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So there’s been some Doctor Who news. Alasdair Stuart speaks red tape and is here to do a little translating.

‘As part of securing the next phase of the show for future generations, and in line with the BBC’s Charter and Agreement requirements, the BBC will put Doctor Who out to competitive tender this year.’

This means the show is being put up for independent production companies to come in and make it under license. This is, in essence, what was being done with Bad Wolf in Cardiff for the last few years. This makes a lot of sense and it’s also in line with the process that the upcoming CBeebies show went through before entering production.

What this means for fans is that we’re getting new voices and faces on both sides of the camera, just in the same BBC wrapper. This is both what every Doctor Who fan wants all the time and the absolute last thing a lot of Doctor Who fan wants, ever. This is a series that is still finding stories for Doctors played by actors who died in the previous century. The fandom’s inherent conservatism always flying in the face of the show’s increasingly determined inclusivity.

What this means for Cardiff is nothing good. Bad Wolf are a major part of the Cardiff economy, bringing in almost 900 million pounds of business last year. I don’t know what percentage of that Doctor Who makes up but it can’t be a small one. So, a point to remember as we dive into the hypotheticals is that while fans are disappointed we’re going to have a wait a while, most of us aren’t worried about this costing us our jobs. Empathy is, after all, the most human trait despite what the news endlessly tells us.’

‘Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come.’

I promise every fan over 40 is having a bit of a PTSD moment over this. The BBC excels at the sort of careful non-language that suggests something awful is being covered up. People are reading the phrase ‘will enjoy the show for years to come’ and unironically posting theories that it’s dead. You can’t argue with that, you just accept it’s what people think and move past it.

‘After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode.’

If you want to be enormously depressed about Russell T Davies, go read his comments about trans representation in TipToe. If you want to be less depressed, but still pretty depressed, about Russell T Davies, then read how he’s spent months hyping this Christmas Special and has now admitted there was no script, he never wrote it and no one was approached to play the next Doctor.

There’s going to be a lot of easy content generated about this decision in the next few weeks and most of it’s going to be the usual self-immolating feeding frenzy of tearing the showrunner apart on their way out of the door. As a friend of mine joked, the next volume of The Writer’s Tale is going to be essential reading for some people. Me, I’m honestly just disappointed and sad. Davies, on form, was extraordinary. This sort of carnival barking is a long, long way from extraordinary. New voices are going to do things differently, and in a lot of cases, better. And to be clear, the ’90s are over. Not even the TARDIS can get back there. What’s coming will be different. We need to meet that with kindness, not cruelty, cowardice or yet another lukewarm take.

For fans, the obvious question is ‘What about Rose?’ and the thing about that question is that it has hundreds of answers and you’re not going to like any of them. Here’s what jumps to mind:

• It’s never, ever going to be spoken of again until three years is up and Big Finish can fix it in post.
• An offhand reference by the new Doctor in the style of ‘Lots of planets have a North’.
• In a move that will enrage far more people than it will mollify, Piper will be brought back to play a one-off special and hand off to the new actor.
• All explained in a novel in five years or so.

‘This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory.’

‘This decision was not taken lightly.’ is one of those tragic turns of phrase which no one ever believes. ‘Rather than bridge the gap’ is about as direct as they possibly can be without flat out saying ‘We wrote ourselves into a corner with the Rose thing, we can’t solve it. AO3 can help you.’

Likewise, ‘the long-term future of the show’ is a phrase that’s being reacted to like it’s a nail in the coffin and really, truly isn’t. One of the things that drives me mad about every fandom is that we never let ourselves heal. The Wilderness Years were almost three decades ago, and the show has aired continuously in some form for 20 of the years since. Being as cold as possible, it makes them money. It’ll keep being made. Just not right now.

What is being made right now is a ton of Big Finish audio dramas, an upcoming multi-media crossover and some excellent comics. Doctor Who hasn’t gone away; I’m honestly not sure it can anymore. But it’s going to be different for a while and the sooner we process our disappointment, and in some cases, relief, the sooner we can get back to it.