Does Doctor Who need another fresh start?

What should Doctor Who do next? We look to its uncertain future — and back to the BBC's memorable Doctor Who Night in 1999.

Christian Cawley, James McLean and Brian Terranova discuss Dean Devlin's recent comments about Doctor Who, the prospect of another David Tennant return, and whether the programme might benefit from something resembling the clean break it received in 2005.

Should a future producer embrace decades of continuity, or give new viewers an easier way in? Could Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor provide a bridge to another incarnation? And has Doctor Who become too reliant on its own past?

Then we head back to 1999, when Doctor Who faced a very different uncertain future, to revisit BBC Two's Doctor Who Night.

Featuring Tom Baker, specially made sketches, documentaries and a showing of the 1996 TV movie, the evening arrived at a fascinating point in Doctor Who history: ten years after the original series ended and several years before its eventual return.

Was Doctor Who Night simply a nostalgic celebration — or, looking back, can we see the beginnings of the rehabilitation that eventually brought the Doctor back to Saturday-night television?