Doctor Who Releases Hundreds Of Episodes You Can Stream For The First Time
The entire Doctor Who collection, comprised of all 800 preserved episodes, will be available to stream for the very first time in November. BBC announced that it will make the series available on its BBC iPlayer, which is one of the UK’s best streaming services, starting November 1. This decision was made to commemorate the show’s 60th anniversary on November 23.
For the first time ever, the Doctor Who collection, including specials and spin-offs, will be housed in one place, streaming on BBC’s iPlayer.
This is also the first time the whole Doctor Who series, going as far back as its premiere in November 1963, will be available on a single streaming service. This includes all 26 seasons broadcast from 1963 to 1989, the 1996 TV movie, and all 13 seasons that have aired since Doctor Who’s revival in March 2005.
Of course, this also includes all the specials and the upcoming Season 14, in which David Tennant is once again starring in the show, assuming the mantle of the Fourteenth Doctor—Tennant is the only actor to reprise the role of the Doctor in the whole show.
But besides the entire Doctor Who series, BBC decided to throw in all the spin-off projects, including TV shows such as Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures—the latter of which actually follows the adventures of the Doctor’s former companion, Sarah Jane Smith, after her departure from the mainline series.
Fans of the franchise now have a chance to revisit all the essential classic and New Who stories ahead of 60th anniversary specials.
On top of everything mentioned, each episode will feature multiple accessibility options, including closed captions, audio descriptions, and even sign language, thus ensuring the accessibility of this legendary sci-fi series to nearly all viewers.
This is actually a pretty big deal for the Doctor Who franchise. BBC used the franchise as the main draw to its streaming service ever since it was rebranded, but the classic Doctor Who run was never actually available on the service in its entirety.
Netflix held the rights to stream the classic run before it was added to BritBox, which is now facing rebranding and restructuring. This provided a perfect opportunity for BBC to reel its IPs back in and offer them on their own streaming service, thus increasing its own revenue.
With the classic era, the tie-in material, and the New Who all joining BBC iPlayer, fans of the franchise now have a chance to revisit all the essential classic and New Who stories ahead of 60th anniversary specials. On the other hand, and we don’t like bearing bad news, this only applies to UK viewers and not to the international fandom or fans from the US.
Doctor Who Is Coming To Disney
With that said, BBC announced that it will release the new Doctor Who episodes, including the upcoming specials and regeneration scene, on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+.
Now, while it’s almost certain that this announcement pertains to the upcoming Doctor Who specials and the upcoming season, it’s currently unknown whether previous New Who seasons might make it to the streaming service as well.
Neither Disney nor BBC disclosed any release dates, but we suspect that all new episodes broadcast in the UK might find their way to Disney+ the following day or weekend. Please remember to take this information with a grain of salt, as we’re currently lacking any official confirmation regarding release dates.
