Prince William Walking Around the TARDIS Set Is a Nice Reminder That ‘Doctor Who’ Is Not Dead Yet

Doctor WhoIt looks like the strange state of limbo will continue for a while, as no one is too keen to put a specific point on the show’s future beyond the general public’s hopeful desire for it to return one day. This means that since the series’ bizarre chaos at the end of the season earlier this year, Doctor Who Fans have been left clutching at scraps to point out that the show isn’t staring down the barrel of a Dalek raygun of total annihilation. Latest scrap? His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Well, mostly the group he stands on. But Prince William was at least a way to remind us that that set — a very important one indeed, the newest TARDIS console room — is still ready and available for filming.

Radio Times reports that Prince William recently visited Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff, where… Doctor Who He has been pictured in recent years as president of the British Academy of Television and Film Arts, a position the Prince of Wales has held since 2010. Pictures of the royal visit were published today, along with news that Prince William recorded a message in the studio released during tonight’s BAFTA Cymru awards (where from Showrunner Russell T Davies accepted the award for Outstanding Contribution to Television), to promote the local film and television industry in Wales… which of course included British royalty getting inside the TARDIS.

lay aside Doctor WhoHis own history with the royal family – including that time, the show was almost brought down TitanicIn the form of a spaceship on top of Buckingham Palace (and then it actually did, in an alternate timeline) – the news here is mostly encouraging for fans still waiting to hear more concrete news about the show’s future, with the BBC and Disney both remaining vaguely non-committal but hopeful about an eventual return to the adventures in time and space. And that news is that the TARDIS set itself, one of the most important permanent sets in the series, is still standing.

There have been some false rumors that the group will likely be split up – for example, dismantled entirely to open up the studio space occupied by other groups – if Doctor Who I wasn’t planning on returning anytime soon (or at all). But the fact that the collection has at least been maintained, even if only for the occasional visit, at least suggests Doctor Who‘s on-screen future isn’t completely finished and dusted. It leaves fans in roughly the same place they’ve been since ‘Reality War’ aired – looking to return in 2027 at the earliest, and the likelihood diminishes the longer it goes without the BBC making an announcement – but a glimmer of hope is better than no hope at all.

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