As per his Substack-newsletter:
I’ve thought about approaching the BBC again about Doctor Who but they’ve never taken me seriously before, so I’m not convinced they’ll start. It’s probably worth a try.
I would open cold as if the show is new. Strange and eccentric young ‘inventor’, amnesiac, with an odd TARDIS machine that can go anywhere and is bigger on the inside. That’s all you need to get started.
I expect they’ll opt for the young Doctor full reboot, which would be a mistake. You have a universe. You have lore in the bank. That’s good to have as long as you don’t rely on it. In fact, barely even mention it. It’s so easy to do a young ‘Doctor Who?’ showing up in a field where he’s found by some kids who think he’s Jesus. Amnesiac…TARDIS stolen…whodunnit…etc… Kids who get into the show will be excited to discover there’s a huge back story to get into – but who am I to say?
As far as being saddled with a lot of dangling threads goes, ‘they’ could just reveal that Gatwa’s Doctor was an unstable bi-regeneration who tried to make the most of his brief mayfly existence but just sort of flickered along, barely there. When he glitched out, he reached for a familiar face and got Billie Piper off the telly. She then tracks down David Tennant’s Doctor, going mad with his earthbound ordinary life round at Donna’s. He can’t stop attracting terrifying, vengeful enemies from space so he’s on the run when they meet – and fuse back together with a lovely Rose and the Doctor scene to wrap the whole RTD era in a neat bow, while the Doctor’s understanding family cheer them on – then it all goes wrong – and new-new-Who picks up from there with nary a backward glance.
You don’t even need to show any of that – but it’s all there for a Big Finish.
Edit: Grant Morrison is a Scottish writer. Their work includes New X-Men, which many consider one of the defining runs of that team and All-Star Superman (which inspired the 2025 Superman movie). They have also written for Doctor Who before, mostly comics for DW Magazine.
They also created the SYFY TV show Happy!
That whole tying up of loose threads sounds dreary. Enough with the Tennant/Piper nostalgia already. Morrison is quite right that all of that is best left for quick quippy commentary while the show just gets on with the next iteration.
I also agree with their point that a full reboot would be throwing 60 years of lore out with the bathwater. What makes Doctor Who special is exactly all that baggage, littered across the universe and in the quantum backrooms of the TARDIS.
I don't think the show needs another past-their-prime, self absorbed showrunner, though. People who recommend Grant Morrison for the position, or J Michael Straczynski for that matter, need to get their heads out of their noughties comic books.
Now let's not say things we can't take back...
Noughties, not naughty 😂
Generally speaking, I have never been completely wowed by GM's slightly kookier Alan Moore rehashes. Oh really, Grant, you're a magician too now? 🙄 For anybody prone to really long reads, I recommend El Sandifer's Last war in Albion for a deep, critical view on the two's decades long "magic war".
And while I never take things back, I do change my mind depending on time of day and/or median wind temperature. So there's that.