Hope After Failure: 1997-2005
Though the TV Movie was a hit in the UK, it didn't do well in America--it was up against the series finale of Roseanne and not a whole lot of people watched it because of that. The FOX network thus didn't pick up Doctor Who for their fall lineup, and even though Universal kept their option to make the TV series until the end of 1997, they couldn't get anyone else interested in co-producing it. The rights to make a show ultimately went back to the BBC as of 1998.
The Doctor Stirs
There the show would lie dormant, slumbering like Sleeping Beauty, until the middle of October 2001, where Jane Tranter (BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning) and Russell T. Davies (developer of a would-be Doctor Who series in 1999) started tossing around an idea for reviving the show. After a quick bit of research in late August of 2003, they didn't find any legal issues about working with the intellectual property. In early September, Tranter, Davies, and Julie Gardner (BBC Wales Head of Drama) started putting together real, solid plans for Season 27 of Doctor Who--a 13-episode-long series to test the waters. By late September, the BBC was confident enough in the project to announce that Doctor Who would be coming back under BBC Wales, run by Russell T. Davies, co-produced by Julie Gardner and Mal Young (BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series).
Rebirth
On January 7th, 2004, Davies started writing Rose (the first episode of the Ninth Doctor's run), and all during the spring of 2004 the announcements came rolling in one by one: Phil Collinson as the show's new producer (February), Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor (March), Billie Piper as Rose Tyler (May). By July 2004 they were ready to film at last, continuing production through the spring of 2005. Finally, on March 26th, 2005, the first glimpse of Doctor Who in nine years aired on BBC1...and though Eccleston would leave the show after Season 27, the fuse was lit and the fandom was reinvigorated. The day long hoped for by so many Doctor Who fans around the world had come at last (though it had taken sixteen years, lots of compromising and work, and a bit of CPR in the form of the TV Movie to make it happen).