The Battle Between The Land And The Sea, the subsequent chapter of the Physician Who universe, has now been given a UK-specific launch date — however viewers have been left in the dead of night about its launch elsewhere, following the break-up of Disney’s co-funding deal.
UK viewers will get to observe The Battle Between The Land And The Sea’s first two episodes through BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Sunday, December 7 from 8.30pm. Additional episodes will then launch weekly, with the finale due on Sunday, December 28.
Regardless of at this time’s announcement by the BBC, nevertheless, Disney has remained silent on when it would add the collection to its streaming service. The BBC has merely mentioned it expects the present to reach on Disney+ someday in 2026 — a sea change to earlier episodes of Physician Who which have been launched concurrently with the BBC worldwide.
Is Disney holding again the collection for a motive, or is it merely now not prioritizing its launch now it has no plans to fund any future Physician Who content material? It is unclear. However, as of but, Disney has made no announcement of when it intends to air the present alongside the BBC’s personal press launch. Equally, Disney didn’t difficulty any type of assertion when the BBC just lately confirmed the 2 firm’s partnership was over.
The five-part miniseries was a part of Disney’s unique dedication to co-fund the way forward for Physician Who, alongside two seasons of the present that includes Ncuti Gatwa as its star. However a current report claimed that the connection between the 2 soured as viewing figures didn’t make an impression, and Disney tightened its purse strings.
Physician Who followers have spent a lot of this 12 months ready for a solution on the franchise’s future, after the writing seemed to be on the wall late final 12 months {that a} recommission of Disney’s partnership for a 3rd full Physician Who season was taking longer than anticipated. Because the 12 months started, the BBC reworked the ending of the present’s most up-to-date finale right into a farewell to Gatwa, who stop the present, and added a last-minute cliffhanger starring Billie Piper.
Final month, the BBC lastly introduced Disney had additionally stop Physician Who, and mentioned it might fund a one-off episode of the collection on account of air in December 2026 that is anticipated to wrap up the collection’ present storyline predicament. Past that, nothing is but identified.
Till then, The Battle Between The Land And The Sea will likely be followers’ last slice of the Whoniverse for 12 months. Centering on alien intelligence company UNIT and that includes a number of characters beforehand seen on Physician Who, the collection will characteristic a battle between people and the traditional collection’ Sea Devils.
Earlier this month, present showrunner Russell T Davies mentioned that the collection would introduce the idea that the Sea Devils title is definitely racist, and due to this fact the species will likely be re-canonized as ‘homo aqua’.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You’ll be able to attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
