Doctor Who Insider Claims Billie Piper Reveal Was A Desperate Plan By Russell T. Davies To Get Disney To Continue The Show
A Doctor Who Insider revealed that Russell T. Davies had no plan involving Billie Piper and the tacked-on regeneration scene at the end of “Reality War” was a desperate attempt to try to get Disney to fund another season.
Doctor Who has been in big trouble since the Ncuti Gatwa season one aired to some of the lowest ratings in the show’s history. Season 2 continued trends where it broke records for low viewership, and at that point, even the media began to change its tune as to the health of the show as, increasingly, Russell T. Davies inserted his lash-outs at fans into the scripts of the show.
The internet went crazy over the weekend as it revealed Nctui Gatwa regenerated into Billie Piper, implying she would be the sixteenth Doctor in a double down on a female lead for the show, where the first collapse in ratings was seen with Jody Whittaker taking the helm in 2018.
Doctor Who expert Star Whovian posted to X a scoop that shows Russell T. Davies has no plans going forward, and that this was a last-minute attempt with Billie Piper to get Disneys’ attention. He posted, “The BBC are worried about how they're going to continue Doctor Who. Billie Piper filmed her scene only a few weeks ago as a favour to RTD, who wanted a regeneration cliffhanger as a last-ditch attempt to convince Disney to extend their partnership.”
An insider source has given Fandom Pulse more information on the state of the show which shows how desperate this really is.
The Doctor Who insider, who broke the story about Jody Whittaker returning to the show to Fandom Pulse earlier in May and has proven to be accurate so far, told us this, “It's looking like we are approaching the end of Doctor Who, at least for a long while. The fans from all corners are universally against the current direction of the show. The BBC is scrambling behind the scenes about what they're going to do going forward, and the people in charge seemingly have no idea what they're doing. An announcement from the BBC could drop at any moment now, but it's clear that Doctor Who hasn't never been in this bad a state in its 60+ year history”
In addition, we were told, “The decision to include Billie Piper was a very last-minute decision. Around the time the Robot Revolution was airing, they were still planning to go with the cliffhanger regeneration where we wouldn't see who Ncuti regenerated into. It seems more like stunt casting to round off RTD2 and kind of wrap up the NuWho era by bringing it full circle. Billie wasn't even on set. She filmed everything with an incredibly small crew in front of a green screen in London a few weeks ago, and they just pasted her face onto Ncuti's body at the last minute. It's thought that Russell casting Billie was a way to increase audience interest (a bit like casting Tennant as 14) and hopefully, then make the show more appealing to Disney. BBC a bit concerned currently about how they're going to continue the show themselves. Lots of scrambling going on.”
The show leak continues, “Billie saw it more of a favour to Russell than anything. She's happy to do a special or series, but is also fine to just film a quick something in an attempt to help out the show, even if it ends up being no use. Russell went straight for Billie; she didn't have to audition or anything. All happened very quickly. I don't even think Russel knows why she has Rose's face yet.”
We were then told, “Most of season 3 (which RTD has already written) was done with Ncuti in mind so don't expect the next doctor (if there is one) to be too different. There were a few alternate takes of Billie's first lines. Everything in the unit after the Belinda, Doctor, and Ruby scene (which was also heavily reworked in reshoots) was reshoots, as well as the garden and Belinda's house scene - and the stuff with 13, obviously.”
They concluded, “They're not going to admit that Ncuti leaving after 2 seasons wasn't always the plan, because that would mean admitting that season 3 was delayed because season 1 didn't do as well as initially hoped - which russell will never do.”
What do you think of the Doctor Who behind the scenes leaks? Leave a comment and let us know.
For a great alternative to mainstream science fiction, with spy thriller action, read The Stars Entwined on Amazon!
