UPDATE:  Netflix spokeswoman tells Variety that reports of ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Torchwood’ being pulled from Netflix were false.  However, the fate of ‘Red Dwarf’ is still in question.

It’s a sad day for Whovians and Smegheads alike as Netflix will be pulling a large chunk of BBC programming from their streaming service at the end of the month. Most notably for Science Fiction fans, this includes ‘Doctor Who‘ and the cult classic, ‘Red Dwarf‘.

Until now, Netflix users have been able to enjoy a large array of classic episodes, and all of the series from the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, to the latest season. However, as of Saturday, January 31st, this will no longer be the case until Netflix and BBC renegotiate a deal.

For those of you who remember the whole ‘Torchwood’ debacle, where only the first three seasons were available but not the fourth, ‘Miracle Day’  as Starz had pulled their programming from Netflix, this may feel like familiar territory.  However, just as Starz renegotiated and ‘Miracle Day’ has returned to Netflix, there is hope that the BBC will as well.

Other shows that you will need to watch before they disappear from your Netflix queue include ‘Primeval’ (a show about a team of scientists stopping whatever comes through time/space anomalies from destroying the world), ‘Survivors’ (an excellent scifi show about the aftermath of a world population-killing disease), and ‘Hyperdrive’ (a lesser known scifi-comedy starring ‘Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost as Commander Henderson who travels the galaxy looking for business opportunities).

So what can you do? Well, there any number of things.

  • You can spend your remaining time binging on ‘Doctor Who’ episodes before they go away.
  • You can sign this petition to urge Netflix to get it back in the streaming catalogue.
  • You can wait for a deal to be negotiated.
  • You can watch it on Amazon Prime.
  • Or, you can go prehistoric and buy the DVD sets so no one can ever take ‘Doctor Who’ away from you ever again.