Classic 'Doctor Who' Is Now Streaming On Tubi In The U.S.
Classic 'Doctor Who' Is Now Streaming On Tubi In The U.S.
Who REALLY needs Britbox? Happy 60th anniversary!
It’s a week until classic British sci-fi series Doctor Who celebrates the 60th anniversary of its premiere. For international audiences, it heralds a new era of the show exclusive to Disney+. In the United States, that means the full library would be spread across three paid subscription services: Disney+ for the 60th specials onward, Max for everything in the revival before that dating back to 2005, and Britbox for the 26 original seasons. That has now changed.
As it stands, Classic Doctor Who is now streaming on Tubi, a free streaming platform that uses ads. It brings every available episode for free and alleviates spending for Whovians who don’t want to shell out for another service. Each Doctor from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy and Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker in between, has their own separate listings for their runs, and properly labeled seasons. The animated recreations of much of the lost 97 episodes of the First and Second Doctors are placed in their proper positions. That’s over 600 episodes that originally aired from 1963 to 1989. The first animated recreation was produced in 2006 but picked back up in June 2011 for more consistent releases beginning in 2013. Strangely, the single season Twelfth Doctor-era spinoff Class is no longer available on Tubi, or anywhere without purchase.
Tubi will offer a “New to Who” collection to help get fans acquainted quite quickly. All episodes will also run on a dedicated FAST channel, similar to the Classic Doctor Who Channel that’s been available on Pluto TV, but this makes it great for people who prefer to go in order on their own time. I remember when Classic and Revival were on Netflix, until 2016. Revival was tightly and properly organized, but it seemed that Classic had very small collections in each of the mislabeled seasons and very much a mess. A rectification, even if somewhere else. In its home country of the United Kingdom, classic and revival Who were united on BBC iPlayer with all of its spin-offs, including newly produced ones, under the hub of the Whoniverse. Notably, the move mirrors that of another British sci-fi favorite, Red Dwarf, which has been available on Tubi in the States and was added to iPlayer shortly before the Whoniverse was formed.
The Disney+ era of the series begins with Fourteenth Doctor David Tennant and the returning Catherine Tate as Donna Noble for three specials starting with “The Star Beast” on November 25, and then the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and his companion Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday begin their adventures in the Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road” airing Christmas Day.
Sources: Nerdist, What's On Disney Plus