The 23rd of October 2022 marked the centenary special of Doctor Who (celebrating the BBC turning 100) with the current shoot itself turning six next year. The special titled ‘The Power of the Doctor’ acted not only as a special celebrating the BBC, but also the last episode of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor. The 13th iteration of the character will be remembered as a contentious few series, with unnecessary hate over the character being the first time a woman has taken the role of the Doctor, to more thought through discussion about the decline in story quality (no more so than Whitaker’s penultimate episode ‘Legend of the Sea Devil’). The special, whilst flawed with the typical structure of a 13th Doctor episode, remained concise and centralised with an enjoyable plot of the Doctor stopping the Master – who is actually Rasputin – from forcing a regeneration on her, so that the Master replaces the Doctor. The episode featured returns of four classic Doctors (five if you count the 1st Doctor portrayed by David Bradley) and a return of six old companions – most notably Ian Chesterton played by the character’s original actor William Russel, whose character was one of the first companions of Doctor Who.
However, the biggest return comes at the end of the episode, after the Doctor is struck by an energy ray and begins to regenerate at Durdle Door.
With the next Doctor being announced to be Ncuti Gatwa, fans waited to see his first on screen appearance as the character. But something was off about this passing over of the torch. The Doctor began to regenerate with bright rays of burnt orange being emitted from the character, but then, in a first for Doctor regenerations, the Doctor’s attire began to change, showing first a brown chequered waist coat, covered by a blue trench coat, and suddenly the fireworks of regeneration stopped, and before the viewer appeared the next Doctor, not Ncuti Gatwa – standing in the middle of the screen, was David Tennant, origianlly the 10th Doctor. With the return of showrunner Russel T Davis, comes a return of the most famous iteration of the timelord. Tennant will appear in three specials to mark the 60th anniversary in the latter half of next year, with the advert after the centenary special already teasing the appearance of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor.
But in the following days, more was announced for the show, mainly on American morning programs, with Ncuti Gatwa giving the announcement that internationally speaking (not counting the UK), Doctor Who will now air on Disney+ (again, not in the UK, so you still have to pay your telly license or be beheaded for king and country).
So what do these announcements mean for the program?
The Tennant return was explained by Tennant himself, in an interview stating that his return (alongside that of his old companion Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate) was formulated in a group chat between Tennant, Tate and Davis, reminiscing on the old days of the show and half-heartedly discussing how they would all like to do it again, a dialogue that occurred before the announcement of Davis returning to the role of showrunner. From a cynical point of view, which is probably somewhat true, Tennant’s return will also act as a ratings booster for the show, as the 13th Doctor’s tenure – although having strong ratings initially – showed a decline in ratings, with the penultimate episode only receiving 1.39 million live watches. Bringing back Tennant can also bring a general popularity back to the show, as the 13th Doctor’s character was often disliked, being seen as quite rude and arrogant, alongside often hypocritical (as seen with the first and last episode of her debut series, where she applauded her companions for freezing an advisory in stasis forever, whilst berating that same advisory over a similar treatment of victims in the first episode). The character also went against her predecessor’s last speech, as in the final moments of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor he told the next incarnation to ‘never be cruel, never be cowardly’ – the latter imperative being broken in the series twelve finale when the Doctor ran away from an explosion, necessary to kill a battalion of cybermen, whilst she let another character sacrifice himself to achieve this goal. The 13th Doctor’s tenure was also seen as quite political, featuring a handful of episodes discussing the issue of global warming, plastic in the oceans and how the planet should be saved.
This tenure also reflects a video game released in the same time. ‘The Edge of Time’ was a virtual reality game that saw the player help the Doctor face several iconic monsters whilst trying to save the universe, and it ended with the 13th Doctor trapping the player in a time loop to repeat the game for infinity to save the universe – an act that could be classed as ‘cruel’. The follow up game ‘The Edge of Reality’ remade the first game for a non-VR setting, whilst adding a new ending, with the 10th Doctor coming in to save the player and sort the issue out. A rather fitting aspect of foreshadowing for the end of the Whittaker era.
As for the Disney+ debacle, that can also be seen as a boost in popularity of the show. Internationally, especially in the US, Doctor Who can only be watched via a countries BBC network. In the case of the US this is BBC America. The problem with this system is that not many people watch BBC America, and the only people who do are probably British emigrants and American geeks. The partnership with Disney+ allows the show to be broadcast to a wider range of people, who are more likely to own Disney+ anyway. The show is also said to gain triple it’s current budget through the deal, which will help produce new episodes with (hopefully) stunning scenery, but this increase in budget should be taken with a pinch of salt, as series 10 of Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi’s last series) received a budget cut, but was said to be objectively better than his prior two series – alongside the 13th Doctor’s tenure receiving a budget boost, but showing little quality (with the problem being compared to Amazon’s Rings of Power series, the most expensive TV show to ever be made but receiving polarising, but mainly poor, reviews). The new Doctor for the new series can also be seen as a restart of sorts, with the Ncuti Gatwa incarnation having the ability to drop all the undesirable plot threads of the 13th Doctor. Gatwa will be the first black actor to play the role (if you don’t count Jo Martin’s fugitive Doctor, a side plot regeneration of the twelfth series), and one of a handful of Scottish actors to play the role. Many fear that this reset may be too drastic, and that the size of Disney may undermine the original Britishness of the program, a fear that has begun a rumour in hard core sectors of the fanbase over the future of BigFinish – an audio drama company that has been producing Doctor Who based content before the new series (filling the gap of post original Doctor Who), and who many fear would be too small for the BBC to continue to collaborate with in regards to their Disney+ Partnership.
So what does the future hold for Doctor Who? At this rate its anyone’s guess. The next specials are too far off to tell how they will turn out, so everything is in the air for the show right now, and everyone is quoting David Tennant’s ‘What?’ over the shows future. So, for now we can only speculate, whether the show will be good or bad under Davis, Gatwa and Tennant’s short return, and just hope that the show can survive with Disney. But everyone seems to be taking Tennant’s return positively, and we can only hope that his return can help revive the show, and that the interest gained can be continued to Gatwa’s debut.
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Image used by Monty A