who Tender Invite: Now, Things Get REALLY Interesting

Now that the BBC has released the tender invite for Doctor Who, it will be interesting to see who has what to say as the process plays out.

Published Sun, 20 Sep 2026 07:37:08 -0500
by Ray Flook
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By now, we all know the deal. Earlier this year, Russell T. Davies and Bad Wolf walked away, the Christmas Special was revealed to have never really existed (???), and the BBC announced that the long-running show would be put out to tender. That brings us to this week, with the official tender invite being released – and a whole lot of folks (us included) offering their thoughts on what it could all mean. And now, things get really interesting. Not so much from the standpoint of leaks or anything like that – we have a feeling things will be pretty tight-lipped. Maybe a production company or two publicly announcing they didn't pitch or something like that, but the BBC will be looking to keep the tender process under lock and key.

We're more interested in hearing what people have to say about their time on the show, and how that could influence the mindsets of those pitching. It's one thing to hear from Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall about how the tender process works or what the winning production company should keep in mind moving forward. It's quite another to hear production "war stories" from folks who may not have had the most positive time on the show. Even a seemingly harmless anecdote could have folks wondering what they were getting themselves into.

Interestingly enough, the deadline for submitting pitches lands in the same month when two very interesting books are set to drop. On October 8th, Davies's The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television goes live. Published by Penguin UK, the memoir promises to take readers "from his early days working on children's shows and soaps through to the giddy heights of relaunching 'Doctor Who' and bringing queer relationships onto the mainstream screen." It will be very interesting to see what Davies has to say about his time on the long-running show, and whether there are any red flags that could hit the radar of companies that pitched.

Later in the month, Ten Acres Books and author Richard Marks will release The Reality War – 2005-2025: How the Doctor Who Revival Transformed Television. Described as examining "how modern 'Doctor Who' captured the imagination of a new generation, dominated the TV ratings, invaded toyshops, bookshops, concert halls and cinemas, sold over five million DVDs, and even conquered America," the book will include interviews with directors Brian Grant and Rachel Talalay, producers Brian Minchin, Marcus Wilson, and Tracie Simpson, and others. While seemingly taking a "bigger picture" approach to examining the show's modern era return and run, it will be interesting to see if the final season, "The Reality War" questions, and Christmas Special controversy will be addressed.

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