“We kept on intending to make The War Between — and never quite getting it.”
Russell T Davies has revealed that Doctor Who spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea was originally due to be made and released earlier, but that production on the spin-off kept being postponed.
The five-part series, which stars Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw alongside several recurring Doctor Who actors, aired in December 2025, filling in the gap left by the absence of a Christmas special last year.
Speaking in the documentary: The Making of the War Between the Land and the Sea, which is available to watch on YouTube, Davies said: “It’s worth saying how long ago this production begins. I must have written The Star Beast and The War Between as the launch, as this is what we’re going to make. And this is our ambition.”
He continued: “We then had to learn all this time how to make a programme with this budget and how to settle into Bad Wolf Studios. So we kept on intending to make The War Between — and never quite getting it. After season one and then finally after season two, we did it.”
Davies previously revealed to Radio Times that, when the BBC first approached him about coming back to Doctor Who in 2021, The War Between the Land and the Sea was the first part of his pitch. “I had this idea separately first.”
He added: “But weirdly, it needs the Doctor Who setting. If I just go and pitch this cold, saying, ‘There is a race of creatures that live in the sea…’ They’d say, ‘Really? You sure?’ The pre-existence of the Sea Devils takes all the problems out of it.”
Set in the Whoniverse, The War Between the Land and the Sea will follow the military organisation UNIT as they’re tasked with dealing with the arrival of an ancient species, the Sea Devils.
Tovey and Mbatha-Raw are joined by fellow cast members and UNIT legends Alexander Devrient (Colonel Ibrahim), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Steart) and Ruth Madeley (Shirley Bingham).
The series is expected to become available for international viewers on Disney+ at some point in 2026.
The War Between the Land and the Sea is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
