UPDATE: Yes, as some of you might’ve guessed, this is an April Fool’s gag — but we reckon we fooled a couple of you at least credible though, right? Stay tuned to the DWC for some actual news every other day of the year…

ORIGINAL ARTICLE FOLLOWS:

!In a development likely to perplex and even anger some Doctor Who fans, a Bad Wolf press release has indicated that Disney’s influence on Ncuti Gatwa’s first season is likely to be much more radical than at first thought.

Russell T Davies assured millions of Doctor Who fans that the nature of the show will not change under Disney, its new worldwide distributors. RTD explained that any editorial involvement from Disney (and Sony, who are also involved in producing new episodes of Who) has been kept to an absolute minimum. “Yes, they give us notes but they are good notes. One note asked us to change the order of scenes in an opening sequence and you know what? They were absolutely right. There isn’t a programme that reaches your television screens which has got there without notes from its American production partners.”

In what some might see as a complete reversal of this position, a Bad Wolf press release reveals that Disney’s influence on the new season is profound enough to change the nature of Doctor Who in radical and potentially far reaching ways. An extract from the press release reads:

“What better way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who and the enduring appeal of Disney’s wonderful characters than by teaming up the good Doctor with some of Disney’s most loveable creations?

“In some special sequences, recorded in the Bad Wolf studios in Wales and completed by our animators in the US, the new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson)  step from the TARDIS to discover themselves in a magical land, walking once upon a dream! Expect to see the Doctor build a snowman with Frozen’s Olaf, Ruby mine for pearls with the Seven Dwarfs, and both to sing their hearts out with the mice from Cinderella!”

Further details of the story, which appears to be a Christmas episode, have not been released but speculation is already mounting that it is a sequel to the 1968 episode The Mind Robber, set in the Land of Fiction and ruled by the Master (no, not that one: the Master of the Land of Fiction).

Lest fans should be too dismayed by the potential Disneyfication of Doctor Who , a “spokesman close to the production team” was quoted in the Daily Mirror (which often gets accurate scoops on Doctor Who) as saying:

“Fans shouldn’t worry. They need to remember that this is Doctor Who. Who’s to say that Olaf won’t transform into a rabid, carnivorous alien and bite the Doctor’s bloody head off? And as for the Seven Dwarfs, they get blasted to kingdom come.”

We at DWC can only await the Disney crossover with… excitement and anticipation!