We’re about a year away from Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary; and considering how massive the 50th was, every Whovian has been screaming with more excitement than a Dalek shouting, “Exterminate!” If you have a TARDIS, you’ll be able to watch the 60th anniversary specials whenever you want, but the rest of us will have to wait an agonising year until November 2023 finally materialises.
But it should be worth it when we see the three-hour-long anniversary specials with Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for Doctor Who’s modern regeneration in 2005, returning as the showrunner for the specials and the series beyond. While we still barely know anything about what the 60th’s story will entail, information has been trickling out slowly, thanks to the growing cast announcements and a very short but action-packed teaser trailer.
The New(ish) Doctors
The regeneration of Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor was perhaps the most cinematic ever, and the most shocking. We knew David Tennant would be returning for the 60th anniversary specials, but to see him recognising his own teeth and declaring, “What? What? WHAT!?” (as we all screamed the same) was a fantastic way to mark his return as the official Fourteenth Doctor.
Of course, if Tennant is the Fourteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa will be the Fifteenth. Thanks to his brief appearance in the trailer for the 60th anniversary, we know for sure that he will be appearing during the specials; but we can’t yet confirm if he’ll be sharing time in a TARDIS with Tennant’s Doctor. Though being the 60th anniversary, it’s probably a safe assumption it will be a multi-Doctor story, and a perfect lead in to Tennant’s regeneration into Gatwa’s incarnation.
As Russell T. Davies says: “If you thought the appearance of Tennant was a shock, we’ve got plenty more surprises on the way! The path to Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger, and fun!”
New and returning cast members
Catherine Tate will be reprising her role as one of The Doctor’s greatest companions, Donna Noble. It’s another big mystery as to how Donna will be included, as The Doctor had to block her memories of her time-travelling experiences to stop her mind burning up after she became ‘The DoctorDonna’. We’ll see if she remembers enough to recreate her chemistry with Tennant’s Doctor!
Jacqueline King will also be returning as Donna’s mother, along with Bernard Cribbins as Donna’s grandfather. Sadly, Cribbins passed away in July, just weeks after filming scenes for the 60th. Hopefully, the specials will give him and his fan-favourite character a memorable send-off.
Millie Gibson has also been confirmed to be playing Ruby Sunday, the companion of Gatwa’s Doctor — though it isn’t known if her character will debut during the 60th specials. Confirmed to be in the 60th, and likely to be playing a companion of sorts is Yasmin Finney, taking the part of Rose. Her character’s name seems to be more than just a reference to Billie Piper’s Rose, as Davies has said, “Life on Doctor Who gets brighter and wilder, how can there be another Rose? You’ll find out in 2023.”
Miriam Margolyes is also confirmed to have a role in the 60th specials, with most fans likely to recognise her as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies, or Grunhilda in Merlin. However, it won’t be her first time in the Doctor Who franchise, as she played the voice of Leef Apple Glyn Slitheen-Blathereen, as Slitheen that appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Could she be playing the same role? It’s unlikely, considering Leef’s rather unceremonious death from an unfortunate methane build-up — although timey wimey-er things have happened…
Perhaps the biggest new addition to the cast is Neil Patrick Harris in an unnamed role. Harris and Davies have been fairly tight-lipped about the character, but have confirmed Harris will be “playing the greatest enemy the Doctor has ever faced,” and that what they were filming would be “off the scale,” according to Davies. Harris himself wrote on Instagram, “I’ll try my hardest to do my worst. This Doctor has no idea what’s in store. And even if he does… Who cares? Ha ha ha HA ha-ha-ha.” Could the puppets that Davies alluded to earlier be linked to Harris’ character? He does look a little like a toymaker in the photo he shared…
Will more Doctors return?
It appears unlikely that we’ll see Jodie Whittaker make an appearance as the Thirteenth Doctor in the 60th, but she is definitely keen to return to the role, as she said to the Radio Times:
“I said to Russell T. Davies, ‘Don’t ever think of it as being ‘too soon.’ If I’m not asked back, I will be devastated. I know it might need to be a few years, but Russell knows — I’m going to be like a little terrier at his heels.”
Of course, Doctor Who is always full of surprises so we won’t rule out her being in the 60th until we watch the specials next year. But even if she doesn’t return then, we definitely look forward to seeing her in the future!
Matt Smith has also stated that he hasn’t been contacted to make another appearance, though would love to. Peter Capaldi has gone further to say that he doesn’t like the idea of being in a multi-Doctor story, saying in an interview:
“It’s very hard to imagine how you’d get a decent crack of the whip when there’s fourteen of you, you know? So, I think I’d rather leave it as is, because I loved my time on Doctor Who and loved doing it.”
Could we have more older Doctors returning, like Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and David Bradley like we did in Whittaker’s finale, The Power of The Doctor? After all, we did have Tom Baker in the 50th anniversary… But perhaps we’re speculating too much!
The future of Doctor Who
Beyond casting, the biggest news to hit Doctor Who is the BBC’s new partnership with Disney to broadcast the show. For Australians, this means the sad end to the ABC’s nearly five-decade partnership with the BBC for the show’s broadcast rights in Australia, with new episodes moving to Disney+ in 2023. However, the partnership with Disney will likely mean that Doctor Who gets the budget it deserves, leading it to be its biggest and best ever — we can’t wait to see what’s next!
