Is it time for Doctor Who to retire?

'Viewer apathy' could prove the ultimate foe for the Time Lord, amid lukewarm reviews and falling ratings

Varada Sethu and Ncuti Gatwa running towards the camera in a scene from "Doctor Who"
Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, in a scene from "Doctor Who"
(Image credit: Capital Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo)

Record-low audiences have put the future of the longest-running sci-fi show in the world in doubt. The eponymous hero of "Doctor Who" may have vanquished diabolical enemies like the Daleks "all through time and space", said Martin Belam in The Guardian, but he's now "facing" his "greatest threat: viewer apathy".

Tea-time chills

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More

  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.