Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has revealed new details about the scrapped 2026 Christmas Special and the last-minute decision that led to Billie Piper's controversial regeneration twist.
In an extract from his upcoming memoir The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television, published by the Guardian, Davies said the original ending of the final episode, which aired in May 2025, was meant to be open-ended, showing the Doctor regenerating without revealing who would replace him. However, while editing, he felt that ending was "like a death," especially with uncertainty over whether Disney would remain involved in another season.
A Panicked Call to the BBC
Davies said the show was stuck in "limbo with many months of inaction," and he watched "an ending that looked like too much of an ending." This prompted a panicked call with the BBC, where Piper's name was first mentioned.
He recalled: "We can't transmit this. We need someone to step in. We need someone to be there. Someone for him to physically regenerate into in front of our eyes. We decided the Doctor should regenerate into... Billie Piper!"
Piper, who previously played companion Rose Tyler, was the face the Doctor regenerated into, a twist that left fans hoping for an explanation in a Christmas Special. However, no special aired in 2025, and earlier this year the BBC announced the 2026 special had been cancelled.
The Truth About the Special
At the time of the cancellation, Davies released a statement on Instagram claiming that a script for the special had never been written and that it was something "cooked up" to secure the show's future amid Disney's exit and the BBC's decision to put the show out to competitive tender.
He wrote: "There won’t be a Christmas Special – we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it." He added: "For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor."
But in his memoir, Davies admitted there was at least an idea for the story. It was to be an "olde-worlde English village intercut with a huge, mysterious spaceship, an outer-space festival called Winternox, and lots and lots of Daleks, with something very unexpected hidden away."
Why the Special Was Scrapped
Davies said the project kept hitting speed bumps, and he did not receive a contract to write the show until March 2026, just three months before the cancellation announcement. He also claimed that the arrival of new BBC content chief Kate Phillips moved up plans to put the show out to tender, a process required under the BBC's Royal Charter which allows companies to bid to create the next series. Davies had expected the tender to happen in 2028 or 2029, but it was brought forward to 2027.
He said this made the special feel purposeless, adding: "It really existed to please the fans, except the irony is, it was exactly the sort of episode that fans would not be pleased by."
Davies said he went to the BBC in early May and told them he didn't think the special should be made. In June, the BBC confirmed the special had been scrapped, with Davies and his company Bad Wolf leaving the programme. The Mirror contacted the BBC, but they declined to comment.
