Despite mounting his biggest Doctor Who library to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the BBC is to remove several classical-era stories from its streaming library. As part of the show’s milestone celebrations in 2023, the company has decided to host almost the entire franchise on the IPlayer platform, from the classic era to the modern revival, to other spin-offs and documentaries. In addition to hosting almost the entire series from 1963 to Doctor Who In Season 14, IPlayer would soon become home to several exclusive documentaries and behind-the-scenes series.
Just over a year after the BBC made them all available Doctor Who media on your platform, RadioTimes reports that two stories have been removed from the IPlayer platform. “Terror of the Zygons” and “The Seeds of Doom” have been removed from the service, leaving the adventures of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor season 13 incomplete. Although no official announcement or explanation was given prior to the removal, the BBC would later issue a statement highlighting that the remainder of the catalog they had still secured the rights to host would remain on the service:
Whoniverse contains over 800 hours of Doctor Who content, making it the largest collection of Doctor Who programming in one place, which includes every episode we have the rights to.
What Doctor Who’s sudden IPlayer removals mean for the series’ streaming future
Previous commissioning practices make Doctor Who’s character catalog complicated
Due to the nature of how Doctor Who was written throughout its classic era, there are several classic characters and monsters that the BBC doesn’t have. In several cases, the writers retained the copyright to their characters, unlike other franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel, where the rights belong to the company itself. Not only has this left the BBC having to renegotiate the use of certain characters as well as hosting certain stories, but it has also in the past allowed these writers to develop their own projects featuring the characters.
While the removal of “Terror of the Zygons” and “The Seeds of Doom,” both written by Robert Banks Stewart, may leave some viewers disappointed, It’s probably a matter of time before the stories come back. Great finish Doctor Who The audio drama range briefly lost the rights to host Zygon-centric stories in 2022, but not only are productions available once again following negotiations with Banks Stewart’s estate, but a new alien-focused lineup is in development. As such, it’s likely the BBC will also have to renegotiate to host the episodes.
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The writer’s estate is open to renegotiation
Although the BBC gathers the majority Doctor WhoThe catalog available on its service was a major milestone for the franchise, but it also sparked an event that highlighted complications surrounding the show’s rights. The platform is currently unable to host the first episode of the series, “An Unearthly Child.”due to the interventions of writer Anthony Coburn’s son, Stef Coburn, who claimed to own the licensing rights and withdrew them due to her own bigoted views, as the show cast people of color and LGBTQ+ performers in lead roles.
Despite fears that the removals of Baker’s two stories could lead to a similar absence from the IPlayer library, the past has thankfully shown that the Banks Stewart estate is more than happy to allow the use of its characters as long as the proper permissions and credits are given. As such, it may only be a matter of time before fans can enjoy the first Doctor Who adventure with the Zygons on IPlayer once again.
Source: RadioTimes