Doctor Who's one episode in 2026, should be the thing I've been waiting for years. It will be the first episode to air when my daughter is old enough to watch it. I've been so looking forward to the point I can share this wonderful show with my first born.
Given the long period of time between Reality War and the next episode, I'm sure I can't be the only parent where this is the case. But thanks to an entirely self inflicted situation, the first episode after the long hiatus will be possibly the least accessible episode to new viewers the show has ever done. When this episode airs, it will be over 20 years since Rose left the show. I'm not opposed to bringing her back for an anniversary, but this episode is going to be so essential for attracting new viewers and securing the show's future, but there are members of this audience whose parents weren't old enough to watch the show when she left. And we've got this coupled with yet another deep dive into regeneration lore. This from the man who worked so hard to ensure that the 2005 series stood alone with no preknowledge of Doctor Who required. Even if the 2026 episode is a 10/10 classic beating Genesis or Heaven Sent in polls for best episode for decades to come, it will still inherently fail in its most important task: proving to new viewers that this is a show they can get into now without having to catch up with 60 years of episodes.
Doctor Who 2026 won't be my daughter's first episode, maybe we'll (slightly ironically) start with Rose on iPlayer, or maybe we'll wait and see what shape the 2027 season looks like, but I feel this is a collosal missed opportunity.
