Reflecting on 2025: New Doctor Who, New Spin-off, New Meet Ups and New Podcasts

Another year has almost come to a close, Who fans, and with that comes the tradition of putting together a roundup of the year. Let’s have a look at what happened for us and some highlights from the world of Doctor Who.

I would like to start as usual by expressing a huge thank you to you, our dear reader and listener. Once again, you’ve filled the year with your support, thoughts, commentary, memes, laughs and feedback. It’s been an interesting year for us and the wider world of Doctor Who. Having you along for the ride is amazing, so thank you.

Ok, so what’s happened this year (this is not an exhaustive list of everything that happened in all of Doctor Who, just a few headlines)…?

January

January started quietly for Doctor Who, with nothing on the horizon for a while. It did, however, give Adam and I a chance to catch up on what we had been up to over the Christmas and New Year. The major highlight was our review of the 2024 Christmas Special, ‘Joy to the World’. While we didn’t love that story, it wasn’t the worst either. We gave it an ok 6.5 out of 10 each.

I also teased something exciting in January, which came to light soon after: the Cosmic Echoes Podcast Network! As we alluded to in late 2024, we had some other podcast projects on the way, which meant putting a house in place for them to all live in.

The first new podcast announced was Federation Strike: A Journey Through Blake’s 7. Adam had wanted to review Blake’s 7 forever and I was a newbie, which made for a great dynamic. If you’ve not listened yet, grab it on the usual podcast apps or here. Our review of Series B of Blake’s 7 will land in the next couple of months.

We have another new podcast starting soon; find out later what that is.

February

Along with the February Roundtable with Harry, Maria and Matt for a Valentine’s Day themed episode, we had the start date for the next series of Doctor Who. That was something to get us excited, as we were starting to twiddle our thumbs a bit. We didn’t have long to wait as Doctor Who: Season 2 was confirmed for April with the kick-off story, Robot Revolution.

Also in February, I informed you all of our shift away from regular weekly episodes. This was due to two main things: 1. We had exhausted almost the entire catalogue of Who to review (just one Christmas special left to go!), and 2. Our circumstances changed. This meant that while previously we were used to recording weekly without issue, Adam started to spend half the year in the US. Couple this with our work commitments, having to travel for work, family stuff, etc, it made coordinating recording difficult. So I decided to move to a more seasonal format where we’d be back to review anything new.

Fortunately, we ended up putting more Roundtable episodes out this year, and I recorded more solo episodes to cover news and updates. And as a nice surprise, our analytics have remained positive and even increased in some cases.

For the foreseeable future, we’ll continue with this format. You’ll hear from Adam and me very soon with our full review of The War Between the Land and the Sea. Plus some other things planned, stay tuned.

March

March was reasonably quiet, except for wishing modern Doctor Who a big Happy 20th! I gushed over how amazing the first series is and the now-nostalgic feeling of watching Rose (which I have on in the background as I write this article). Ah, the feels. I still remember buying the Series 1 dvd box set all those years ago and starting my journey into Doctor Who properly.

April

The first time we had a proper Big Blue Box meet-up! Almost all of us were in attendance for the Capitol Cutaway event in London, organised by the DWAS. What a fantastic day that was! It was really well organised with some super guests and panels. Oh, and the conversations in the bar in the evenings were eye-opening and hilarious. We’re planning our next big meet-up in May 2026 for The Capitol: 50 Years of DWAS. Grab your ticket and join us!

April also saw Ncuti’s second season get underway. For Robot Revolution, I gave it a 6, and Adam slapped a 6.5 on it. Lux was slightly better, with my 6.5 and a 7 from Adam.

We had had better starts to a new series of Who, put it that way.

May

Apart from the trailer drop for The War Between…, nothing of note really. We were cracking on with our reviews of the remaining Season 2 episodes.

June

Finale time! Yep, Ncuti’s time in the TARDIS felt like it was over before it properly began. Adam, I, and the team all have a lot of thoughts on this era of Who and Ncuti as the Doctor. If you haven’t yet listened to those episodes, we have our usual review plus the Roundtable (or search in your preferred podcast app). Plenty of insight and opinions on all of it. Suffice to say, it was a very mixed bag, and overall, I wanted better for Ncuti.

Alas, there’s no point standing still, you gotta keep moving. For us fans, that means a new Doctor! Or does it? Is Billie Piper the new Doctor? Or not? Who knows at this point?

July

In the fresh light of day, coming out of the Fifteenth Doctor’s era and with no confirmation of when Doctor Who would grace our screens again, we turned to other news.

Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper were announced to resume their characters for Big Finish. Doctor Who received its first-ever Emmy nomination for Outstanding Choreography. The upcoming spin‑off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, was rumoured for autumn release. BBC Studios’ commercial chief Tom Fussell reaffirmed commitment to the show (obviously prior to Disney bailing out).

August

Another meet up! We decided to get ourselves to Whooverville 16 in Derby. If you’re a long-time listener, you’ve likely heard Adam and me mention a lot that we should get to Whooverville. Well, it did not disappoint. Another small but popular convention, this one, and we’ll likely be back next year for Whooverville 17.

Oh, and respect to Matthew Waterhouse for saving the day, mucking in after another guest was cancelled at the last minute.

September

A quiet month for us, other than the Roundtable, where you can check out our recap and thoughts on Whooverville 16.

October

A good-ish month for future Doctor Who news. For what felt like ages, we finally got the confirmation we all knew was coming – Disney had left. We had clearly disappointed those fine folk at Disney and they were now running for the hills. So, where did that leave Doctor Who? Well, not in that bad a place, really.

We had some higher-ups at the BBC give us reassurance that Doctor Who is still a priority and it isn’t going away. Russell also confirmed a Christmas Special for 2026, so we at least have something confirmed and on the way (not including the soon-to-drop TWBTLATS).

November

With the end of 2025 rapidly approaching, we turned our eyes and expectations to The War Between… in the Roundtable. We get conflicting news and rumours about the start date, and there are some little nuggets of news about next year’s Christmas Special.

December

We made it! Phew. This month saw the start of The War Between… and we all (yes, including Adam!) jumped on the Roundtable to record our review of the first two episodes. We’ll conclude our reviews very soon but surprisingly, it has been an enjoyable mini-series.

Wrapping up 2025

So there you have it, another year filled with Doctor Who goodness. Not bad for a show slated as old, creatively bankrupt, over the hill, etc. There will always be Negative Ninny’s knocking about. Sometimes we agree. Other times we don’t. It’s what makes the fandom brilliant (for the most part). We’ve had our fair share of ups and downs this year but The Big Blue Box team has been smiling through it all.

I want to say a massive, massive thank you to Harry, Maria, Matt and Jordan. Their constant brilliance and putting in the time to produce such insightful and enjoyable articles is remarkable. I had so many people get in touch to write for us and I was very picky about who those people were. I made the correct decision with these guys and I hope you enjoy their content as much as I do. Thank you, guys.

Looking forward to 2026

Alrighty, looking forward to next year, the content you know and love will continue to tick over. There will still be Roundtable podcast episodes each month, “Normal” podcast episodes to cover news, reviews and anything else, plus the articles from the team on the blog. That’s our bread and butter and will be a constant source for all your Doctor Who needs.

We do have a few cool things coming, which I can announce and/or tease…

New podcasts

Remember I said we needed a new network to house our evolving portfolio of shows? Well, Federation Strike was the first to join The Big Blue Box, and the next podcast is… The Sapphire and Steel Podcast.

As we noted back in the announcement for Cosmic Echoes, we primarily want to focus on TV shows we loved growing up or shows we’ve recently got into from back in the day. This new podcast, hosted by Jordan and Maria, takes a look at this British cult classic one assignment (story) at a time. It’s been so much fun listening along to this while editing. It’s a fantastic look into a show I had never even heard of! Keep an eye on our socials and Discord server for when episode one drops very soon.

We have ANOTHER new podcast landing a bit later in the year. Adam and I will be talking about a TV show that’s very dear to our hearts and something we’ve wanted to review for a long time now. I’ll have more to share on this as we get into 2026.

New Website

The next thing on the horizon is our new website. Yep, I’ve been talking about this and teasing for quite a while. Look for it in the first week of January with an accompanying article to give you some insight into the design and build. It’s a huge improvement over the current version (especially the new Reviews Compendium) and we can’t wait for you to see it.

More Doctor Who Events

Lastly, we have at least a couple more Big Blue Box team outings booked in. We’ll be at the Capitol: 50 Years of DWAS event in May, Whooverville 17 in September, plus a few more events scattered around.

Thank you

It’s been a big old post this one, so please forgive me. I initially wanted to jot down just a few points, but I’ve enjoyed recapping this year the more I looked up the headlines.

I want to close out, as always, with a massive, huge, big thank you to all of you once more. Putting podcast episodes out with no one to listen to them or post articles with no one to read them would be, quite frankly, shit. You guys, however, have been with us (some of you for a very long time) for all of those and more.

Chatting with you on the socials, on our Discord server or in person at an event is something we NEVER take for granted. It’s the interaction with you all that makes it enjoyable. So thank you again.

So here’s to another year of Doctor Who and The Big Blue Box. I can’t wait to jump into 2026 and get crackin’ with all the cool stuff we’ve got planned.

From all of us here, have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Stay safe, and we’ll see you all shortly. For one last time this year…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallons-y!!!