Russell T. Davies thinks (and kind of hopes) the streaming bubble will burst

Like many of us, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies doesn't really understand the business model of streaming television. In a new interview with BBC Today, he observes there are “too many streamers and too much money, not everyone is watching these things, it can’t be financially viable” (per Broadcast). He sees streaming as comparable to the "South Sea bubble," Britain's first stock market crash.   

“I kind of hope it does pop, so we can go back to making those 8pm and 9pm dramas about say, a bunch of British lawyers or a health centre," Davies says. We need shows that, in his words, “don’t cost a fortune but teach people how to make TV.”  

Streaming's disruption of the TV pipeline is a problem across the board, and one of the issues that was raised but not necessarily fully addressed by the U.S. writers strike. Shorter seasons and smaller writers rooms mean less opportunities for training entry level writers, and streaming shows often write entire seasons before the rest of production begins, meaning that lower-level writers don't get on-set experience that is necessary training for eventually reaching the showrunner level.  

Of course, Doctor Who is currently a streaming show at its new home on Disney+. But “The BBC made a move to go to a streamer," Davies says. "[The BBC] thought the show deserved to look as good as Stranger Things or Star Wars [the series], why should we be the humble show being made in a shoe cupboard? That’s the way everything is heading." Even then, in Davies' estimation, Who is relatively humble; he references watching an episode of the Sky/Peacock series The Day Of The Jackal with 500 extras in its first episode as an example. “I just think, how do you keep up with this?”

Doctor Who hasn't yet been renewed for a third season on Disney+ (Davies said earlier this year that "It’s not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”) As he says now, "the BBC will decide its future."