If you’re a fan of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, you may have been surprised to hear the news that the planned Christmas special for 2026 will no longer be made.

When the announcement was made on Wednesday, it also came with news that the team behind the show is leaving too.

This led to a huge reaction on socials, with some people believing that the show - which first aired way back in 1963 - is finishing for good, claiming that the BBC has cancelled it. But is this really true? BBC Bitesize Other Side of the Story has taken a look at the info to see if the Doctor has been exterminated forever, or has a chance of a whole new regeneration in the future.

What has been said about the future of Doctor Who?

A statement - also known as a press release - was shared on the official Doctor Who website saying that the 2026 Christmas special - which was announced last year - would not be made. It also said that the BBC wanted to carry on making the show and that different programme makers would be invited to bid for permission to be the new team behind Doctor Who and its next series at some point in the future.

Russell T Davies, the show’s chief writer, posted on Instagram that he was leaving Doctor Who too, while also saying that he had never written the script for the Christmas special and that he was “as excited as anyone to see what comes next”. Bad Wolf, the company which made the past two series of Doctor Who, also posted an image of the Tardis door closing to show that their time with the show had also come to an end.

Has Doctor Who been cancelled?

No, it hasn’t. When news like this happens, it’s important to look for primary sources of information. In this case, it is the official BBC statement about the future of Doctor Who. It says that the Christmas special is cancelled, but not the programme itself. It also makes clear that the BBC considers Doctor Who an important show and wants to continue making it, which is why other companies will be asked to come forward with plans for future series.

If any sites or posts are claiming Doctor Who has finished forever, it is speculation, not fact. Some posters could be exaggerating the news as a form of clickbait, to get more hits on their website or followers on socials. These posts could also be from people who dislike the show, its makers, or the BBC itself and want to spread disinformation - or fake news - about the programme in line with their own opinions.

Why do people think the show has been cancelled?

Doctor Who fans - like fans of other shows, bands or sports teams - can be very passionate about the thing they love. They could follow other fans on socials who think the same about it as they do. That creates an echo chamber - where you only see opinions that reflect your own, as served up by your social platform’s algorithms.

It could also be that some Doctor Who fans remember the show being ‘cancelled’ before. In 1989, Doctor Who stopped being made after a 26-year run and did not become a regular series again until Russell T Davies and the BBC brought it back in 2005. That 16-year gap is called ‘the wilderness years’ by some fans, when the Doctor’s adventures carried on in comic strips, novels and audio plays instead of on TV. There were some references on socials after the Christmas special announcement that another ‘wilderness years’ has begun, although there is nothing in the BBC statement that suggests Doctor Who is about to vanish from our screens for more than a decade.

Until the BBC officially announces that the Doctor is dematerialising in the Tardis forever, then the programme is not cancelled. The Daleks and the Cybermen are not safe from our favourite Time Lord just yet.

BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios have given Monumental Television, part of ITV Studios, the greenlight to bring the beloved and award-winning BBC comedy Ghosts to the big screen in Ghosts: The Possession of Button House.

The creators/writers say: “We thought we had said goodbye to Button House at the end of the final series. We never planned to come back. But when we had the idea for this story, we all got so excited that we couldn’t resist returning to our haunted home for one more adventure. We can’t wait to be together and to welcome some brilliant new faces, to tell this soul-stirring tale of life and death.”

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a review into whether RAF bases were used by Jeffrey Epstein.

It is expected the review will look into records and emails, while Defence Secretary John Healey was said to have ordered officials to turn over every stone to establish whether the late sex offender landed his private jet at military sites when visiting the UK.

An MoD source said it would "ruthlessly pursue any information that can shed light on this scandal".

It comes after former Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had used RAF bases to meet Epstein.

Brown said he had submitted a five-page dossier to several UK police forces – including the Met, Sussex and Thames Valley Police – providing new and additional information from Epstein-related documents published in the US.

Last Sunday, the Sunday Telegraph reported that the former prime minister was understood to be concerned about a flight Epstein took on a Gulfstream jet that landed at RAF Marham air base in Norfolk in December 2000.

The base is around 20 miles (32 km) from the Sandringham Estate.

A congestion charge originally forecast to bring in £320,000 a month instead raised more than £1m in January, figures show.

Oxfordshire County Council introduced the temporary £5 daily congestion charge on six roads in Oxford in October.

Council figures, show the majority of the £1.04m generated from the scheme in January came from fines issued to people who failed to pay the charge.

Overall, £757,435 came from penalty charges, while £287,205 was from those paying the charge.

That is compared to only £70 earned through fines in the scheme's first two months.

In total, the authority has generated £1.7m in income from the scheme since it started.

Retailer John Lewis is closing down its housebuilding business, scrapping plans to build 1,000 homes across three sites.

It cited higher borrowing and building costs than when it first started expanding into residential development in 2020.

It is also pulling out of property management, and will close that business when its contracts with four residential buildings end.

The employee-owned firm said it is instead focusing on its retail brands, John Lewis and Waitrose, to simplify its business and strengthen its balance sheet.

Chocolate bars are being locked in plastic boxes in some UK shops as retailers and police forces warn thieves are stealing them to order.

Sainsbury's said it had begun using "boxes on products which are regularly targeted", with £2.60 bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk locked up in one London branch.

Chocolate was more recently being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders," according to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).

Prior to last year, it had long been accepted that Christianity was declining in Britain - from the days when most people were Christian, to an increasingly atheist and multi-faith society where derelict church buildings were being sold off and turned into cocktail bars and luxury flats.

But in 2025, a new report from the Bible Society called The Quiet Revival started to challenge the idea that Christian faith was waning. Based on an online YouGov survey it commissioned, it suggested the number of Gen Zs attending church in England and Wales had skyrocketed in the past six years, to the surprise and delight of Christian communities.

A university student has been crowned UK pun champion after serving up gags about King Henry VIII and takeaway pizza at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

Adam Ernest Pickard beat seven other comedians in the jokey battle royale at De Montfort Hall on Monday to claim the 2026 title.

Pickard got the audience laughing with his wisecrack: "The song Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII. I'd play some of it here, but it's not royalty-free."

He also quipped: "I've compiled everyone who works at my local takeaway pizza place into a book. It's my Domino's Who's Who."

Another gag went: "Only women can use the herbal dumbbells. Thyme weights for no man."

A theatre has agreed to remove bacon and sausages from its café menu during a production featuring Peppa Pig.

Grimsby Auditorium said it made the decision "as a considerate gesture" following a request from an animal rights charity.

The theatre said it was committed to continually reviewing and enhancing its menu offerings, and would be removing all pork products during performances of Peppa Pig's Big Family Show on 3 and 4 March.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/bmoviebonanza/p/1795272/dr-who-and-the-daleks-1965-mastodon-watch-party-this-sunday-evening

Starring Peter Cushing, "the guy who blew up Princess Leia's planet!" Yes, Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) is the movie for this Sunday's "monsterdon" watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!

• Just start watching that movie this Sunday, Feb 22 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT which is 2am Monday UTC
• and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live text commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
• I usually open two web browser windows side-by-side on a computer. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching the movie on TV or something.

How to watch the movie:

• tubi (availability varies by country): https://tubitv.com/movies/547338/dr-who-and-the-daleks
• uBlock Origin adblocker on Firefox should work for that tubi link
• archive (3 minutes shorter?): https://archive.org/details/dr-who-and-the-daleks_202505
• it's usually streamed on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time
• if you want to pay and/or watch ads, look here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/dr-who-and-the-daleks or here: https://nobraincellsleft.github.io/JustWatch-Search/title/tm83604
• apparently it's free on Pluto TV but idk wtf that is. I guess you could give it a try here https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/685972fd2339944cec974634 but idk if adblockers work or they make you sign in or some bs like that

The story is based on the Doctor Who television serial The Daleks, produced by the BBC. Filmed in Technicolor, it is the first Doctor Who story to be made in colour and in a widescreen format. The film was not intended to form part of the ongoing story-lines of the television series. Elements from the programme are used, however, such as various characters, the Daleks and a police box time machine, albeit in re-imagined forms.

...

Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as "limply put together, and only for indulgent children".[12] John Clute, in the book Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, gives the film one star out of three, stating: "Many people would like to see the [Doctor Who] television series back; few mourn the long-gone films".[13] Radio Times was more favourable, awarding the film three stars out of five, commenting: "this spin-off lacks the bite and inventiveness that set the landmark series apart, unwisely injecting humour into the sparse scenario, and the cheap art direction is strictly '101 Uses for Pink Plastic Sheeting'. However, despite the many faults, it's still a fun ride for both the uninitiated and die-hard fans alike".[14]

In The Guardian in 2013, Stuart Heritage stated: "Cushing does his best, but he's not exactly given a lot to work with." He described the Daleks as "so pointlessly toothless here" and also criticised the "incredibly tedious" amount of Dalek dialogue to explain their motives, the portrayal of the Thals, and Roy Castle's performance, saying "to call him hammy would be to provide the greatest disservice to pigs."[15] Andrew Nette of the British Film Institute stated the film was "widely derided by many fans and critics", adding it is "certainly an uneven affair. Some scenes [...] still have the capacity to thrill. Others, like the final victory over the Daleks, feel rushed and flat. The Doctor's granddaughters are largely one-dimensional... The aspect of the movie that most antagonises purists is Cushing's Doctor." Nette described the film as having a "wonderfully pulpy sci-fi atmosphere", saying: "The highlight of the movie is its look... Many of the sets [...] are impressive" and "the movie Daleks are more impressive than their small screen counterparts".[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Who_and_the_Daleks

Kidlington Parish Council voted unanimously to change its status at a meeting on Thursday following a consultation with residents.

Councillor Melanie Moorhouse said the move would give the Oxfordshire community important extra protections in planning and policing decisions.

However, some residents told the BBC last year they opposed the change and had described the village as being "nice as it is".

In 1996, Paul McGann debuted as the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who, a feature length co-production between the BBC and the American Fox network, more commonly known as The TV Movie.

This 90-minute feature was shot on film, and now, for the first time, all 219 reels of original film (totalling almost 200,000 feet!) have been pulled from deep storage in the US and meticulously scanned over 21 days, then restored by Paul Vanezis to provide a definitive 4K experience.

This new release is available on 4K in a limited edition steelbook with exclusive artwork, as well as standard Blu-ray, and includes a host of special features including:

• The ‘uncensored’ UK version
• The USA broadcast version
• Soundtrack in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 and stereo
• In Conversation with director Geoffrey Sax
• Sylvester McCoy and Janet Fielding featurette
• 3 New Featurettes with Daphne Ashbrook, Eric Roberts and Yee Jee Tso
• Two audio commentaries
• Isolated music score
• Production info text
• The Seven Year Hitch making-of documentary
• Paul McGann’s audition tape
• Alternate takes
• Electronic press kit and behind the scenes footage
• TARDIS tour
• BBC Trails