It’s not unusual these days for Doctor Who to have long gaps between series. There was a year between the 2015 (The Husbands of River Song) & 2016 (The Return of Doctor Mysterio) Christmas specials, making 16 months between Series 9 and Series 10; nearly a year from the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time (in which the Doctor regenerated) until the beginning of Series 11 (October 2018); a year between Resolution (New Year’s 2019) and Spyfall (New Year’s 2020); and another nearly-a-year between the end of Series 12 (March 2020) and the New Year’s 2021 special Revolution of the Daleks.

Thanks to COVID, of course, production is not exactly what one would call “snappy” these days. Various reports around the internet indicate there was some filming on Series 13 done in April 2021. If that was the beginning of the filming block, then given how these things usually run, we probably won’t see the next series until spring of 2022 at the earliest (though I’d be surprised if they didn’t manage to throw another “festive / holiday” special in there again).

That’s a reaaaaaally long dry spell. If all we have is one—possibly two—New Year’s specials (and some scandals) to tide us over during a two year span between Series 12 and 13, I suppose there’s little wonder that my enthusiasm for writing regularly about the show is waning.

And yet I don’t want to give up entirely. I still enjoy talking about Doctor Who with other fans, analyzing stories and thinking about details I hadn’t considered before. Every time a new episode does come out, I love sharing my own take on what’s good, bad, or ugly about it. So what’s a no-longer-so-Neo-Whovian to do?

I’m still struggling to find the answer. As I try to ramp up my fiction writing “career” (note that I use the term very loosely), more of my time and attention is devoted to a world of my own making. When I want to “recharge” and fill my creative stores instead of using them to put new words on a page, I often turn to visual media. Since I find new-to-me stories to be much more engaging than familiar ones—even old favorites—the dearth of Doctor Who material has meant I’ve turned to other sources. (I know, I know—there’s lots of fabulous new audio dramas, but I have a really hard time with audio-only input.)

While part of me is tempted to set this blog aside and start a new one about my latest TV drama interests, that would not solve the real issue. It’s not so much that I need new material—I love Doctor Who and I want to keep talking about it here, even if that means I’m largely talking to myself—but meeting even my reduced, twice monthly deadlines is increasingly becoming a burden. It no longer feels like a fun pastime, light and joyful; it’s an obligation to be met.

So how do I solve this problem? I see a range of options: reduce my posting frequency even further, change to two reviews a month instead of a confession and a review, only post when there’s a new episode to review, or shut the blog down entirely. Perhaps there’s another solution in there I haven’t yet considered, but these are the possibilities I’ve identified so far.

I’ll give myself some more time to consider, but ten years is a respectable run for a blog. No matter what I decide, I think I can be proud of this chapter in my writing life. But right now the creative well—even in terms of media criticism—is running dry, and it’s time to consider the next phase. If any of my readers want to weigh in, I’d love to hear your thoughts, but for now I’m planning to continue blogging at least through the end of the year. Then we’ll see what 2022 brings.