Doctor Who: The Revival Era

Introduction

Broadcasted by the BBC, Doctor Who is a British Science-Fiction TV Series about a time travelling alien and their companion. To date, 319 stories have been broadcast: 155 from the Classic Era (1963-1989); 1 film (1996); and 163, since the Revival Era began in 2005.

This analysis looks at why the show performed best with 13 episodes per series, and whether the Episode type - as well as the variety of Writers and Directors - positively or negatively impacted the amount of UK Viewers and/or the Appreciation Index.

Limitations: This analysis does not consider the following: the companion characters; episode themes; budgets; non-UK audiences; or the consumption habits of UK viewers (e.g. if they watch live or via iPlayer).

Data Preparation

Load Packages & Libraries

pacman::p_load("tidyr", "dplyr", "readr", "ggplot2", "lubridate", "purrr", "scales", "magrittr", "ggpubr", "forcats", "see", "stringr")

Load & Transform Data File

dw <- read.csv("Data/DoctorWhoRevival.csv")  |> 
  select(The_Doctor,
         No_InSeries,
         Series,
         UK_viewers_millions,
         Appreciation_Index,
         Original_release_date,
         Directed_by,
         Written_by,
         Showrunner,
         StoryType) |> 
  mutate(Original_release_date = as.Date(Original_release_date, format = "%d/%m/%Y")) |> 
  mutate(Air_day = format(Original_release_date, format = "%A")) |> 
  mutate(EpisodeType = case_when(No_InSeries == "Special" ~ "Special",
                                 TRUE ~ "Series")) |> 
  mutate(Era = case_when(Original_release_date >= "2005-03-26" & Original_release_date <= "2010-01-01" ~ "Russell T Davies (1)",
                         Original_release_date >= "2010-04-03" & Original_release_date <= "2017-12-25" ~ "Steven Moffat",
                         Original_release_date >= "2018-10-07" & Original_release_date <= "2022-10-23" ~ "Chris Chibnall",
                         TRUE ~ "Russell T Davies (2)")) |> 
  mutate(The_Doctor_Tenure = case_when(
    Original_release_date >= "2005-03-26" & Original_release_date <= "2005-06-18" ~ "Ninth Doctor",
    Original_release_date >= "2005-12-25" & Original_release_date <= "2010-01-01" ~ "Tenth Doctor",
    Original_release_date >= "2010-04-03" & Original_release_date <= "2013-12-25" ~ "Eleventh Doctor",
    Original_release_date >= "2014-08-23" & Original_release_date <= "2017-12-25" ~ "Twelfth Doctor",
    Original_release_date >= "2018-10-07" & Original_release_date <= "2022-10-23" ~ "Thirteenth Doctor",
    Original_release_date >= "2023-11-25" & Original_release_date <= "2023-12-09" ~ "Fourteenth Doctor",
    TRUE~ "Fifteenth Doctor",
  )) |> 
  mutate(WriterCat = case_when(grepl("*,", Written_by) ~ "Co-Written",
                               TRUE ~ "Solo Written")) |> 
  mutate(
    ShowrunnerProp = case_when(
      grepl("Russell T Davies, *", Written_by) ~ "Russell T Davies Co-Written",
      grepl("*, Steven Moffat", Written_by) ~ "Steven Moffat Co-Written",
      grepl("*, Chris Chibnall", Written_by) ~ "Chris Chibnall Co-Written",
      Written_by == "Russell T Davies" ~ "Russell T Davies",
      Written_by == "Steven Moffat" ~ "Steven Moffat",
      Written_by == "Chris Chibnall" ~ "Chris Chibnall",
      TRUE ~ "Non-Showrunner"))


# Reorder Series Number

dw$No_InSeries <- factor(dw$No_InSeries, levels = c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, "Special"))

# Reorder Eras

dw$Era <- factor(dw$Era, levels = c("Russell T Davies (1)", "Steven Moffat", "Chris Chibnall", "Russell T Davies (2)"))

# Reorder The Doctor

dw$The_Doctor_Tenure <- factor(dw$The_Doctor_Tenure, levels = c("Ninth Doctor", "Tenth Doctor", "Eleventh Doctor", "Twelfth Doctor", "Thirteenth Doctor", "Fourteenth Doctor", "Fifteenth Doctor"))

# Reorder Series

dw$Series <- factor(dw$Series,
                    levels = c("One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "2008-2010 Specials", "Five", "Six", "Seven", "2013 Specials", "Eight", "Nine", "Ten", "Eleven", "Twelve", "Thirteen", "2022 Specials", "2023 Specials", "Fourteen", "Fifteen"))

# Reorder Story Types

dw$StoryType <- factor(dw$StoryType, levels = c("Standalone", "Two-Parter", "Three-Parter", "Six-Parter"))

# Reorder ShowrunnerProp

dw$ShowrunnerProp <- factor(dw$ShowrunnerProp, levels = c("Russell T Davies", "Russell T Davies Co-Written", "Steven Moffat", "Steven Moffat Co-Written", "Chris Chibnall","Chris Chibnall Co-Written", "Non-Showrunner"))

Each Doctor’s Tenure and Broadcast Dates

Start_Date <- data.frame(dw |>
                           select(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure, Original_release_date) |>    
                           group_by(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure) |>
                           slice(which.min(as.Date(Original_release_date))))

Start_Date <- Start_Date |>
  rename_at("Original_release_date", ~"Start_Date")

End_Date <- data.frame(dw |>
                           select(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure, Original_release_date) |>    
                           group_by(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure) |>
                           slice(which.max(as.Date(Original_release_date))))

End_Date <- End_Date |>   
  rename_at("Original_release_date", ~"End_Date")  

SeriesOverview <- data.frame(dw |> 
  count(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure, name = "TenureLength") |>
  group_by(Era))

(TenureDates <- cbind(SeriesOverview, Start_Date = Start_Date$Start_Date, End_Date = End_Date$End_Date)) 

                   Era The_Doctor_Tenure TenureLength Start_Date   End_Date
1 Russell T Davies (1)      Ninth Doctor           13 2005-03-26 2005-06-18
2 Russell T Davies (1)      Tenth Doctor           47 2005-12-25 2010-01-01
3        Steven Moffat   Eleventh Doctor           44 2010-04-03 2013-12-25
4        Steven Moffat    Twelfth Doctor           40 2014-08-23 2017-12-25
5       Chris Chibnall Thirteenth Doctor           31 2018-10-07 2022-10-23
6 Russell T Davies (2) Fourteenth Doctor            3 2023-11-25 2023-12-09
7 Russell T Davies (2)  Fifteenth Doctor           18 2023-12-25 2025-05-31

Series lengths and Broadcast Dates

Start_Date <- data.frame(dw |>
                           select(Era, Series, EpisodeType, Original_release_date) |>    
                           group_by(Era, Series, EpisodeType) |>
                           slice(which.min(as.Date(Original_release_date))))

Start_Date <- Start_Date |>
  rename_at("Original_release_date", ~"Start_Date")

End_Date <- data.frame(dw |>
                           select(Era, Series, EpisodeType, Original_release_date) |>    
                           group_by(Era, Series, EpisodeType) |>
                           slice(which.max(as.Date(Original_release_date))))

End_Date <- End_Date |>   
  rename_at("Original_release_date", ~"End_Date")  

SeriesOverview <- data.frame(dw |> 
  count(Era, Series, EpisodeType, name = "SeriesLength") |>
  group_by(Era))

(SeriesDates <- cbind(SeriesOverview, Start_Date = Start_Date$Start_Date, End_Date = End_Date$End_Date)) 

                    Era             Series EpisodeType SeriesLength Start_Date
1  Russell T Davies (1)                One      Series           13 2005-03-26
2  Russell T Davies (1)                Two      Series           13 2006-04-15
3  Russell T Davies (1)                Two     Special            1 2005-12-25
4  Russell T Davies (1)              Three      Series           13 2007-03-31
5  Russell T Davies (1)              Three     Special            1 2006-12-25
6  Russell T Davies (1)               Four      Series           13 2008-04-05
7  Russell T Davies (1)               Four     Special            1 2007-12-25
8  Russell T Davies (1) 2008-2010 Specials     Special            5 2008-12-25
9         Steven Moffat               Five      Series           13 2010-04-03
10        Steven Moffat                Six      Series           13 2011-04-23
11        Steven Moffat                Six     Special            1 2010-12-25
12        Steven Moffat              Seven      Series           13 2012-09-01
13        Steven Moffat              Seven     Special            2 2011-12-25
14        Steven Moffat      2013 Specials     Special            2 2013-11-23
15        Steven Moffat              Eight      Series           12 2014-08-23
16        Steven Moffat               Nine      Series           12 2015-09-19
17        Steven Moffat               Nine     Special            2 2014-12-25
18        Steven Moffat                Ten      Series           12 2017-04-15
19        Steven Moffat                Ten     Special            2 2016-12-25
20       Chris Chibnall             Eleven      Series           10 2018-10-07
21       Chris Chibnall             Twelve      Series           10 2020-01-01
22       Chris Chibnall             Twelve     Special            1 2019-01-01
23       Chris Chibnall           Thirteen      Series            6 2021-10-31
24       Chris Chibnall           Thirteen     Special            1 2021-01-01
25       Chris Chibnall      2022 Specials     Special            3 2022-01-01
26 Russell T Davies (2)      2023 Specials     Special            3 2023-11-25
27 Russell T Davies (2)           Fourteen      Series            8 2024-05-11
28 Russell T Davies (2)           Fourteen     Special            1 2023-12-25
29 Russell T Davies (2)            Fifteen      Series            8 2025-04-12
30 Russell T Davies (2)            Fifteen     Special            1 2024-12-25
     End_Date
1  2005-06-18
2  2006-07-08
3  2005-12-25
4  2007-06-30
5  2006-12-25
6  2008-07-05
7  2007-12-25
8  2010-01-01
9  2010-06-26
10 2011-10-01
11 2010-12-25
12 2013-05-18
13 2012-12-25
14 2013-12-25
15 2014-11-08
16 2015-12-05
17 2015-12-25
18 2017-07-01
19 2017-12-25
20 2018-12-09
21 2020-03-01
22 2019-01-01
23 2021-12-05
24 2021-01-01
25 2022-10-23
26 2023-12-09
27 2024-06-22
28 2023-12-25
29 2025-05-31
30 2024-12-25

Create new Data Frame, with Series Length Categorisation

dw <- data.frame(dw |>  
  mutate(SeriesCat = case_when(Original_release_date >= "2005-03-26" &  Original_release_date <= "2005-06-18" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2006-04-15" &  Original_release_date <= "2006-07-08" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2007-03-31" &  Original_release_date <= "2007-06-30" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2008-04-05" &  Original_release_date <= "2008-07-05" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2010-04-03" &  Original_release_date <= "2010-06-26" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2011-04-23" &  Original_release_date <= "2011-10-01" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2012-09-01" &  Original_release_date <= "2012-09-29" ~ "13 Episodes",
                                  Original_release_date >= "2013-03-30" &  Original_release_date <= "2013-05-18" ~ "13 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2014-08-23" & Original_release_date <= "2014-11-08" ~ "12 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2015-09-19" & Original_release_date <= "2015-12-05" ~ "12 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2017-04-15   " & Original_release_date <= "2017-07-01" ~ "12 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2018-10-07" & Original_release_date <= "2018-12-09" ~ "10 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2020-01-01" & Original_release_date <= "2020-03-01" ~ "10 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2021-10-31" & Original_release_date <= "2021-12-05" ~ "6-8 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2024-05-11" & Original_release_date <= "2024-06-22" ~ "6-8 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2025-04-12" & Original_release_date <= "2025-05-31" ~ "6-8 Episodes",
                         Original_release_date >= "2008-12-25" & Original_release_date <= "2010-01-01" ~ "Specials",
                         Original_release_date >= "2013-11-23   " & Original_release_date <= "2013-12-25" ~ "Specials",
                         Original_release_date >= "2022-01-01" & Original_release_date <= "2022-10-23" ~ "Specials",
                         Original_release_date >= "2023-11-25" & Original_release_date <= "2023-12-09" ~ "Specials",
                         TRUE ~ "Series Specials")
  )) 

dw$SeriesCat <- factor(dw$SeriesCat, levels = c("13 Episodes", "12 Episodes", "10 Episodes", "6-8 Episodes", "Specials", "Series Specials"))

Summary

summary(dw)

  The_Doctor         No_InSeries     Series    UK_viewers_millions
 Length:196         Special:27   Seven  : 15   Min.   : 2.700     
 Class :character   1      :15   Two    : 14   1st Qu.: 6.018     
 Mode  :character   2      :15   Three  : 14   Median : 7.135     
                    3      :15   Four   : 14   Mean   : 7.064     
                    4      :15   Six    : 14   3rd Qu.: 8.020     
                    5      :15   Nine   : 14   Max.   :13.310     
                    (Other):94   (Other):111                      
 Appreciation_Index Original_release_date Directed_by         Written_by       
 Min.   :75.00      Min.   :2005-03-26    Length:196         Length:196        
 1st Qu.:82.00      1st Qu.:2008-05-27    Class :character   Class :character  
 Median :84.00      Median :2013-04-23    Mode  :character   Mode  :character  
 Mean   :83.61      Mean   :2013-12-10                                         
 3rd Qu.:86.00      3rd Qu.:2018-10-22                                         
 Max.   :91.00      Max.   :2025-05-31                                         
 NA's   :8                                                                     
  Showrunner               StoryType     Air_day          EpisodeType       
 Length:196         Standalone  :135   Length:196         Length:196        
 Class :character   Two-Parter  : 52   Class :character   Class :character  
 Mode  :character   Three-Parter:  3   Mode  :character   Mode  :character  
                    Six-Parter  :  6                                        
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
                   Era             The_Doctor_Tenure  WriterCat        
 Russell T Davies (1):60   Ninth Doctor     :13      Length:196        
 Steven Moffat       :84   Tenth Doctor     :47      Class :character  
 Chris Chibnall      :31   Eleventh Doctor  :44      Mode  :character  
 Russell T Davies (2):21   Twelfth Doctor   :40                        
                           Thirteenth Doctor:31                        
                           Fourteenth Doctor: 3                        
                           Fifteenth Doctor :18                        
                     ShowrunnerProp           SeriesCat 
 Russell T Davies           :43     13 Episodes    :91  
 Russell T Davies Co-Written: 3     12 Episodes    :36  
 Steven Moffat              :44     10 Episodes    :20  
 Steven Moffat Co-Written   : 6     6-8 Episodes   :22  
 Chris Chibnall             :23     Specials       :13  
 Chris Chibnall Co-Written  : 5     Series Specials:14  
 Non-Showrunner             :72                         

Filter to Series and Special Episodes

dwSer <- dw |> filter(EpisodeType == "Series") |> filter(Series != "Fifteen")

dwSp <- dw |> 
  filter(EpisodeType == "Special") |> 
  mutate(No_InSeries = case_when(
    Original_release_date == "2009-04-11" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2009-11-15" ~ "3",
    Original_release_date == "2009-12-25" ~ "4",
    Original_release_date == "2010-01-01" ~ "5",
    Original_release_date == "2012-12-25" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2013-12-25" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2015-12-25" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2015-12-25" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2017-12-25" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2022-04-17" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2022-10-23" ~ "3",
    Original_release_date == "2023-12-02" ~ "2",
    Original_release_date == "2023-12-09" ~ "3",
    TRUE ~ "1"))

Palette and Themes

Palette

dwPalette <- colorRampPalette(c("#FFE4B5","#F06060", "#F28963", "#00B9AE"))

Themes

Main Theme

dwThemeLeg <- function(){
  theme(
    legend.position = "bottom",
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = "#003B6F"),
    legend.text = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 12),
    legend.title = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 12, hjust = .5),
    legend.direction = "horizontal",
    legend.box = "vertical",
    guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 3, byrow = T)), 
    plot.subtitle = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 14, hjust = 0.5, vjust = 0),
    plot.title = element_text(size = 16, colour = "#FFFFFF", hjust = .5, vjust = 0.5), 
    plot.caption = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 12, hjust = 0.5, vjust = .5),
    axis.title.x = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF"),
    axis.title.y = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF"),
    axis.text = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 12),
    axis.text.x = element_text(hjust = 1),
    axis.ticks = element_line(colour = "#708090"),
    axis.line = element_line(colour = "#708090"),
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "#003B6F"),
    panel.grid = element_line(colour = "#708090"),
    plot.margin = margin(1,2,1,1),
    strip.text = element_text(colour = "#FFFFFF", size = 10),
    strip.background = element_rect(fill = "#003B6F", colour = "#EE8262", linewidth = 0.5, linetype = "solid"),
    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "#003B6F"))
}

Scatter Plot Theme

dwNoFifteen <- dw |> filter(Series != "Fifteen")

Scatter <- function(xaes, yaes, hline = F) {
  xaes <- enquo (xaes)
  yaes <- enquo(yaes)
  ggplot(dwNoFifteen, aes(!!xaes,!!yaes)) +
  scale_size(range = c(.1, 10)) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(19)) +
  guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 4, byrow = T)) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  labs(
    x = "",
    y = "",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)")
}

ScatterSer <- function(xaes, yaes, hline = F) {
  xaes <- enquo (xaes)
  yaes <- enquo(yaes)
  ggplot(dwSer, aes(!!xaes,!!yaes)) +
  scale_size(range = c(.1, 10)) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(16)) +
  guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 4, byrow = T)) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  labs(
    x = "",
    y = "",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)")
}

ScatterSp <- function(xaes, yaes, hline = F) {
  xaes <- enquo (xaes)
  yaes <- enquo(yaes)
  ggplot(dwSp, aes(!!xaes,!!yaes)) +
  scale_size(range = c(.1, 10)) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(15)) +
  guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 4, byrow = T)) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  theme(plot.margin = margin(6,0,0,0)) +
  labs(
    x = "",
    y = "",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)")
}

Density-Histogram Plot Theme

DensHist <- function(xaes) {
  xaes <- enquo(xaes)
  ggplot(dw, aes(!!xaes)) +
  geom_histogram(aes(y = after_stat(density), fill = Series), linewidth = 1.5, alpha = 0.75, na.rm = T, binwidth = 1) +  
  stat_summary(
      aes(xintercept = after_stat(x), y = 0),
      fun = mean, geom = "vline", orientation = "y", 
      colour = "#FFFFFF", linetype = "dashed", linewidth = 1.5, alpha = 0.5, na.rm = T) +
  stat_summary(
      aes(xintercept = after_stat(x), y = 0),
      fun = quantile, geom = "vline", orientation = "y", 
      colour = "#76EEC6", linetype = "dashed", linewidth = 1.5, alpha = 0.5, na.rm = T) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = dwPalette(19)) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  labs(x = "",
       fill = "Series:",
       caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)")
}

Column Chart

WDSLST <- as.data.frame(dw |> 
                          group_by(The_Doctor_Tenure, Series, SeriesCat) |>
                          summarise(
                            No_of_Directors = n_distinct(Directed_by), 
                            No_of_Writers = n_distinct(Written_by),
                            WriterType = n_distinct(WriterCat),
                            No_of_Episodes = n_distinct(StoryType),
                            .groups = "keep"))

Column <- function(xaes, yaes) {
  xaes <- enquo (xaes)
  yaes <- enquo (yaes)
  ggplot(WDSLST, aes(!!xaes, !!yaes, fill = The_Doctor_Tenure)) + 
  geom_col(alpha = 0.85, na.rm = T, position = position_stack(reverse = T)) +
  scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = dwPalette(7)) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  labs(
    x = "",
    y = "",
    fill = "The Doctor:",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)") 
}

Bar Chart

AvgAITtlV <- as.data.frame(dw |>
                             group_by(SeriesCat, Era, Series, The_Doctor_Tenure) |>
                             summarise(
                               TotalViews = sum(UK_viewers_millions),
                               Med_Views = round(median(UK_viewers_millions), 2),
                               Med_AI = round(median(Appreciation_Index, na.rm = T), 0),
                               .groups = "keep"))

Bar <- function(xaes, yaes) {
  xaes <- enquo (xaes)
  yaes <- enquo (yaes)
  ggplot(AvgAITtlV, aes(!!xaes, !!yaes, fill = The_Doctor_Tenure)) + 
  geom_col(alpha = 0.85, na.rm = T, position = position_stack(reverse = T)) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = dwPalette(19)) +
  scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  labs(
    x = "",
    y = "",
    fill = "The Doctor:",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)") 
}

Data Visualisation

Show Overview

Number of Series and Special Episodes

(SeriesOverviewVis <- ggplot(SeriesOverview, aes(SeriesLength, Series, fill = EpisodeType)) + 
  geom_col(alpha = 0.85, na.rm = T, position = position_stack(reverse = T)) +
  geom_text(aes(label = SeriesLength), colour = "#151F30", size = 4, position = position_stack(vjust = 0.5, reverse = T), fontface = "bold") +
  facet_wrap(~Era, scales = "free_y") +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("#F28963", "#00B9AE")) +
  dwThemeLeg() +
  scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
  labs(
    title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Count of Series and Special Episodes",
    x = "",
    y = "",
    fill = "Episode Type:",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"))

Appreciation Index

Distribution of Appreciation Index

(dwSerAIfacet <- DensHist(Appreciation_Index) +
    geom_density(colour = "#FFFFFF", linewidth = 1.5, alpha = 0.5, na.rm = T) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat) +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Distribution of Appreciation Index",
      subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen's episodes do not have any Appreciation Indexes"))

UK Viewers (millions)

Total UK Viewers (millions)

(TtlV <- Bar(TotalViews, Series) +
  geom_text(aes(label = TotalViews), colour = "#003B6F", size = 4, position = position_stack(vjust = 0.5, reverse = T), fontface = "bold", na.rm = T) + 
  facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free") +
  labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Total UK Viewers (millions)",
        x = "",
        y = ""))

Distribution of UK Viewers (millions)

(dwSerViewsfacet <- DensHist(UK_viewers_millions) +
    geom_density(colour = "#FFFFFF", linewidth = 1.5, alpha = 0.75, na.rm = T) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat) +
    labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Distribution of UK Viewers (millions)"))

Appreciation Index vs UK Viewers (millions)

(AIViewsNo <- Scatter(UK_viewers_millions, Appreciation_Index) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = Series), size = 5, shape = 15, alpha = 0.5) +
    geom_smooth(colour = "#FFFFFF", method = "lm", formula = y ~ x) +
    stat_cor(method = "spearman", label.y.npc = "top", aes(label = after_stat(r.label)), colour = "#FFFFFF") +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat) + 
    labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Ratings vs Views",
         subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen's episodes do not have any Appreciation Indexes",
         x = "UK Viewers (millions)",
         y = "Appreciation Index",
         colour = "Series:"))

Observations:

• Despite the Appreciation Index being relatively stable for each series length, with each reduction in series length, the average Appreciation Index decreases (e.g. 86 for 13 episodes, compared to 78 for those with 6-8 episodes), indicating that audiences are more likely to view a longer series, with a greater variety of writers, more favourably.
  • This is also reflected by the Median UK Viewers for each series length, with 13 Episodes per Series being 7.63 million, which is over double that of a series that has 8 Episodes (3.64) million.
• Furthermore, with each reduction in series length, the correlation between Appreciation Index and UK Viewers becomes stronger. Additionally, the ranges for each also become lower, highlighting the benefit of longer series for both views and ratings.

Episode

Views & Ratings by Story Type

(EpType <- Scatter(UK_viewers_millions, StoryType) + 
  geom_jitter(aes(colour = Series), size = 5, alpha = 0.35, shape = 15, na.rm = T) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = Series), shape = 15) +
  stat_boxplot(geom = "errorbar", colour = "#FFFFFF", linewidth = 2, alpha = 0.35, na.rm = T) +
  geom_violin(quantiles = c(0.25,0.5,0.75), quantile.linetype = 1, quantile.linewidth = 1.5, colour = "#FFFFFF", alpha = 0.25, linewidth = 1, na.rm = T) +
  facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free") +
  scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
  labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Spread of Views by Story Type",
       subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen's episodes do not have any Appreciation Indexes",
       colour = "Series:",
       x = "UK Viewers (millions)")
  )

Types of Story

Series

(SerEpStryTyp <- ggplot(dwSer, aes(No_InSeries, Series)) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = StoryType), size = 6, shape = 15) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free") +
    scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(4)) +
    scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
    dwThemeLeg() +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Story Type for Series Episodes",
      colour = "Story Type:",
      x = "",
      y = "",
      caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"))

Special Episodes

(SpEpStryTyp <- ggplot(dwSp, aes(No_InSeries, Series)) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = StoryType), size = 6, shape = 15) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free") +
    scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(2)) +
    scale_y_discrete(limits=rev) +
    dwThemeLeg() +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Story Types for Special Episodes",
      colour = "Story Type:",
      x = "",
      y = "",
      caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"))

Views & Appreciation Index for each Episode

Series

(AIViewsEpSer <- ScatterSer(No_InSeries, UK_viewers_millions) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = as.factor(Appreciation_Index)), size = 6, shape = 15,) +
    geom_segment(aes(x = No_InSeries, xend =  No_InSeries, y = 0, yend = UK_viewers_millions, colour = as.factor(Appreciation_Index))) +
    guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 2, byrow = T)) +
    facet_wrap(~Series, scales = "free_x") +
    labs(title = "UK Viewers and Appreciation Index for each Episode in a Series",
         subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen's episodes do not have any Appreciation Indexes",
         colour = "Appreciation Index:",
         x = "",
         y = "UK Viewers (millions)"))

Special Episodes

(AIViewsEpSp <- ScatterSp(No_InSeries, UK_viewers_millions) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = as.factor(Appreciation_Index)), size = 4, shape = 15) +
    geom_segment(aes(x = No_InSeries, xend =  No_InSeries, y = 0, yend = UK_viewers_millions, colour = as.factor(Appreciation_Index))) +
    facet_wrap(~Series, scales = "free_x") +
    guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 2, byrow = T)) +
    labs(title = "UK Viewers and Appreciation Index for each Special Episode",
         colour = "Appreciation Index:",
         x = "",
         y = ""))

Observations:

• Series One to Five benefited from essentially the same episode story types, broadcast pattern, and a 13-episode series length. This allowed for viewer habits and expectations to develop, until both views and ratings peaked with Series Four.
• Thereafter, starting with Series Six, changes to the story type pattern started to cause a negative trend for both views and ratings. Interestingly, once the series length began to decrease, the highest Appreciation Index achieved for 12 Episodes was 85 - which decreased to 83 for 10 episodes, and 80, when the series length had 6-8 episodes. Conversely, for 13 episodes, the Appreciation Index reached 91.
• For Special Episodes, there was a similar pattern: when the regular series length was 13 episodes, the Appreciation Index reached a maximum of 89 - which decreased to 82 for 12 episodes, and 80 for 10 episodes. The 2023 Specials, on the other hand, bucked the trend, by reaching a high of 85, and having views that were of similar levels to those of a special for a series with 12 episodes.

Director

Count of Directors

(Directors <- n_distinct(dw$Directed_by))

[1] 66

(DirCount <- Column(No_of_Directors, Series) +
    geom_text(aes(label = No_of_Directors), colour = "#151F30", size = 4, position = position_stack(vjust = 0.5, reverse = T), fontface = "bold") + 
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_y") +
    theme(axis.text.x=element_blank()) +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Count of Directors by each Series"
    ))

Views & Ratings by Director

(AIVerDir <- Scatter(UK_viewers_millions, Directed_by) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = Series), shape = 15) +
    geom_jitter(aes(colour = Series, size = Appreciation_Index), alpha = 0.35, width = 0.05, shape = 15) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_y") + 
    guides(colour = guide_legend(nrow = 3, byrow = T)) +
    labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Views & Ratings by Director",
       subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen does not have any Appreciation Indexes",
       size = "Appreciation Index",
       x = "UK Viewers (millions):",
       colour = "Series:"))

Observations:

• With regards to the Directors, any correlation between the decline in views and ratings are hard to determine, due to to only 5 (Hettie MacDonald, Douglas Mackinnon, Peter Hoar, Charles Palmer, and Jamie Magnus Stone) of the 66 directors directing episodes from differing series lengths.

Writer

Count of Writers

(Writers <- dw |>  
    group_by(Era, The_Doctor_Tenure, Series, EpisodeType) |> 
    count(WriterCat, name = "Count"))

# A tibble: 40 × 6
# Groups:   Era, The_Doctor_Tenure, Series, EpisodeType [30]
   Era                  The_Doctor_Tenure Series     EpisodeType WriterCat Count
   <fct>                <fct>             <fct>      <chr>       <chr>     <int>
 1 Russell T Davies (1) Ninth Doctor      One        Series      Solo Wri…    13
 2 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Two        Series      Solo Wri…    13
 3 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Two        Special     Solo Wri…     1
 4 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Three      Series      Solo Wri…    13
 5 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Three      Special     Solo Wri…     1
 6 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Four       Series      Solo Wri…    13
 7 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      Four       Special     Solo Wri…     1
 8 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      2008-2010… Special     Co-Writt…     2
 9 Russell T Davies (1) Tenth Doctor      2008-2010… Special     Solo Wri…     3
10 Steven Moffat        Eleventh Doctor   Five       Series      Solo Wri…    13
# ℹ 30 more rows

(Writ <- Column(No_of_Writers, Series) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_y") +
    geom_text(aes(label = No_of_Writers), colour = "#151F30", size = 4, position = position_stack(vjust = 0.5, reverse = T), fontface = "bold") + 
    theme(axis.text.x = element_blank()) +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Count of Writers by each Showrunner",
      subtitle = "Note: Does not differentiate between Writers & Co-Writers"
    ))

Views & Ratings by Writer

(WritAiV <- Scatter(UK_viewers_millions, Written_by) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = Series), shape = 15) +
    geom_jitter(aes(colour = Series, size = Appreciation_Index), alpha = 0.35, width = 0.05, shape = 15) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_y") + 
    labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Views & Ratings by Writer",
       subtitle = "Note: Series Fifteen's episodes do not have any Appreciation Indexes, except for the Series Special",
       size = "Appreciation Index:",
       x = "UK Viewers (millions)",
       colour = "Series:"))

Proportion of Showrunner (co-)written Series

# Labels
    Writprcnt <- dw |> group_by(Series, SeriesCat) |> count(ShowrunnerProp) |> 
    mutate(ratio=scales::percent(n/sum(n)))

(srprop <- ggplot(dw, aes(Series, fill = ShowrunnerProp)) +
  geom_bar(position = "fill", alpha = .75, linewidth = 1, na.rm = T) +
  geom_text(data = Writprcnt, aes(y = n,label = ratio), 
            position = position_fill(vjust = 0.5), colour = "#151F30") +
  dwThemeLeg() + 
  scale_fill_manual(values = dwPalette(7)) +
  scale_x_discrete(labels = function(x) str_wrap(x, width = 10), limits = rev) +
  facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_y") +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_blank()) +
  coord_flip() +
  labs(
    title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Proportion where a Showrunner wrote for Series",
    y = "",
    x = "", 
    fill = "Writer:",
    caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"
  ))

Showrunner (Co-)Written Episodes per Series

(BroadcastSRWrit <- ggplot(dwSer, aes(Original_release_date, UK_viewers_millions)) +
    geom_line(aes(colour = ShowrunnerProp, group = Series)) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = ShowrunnerProp), size = 4, shape = 15, alpha = 0.75) +
    theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1)) +
    scale_x_date(date_breaks = "2 month", date_labels = "%m/%Y") +
    facet_wrap(~Series, scales = "free_x", ncol = 5) +
    scale_colour_manual(values = dwPalette(7)) +
    dwThemeLeg() +  
    labs(title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Timeline of Showrunner-written Episodes for each Series",
         y = "UK Viewers (millions)",
         colour = "(Co-)Writer:",
         x = "",
         caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"))

(SpEp <- ScatterSp(Original_release_date, UK_viewers_millions) +
    geom_line(aes(colour = ShowrunnerProp, group = EpisodeType), linewidth = 1) +
    geom_point(aes(colour = ShowrunnerProp), shape = 15) +
    geom_jitter(aes(colour = ShowrunnerProp), size = 5, alpha = 0.5, shape = 15, width = 0.15) +
    facet_wrap(~SeriesCat, scales = "free_x") +
    scale_x_date(date_breaks = "2 year", date_labels = "%Y") +
    labs(
      title = "Doctor Who: The Revival Era ~ Timeline of Showrunner-written Special Episodes",
      x = "",
      colour = "Series:",
      y = "UK Viewers (millions)",
      caption = "Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(2005–present)"))

Observations:

• Disruptions (e.g. the 2008-10 Specials occurring between the finale for Series Four and the start of Series Five, or midway series breaks during Series Six and Seven), as well as changes (e.g. reduced series length, and varied broadcasting date starts), to the series pattern all contributed to the decline in both views and ratings - hence why views skew negatively, with each reduction in series length.
• The only that pattern that remained across each series, regardless of Showrunner, was that the Showrunner will write the first and last episode in a series/block of episodes in a series. However, with reduced number of episodes per series, the number of Showrunner written episodes dwarves the number of non-showrunner written episodes.
  • For example, with Series One, Russell T Davies wrote 8 of the 13 episodes (61.5%), dropping to 5 of the 13 episodes (38-38.5%) for the rest of his initial tenure (Series Two to Four). However, when he returned as Showrunner, for Series Fourteen, he wrote 5 of the 8 (75%) episodes, meaning that only 12% (1 episode) of the series was not written by either the current or a past Showrunner. Interestingly, Series Fifteen had an inverse to Series Two to Four, where 38% (3 of the 8 episodes) of the series was not written or co-written by the Showrunner. The consequence of this indicates the reduced ability to develop talent to showrun a new era after Russell T Davies leaves, as well as the show overly relying on the showrunner for writing.
• Lastly, the return of previous showrunners to write for the show negatively impacted both the Appreciation Index and UK Viewers. However, whether this is due to certain factors, such as writing styles being outdated or a reduced series length negatively impacting the writing process, is beyond the scope of this analysis.
• The Special Episodes followed a similar pattern to series with particular lengths; for instance, the views for the Series Fifteen special episode resulted in 5.91 million UK viewers, which was 60.1% of the views for the special episode in Series Two (9.84 million). This reinforces the notion that a longer series has a positive knock-on effect for any special episode, and that this declines with each reduction in series length.
• In terms of Appreciation Index, however, the median Appreciation Index for a Series Special episode either performed at a similar level or better than the regular series episodes. For the Specials, however, the median Appreciation Index remained at a similar level to their corresponding Doctor’s series medians. This indicates the importance of the writing for each incarnation of The Doctor, as a character that resonates well with its audience will perform better than one that does not.

Conclusion

Variety is the spice of life, but for a show like “Doctor Who” to thrive, it needs to develop a framework that compliments the restrictions of a reduced series length, rather than attempt to replicate the format of a series with 13 episodes. Moreover, for the show to flourish, it needs time for viewer habits to develop to changes in format, as well as an increased variety of writers - partly so that the Showrunner can focus on managing the show, but also to develop talent that benefits the future.