Doctor Who: RTD on BBC/AI; Sees Production Starting Summer 2027
· BCPosted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who
Doctor Who: RTD on BBC/AI; Sees Production Starting Summer 2027
Ex-Doctor Who Showrunner Russell T. Davies discusses BBC head Matt Brittin's AI comments "clumsy" and production kicking off next summer.
Published Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:37:08 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary
- Doctor Who’s Russell T. Davies calls BBC boss Matt Brittin’s AI episode comments clumsy amid industry fears.
- Davies says Doctor Who production should start in summer 2027 with a brand-new Doctor and companion.
- Matt Brittin sparked backlash after praising an AI-generated Doctor Who episode as “pretty good” at an RTS event.
- Davies also weighed AI’s growing impact on fandom, creativity, and copyright during recent BBC interviews.
A few weeks back, BBC head Matt Brittin ended up making headlines whe he dragged Doctor Who into an AI debate that it didn't need to be a part of. Brittin's comments were made during the Royal Television Society conference in London, with the BBC boss sharing that he recently checked out a fully AI-created Doctor Who "episode" – and he was impressed. "Everyone's got the ability in their hands — or six billion people have — to create content at the standard of a Hollywood studio," Brittin shared. "Somebody sent me a 50-minute episode of 'Doctor Who' that was AI-generated the other day. It's pretty good. I mean, it's not going to replace humans, and we'll come on to that. So everyone's a creator. Not all the creativity is bad." Brittin would seek to clarify his comments, admitting that he had gotten more than his fair share of reactions to his comments. You can add Russell T. Davies' name to that list, though the ex-Doctor Who showrunner has run into his own AI-themed controversies (more on that in a minute).
"That's a clumsy thing to say in an industry where he's got writers and artists and it specifically affects people, they're the first to take the blow," Davies shared with BBC Radio 4's The Media Show. "My inbox went ping ping ping ping ping, so God knows what his was like." Moving forward, Davies sees the ex-Google executive being a bit more cautious with his public opinions, adding that Brittin "hasn't worked in television for that long and might not be so fruity with an opinion in future." As for the status of Doctor Who and the tender process, Davies believes that we will "see production with a brand-new Doctor, a brand-new companion, summer next year," which would fit in line with the BBC designating March 2027 for finalizing the deal for the new team.
Earlier this month, Davies was asked about Brittin's comments during a recent edition of BBC Breakfast, hosted by Sally Nugent and John Kay. His response was… interesting. "Don't start me on that. If you lead me into an opinion on artificial intelligence, it'll chase me for the rest of my life and get quoted at me. I think it's a very interesting time. I think fans are now making their own episodes on AI, which are broadcast quality – almost," Davis shared. "When I was young, I used to sit and draw episodes. No one was stopping me doing that. It's a very complicated discussion, but I think we're essentially looking at the end of copyright."
Back in March, before the bad news hit. Doctor Who fans were wondering what the deal was withDavies showing some social media love to a site that uses AI to recreate moments in time – in this case, using AI to make it seem as if they were traveling back in time to 1963 to be there as the first episode of the long-running series was being filmed. It definitely caught the attention of Davies, who dropped an "Amazing!!" as a post comment, and then shared snippets on Instagram Stories with "Amazing! ❤️." To say that it didn't take long for social media to jump on his endorsement of the video would be an understatement. Here are screencaps from the examples that Davies shared on Instagram Stories and the comment he left on the post:
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