Link: https://deadline.com/2026/09/doctor-who-ai-episode-bbc-matt-brittin-pretty-good-1237116025/

In reading the article, it seems this is more of a "how far the industry in general, and the BBC in particular, have fallen" story than a "Doctor Who" story, but yeesh.

What a shame that the name of the series has been dragged into this muck.

I thought it would be an advantage for the show to have a Director General who's a Doctor Who fan... but I guess I willingly overlooked that he's also a tech bro 🙄

All of that utopian nonsense about "enabling diverse voices" and "allowing more creative risk" is so clearly the exact opposite of what's happening with "AI". Instead, 200,000 American creatives have lost their jobs in the four year period since the first ”generative AI" models were released.

Actual creativity, craft, and imagination is being eliminated from the equation of media production as that trend continues to develop worldwide. Of course, that would sound A-okay to a former Google exec, but it paints a very bloody dire picture for future productions.

This is the plot of a Doctor Who episode.

If this kicks off the political firestorm that it rightfully should, I wonder if Brittin's time as Director-General will prove to be quite short.

Why is Doctor Who entering Simpsons-level decline territory

I guarantee that whatever 50-minute slop he was sent, it's basically unwatchable and he's framing it as "pretty good" because speaking against AI will annoy his bosses

There's only one person above him on the org chart.

Cultbox has the best header image to go with the headline:

(a still from "The robot revolution", 2025)

They also theorise that what Britton was "sent" and watched was a pretty terrible "gen AI" fan project that was published to Youtube earlier this month, and then taken down fairly quickly after.

Sometimes that doesn't watch Doctor Who but knows about it... That's what I thought the headline was saying when I first read it.