Doctor Who Sea Devils Spinoff Will Premiere… Eventually
The release date for Doctor Who spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea appears to be the first victim of the BBC's break-up with Disney.
Now that Disney and the BBC have officially broken up, there are lots of lingering questions when it comes to Doctor Who and the future of the iconic sci-fi franchise. Who’s going to play the next Doctor? How are they going to clean up the whole Billie Piper plot twist from the season 15 finale? Heck, where is the show going to even air outside of the U.K.? With all of these big issues still outstanding, the fate of spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea feels like a relatively small thing. Particularly since it’s not clear how many fans even wanted this show in the first place.
So, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the six-part drama is the first victim of the messy split between the two production partners. While the BBC has confirmed that The War Between the Land and the Sea will transmit before the end of the year, Disney is… suddenly more laissez-faire about its release plans. While Doctor Who streamed in America simultaneously alongside its U.K.premiere, the prevailing attitude toward its latest spinoff is more of a “we’ll get to it when we get to it” vibe. In short: No one knows when U.S. fans (or anyone who isn’t British) will be able to see the show..
The War Between the Land and the Sea will be released on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in December, presumably in time for the holidays, given showrunner Russell T. Davies’s statement about the series being “a huge, spectacular Christmas treat.” But it won’t arrive on Disney+ “until 2026.” This undetermined release window means that fans will be forced back to the good old days of dodging spoilers online for what may well be months before they’re able to see the show for themselves.
The final element of the original production deal between Disney and the BBC, the series stars Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and franchise regular Jemma Redgrave in a story that will theoretically explore how Earth copes with an alien threat when the Doctor’s not around to help. (We just won’t ask how nobody seemingly thinks to go check in with the Time Lord currently living at Donna Noble’s house.)
The alien threat comes courtesy of classic monsters, the Sea Devils, and features some sort of climate-change-fueled conflict between humanity and the ancient creatures. To put it another way: It’s not clear that this sort of adventure was very high up on any particular Whovian’s must-see wishlist, but since the show is canon, it’s likely that the most die-hard completionists among us (read: me) are still going to lock in and watch. But when, precisely, we’ll be able to do that is currently anyone’s guess.
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Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…