The War Between The Land And The Sea, the next chapter of the Doctor Who universe, has now been given a UK-specific launch date — but viewers have been left in the dark about its release elsewhere, following the break-up of Disney’s co-funding deal.
UK viewers will get to watch The War Between The Land And The Sea’s first two episodes via BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Sunday, December 7 from 8.30pm. Further episodes will then release weekly, with the finale due on Sunday, December 28.
Despite today’s announcement by the BBC, however, Disney has remained silent on when it will add the series to its streaming service. The BBC has simply said it expects the show to arrive on Disney+ sometime in 2026 — a sea change to previous episodes of Doctor Who which were released simultaneously with the BBC worldwide.
Is Disney holding back the series for a reason, or is it simply no longer prioritizing its release now it has no plans to fund any future Doctor Who content? It’s unclear. But, as of yet, Disney has made no announcement of when it intends to air the show alongside the BBC’s own press release. Similarly, Disney did not issue any form of statement when the BBC recently confirmed the two company’s partnership was over.
The five-part miniseries was part of Disney’s original commitment to co-fund the future of Doctor Who, alongside two seasons of the show featuring Ncuti Gatwa as its star. But a recent report claimed that the relationship between the two soured as viewing figures failed to make an impression, and Disney tightened its purse strings.
Doctor Who fans have spent much of this year waiting for an answer on the franchise’s future, after the writing appeared to be on the wall late last year that a recommission of Disney’s partnership for a third full Doctor Who season was taking longer than expected. As the year began, the BBC reworked the ending of the show’s most recent finale into a farewell to Gatwa, who quit the show, and added a last-minute cliffhanger starring Billie Piper.
Last month, the BBC finally announced Disney had also quit Doctor Who, and said it would fund a one-off episode of the series due to air in December 2026 that’s expected to wrap up the series’ current storyline predicament. Beyond that, nothing is yet known.
Until then, The War Between The Land And The Sea will be fans’ final slice of the Whoniverse for 12 months. Centering on alien intelligence agency UNIT and featuring several characters previously seen on Doctor Who, the series will feature a conflict between humans and the classic series’ Sea Devils.
Earlier this month, current showrunner Russell T Davies said that the series would introduce the concept that the Sea Devils name is actually racist, and therefore the species will be re-canonized as ‘homo aqua’.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
