Former Doctor Who writer and actor, Mark Gatiss, says he doesn’t think Doctor Who will actually go out to tender, but that it’s actually time for the show to take a break.

Gatiss looks to the past, recollecting the “wilderness years” of the 1990s, by suggesting:

“I think the BBC putting it out to tender is a perfectly great idea, but we’ve been here before. When it was cancelled in 1989 the BBC made a big statement saying ‘We’re committed to taking Doctor Who through the ’90s.’ They put it out to tender then, and then it just quietly didn’t happen, and I have a feeling maybe that’s what’s going to happen.

“I feel very doomy, but it’s true. It’s fine. I think the fact it’s come back so successfully means it will come back again. It’s not a one-off 26-year [sic] run, but I think maybe it’s just time for a proper break, because you want people to miss it and have fresh ideas, and probably someone to run it who grew up with David Tennant as the Doctor, rather than Tom Baker.”

Gatiss previously wrote stories such as The Unquiet Dead, Victory of the Daleks, The Crimson Horror, and Empress of Mars, as well as the 50th anniversary docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, and also acted in various serials such as The Wedding of River Song and Twice Upon a Time.

He adds:

“I think maybe it’s just time for a break, because all good things come to an end.”

He does have a point: the BBC has been committed to Doctor Who in the past but nonetheless left it by the wayside for some time.

Still, the BBC has pledged to put it out to tender by the end of the year, so we don’t have too long to wait in order to find out whether Gatiss is correct…