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Back for his second spell as Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa plus cast and showrunner reveal what to expect from the new series – including a new companion.
If Christopher Eccleston taking up the Doctor Who mantle still seems pretty recent to you, this is going to make you feel old: that was 20 years ago.
Eccleston brought the Doctor back in 2005, becoming the ninth iteration of the famous Time Lord. Even Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, the ‘new’ and 15th Doctor, is about to star in his second series.
“It is amazing to look back,” says series showrunner Russell T Davies, 61. “The most fantastic thing we’ve done, which I’m so proud of, is to put all the old episodes from 1963 onto iPlayer.”
“It’s such a family and legacy, and imagine if you’re eight years old, how much of that there is to explore,” he adds. “It’s basically managed to keep itself new since 1963. It’s amazing.”
For those fully up to speed on the past two decades and beyond, the Doctor’s latest adventures kick off with The Robot Revolution. When robots from outer space snatch nurse Belinda Chandra – played by British-Indian actor Varada Sethu, 32 – the Doctor must launch an intergalactic pursuit to rescue his new friend and bring her home.
For Gatwa, 32, playing the Doctor “felt a little bit more soaked into the skin” this time around. “There wasn’t a manic new first day of school, new kid on the block energy,” he explains. “I felt a little bit more settled.”
The Doctor, however, sounds slightly less composed than usual… “There’s an episode where you see a change in the Doctor,” teases Gatwa. “The Doctor’s darker elements that he taps into for the greater good – because that is always his intention – but he has got them. This is an immortal being that’s been around for a while and has picked up a bit of anger. I’m excited for people to see that.”
What’s particularly interesting about this series is that although the Doctor’s companion from the previous series, Ruby Sunday, played by Manchester-born Corrie actor Millie Gibson, returns, she does so alongside new companion, Chandra.
“I feel so connected to Ruby,” says Gibson, 20. “To be brought back to tell more, and to be Ruby Sunday again, was an honour.”
Ruby left the Doctor and ended the last series discovering who her birth mother was – a nurse who gave her up at 15. “I got a lot of beautiful messages like, ‘I’m from a foster family, your story meant a lot’. It made it more human for people to connect to, rather than her mum being an alien, because no one can really relate to that,” says Gibson with a laugh.
This series Ruby is grappling with PTSD. “It’s such a cool concept to go back to a companion and see how they’re getting on after that wild ride of being stuffed in a double bass, tackling goblins, or hanging on a rope ladder over London,” says Gibson. “There’s a brilliant storyline of how Ruby’s getting on with her family, and the journey of her waiting for the Doctor and still feeling a bit lost.”
“And then we’ve got Varada arriving, bringing in a whole new energy,” says Swansea-born Davies. Except beady-eyed viewers will quickly realise that Andor star Sethu has appeared in Doctor Who before, as Mundy Flynn in the Boom episode from series 14. She remembers being “devastated” when that stint ended, then went travelling around the world for a while, before coming back in the middle of the US writers’ strikes.
“[I] thought I wasn’t going to work again,” she says with a laugh, but then she was called in for what she assumed was an audition. “I was pumping myself up and then Russell told me the whole story arc. I was like, ‘That’s a lot of top secret information you’re giving away for free to someone who’s auditioning!’” But of course, the part was hers.
Talking of highly classified info, another Doctor Who character is being reprised. Anita Dobson, 75, is back as the mysterious Mrs Flood. “I’m very good at keeping secrets,” says Dobson wryly, alluding to how she recently returned to EastEnders as the legendary Angie Watts, for the soap’s 40th birthday, and managed to keep the news from everyone, Davies included.
The day before the EastEnders news was announced, he texted her guessing, and she didn’t respond. “I literally texted the publicity department: ‘What’s going on with EastEnders? Why isn’t Anita Dobson replying to my texts?’ They completely shut me down!” he recalls. “I could have gone to the bookies and made a thousand quid!”
Dobson is practically giddy to be in Doctor Who. “To play this funny little creature who I love, and let me run with it, I’m inordinately grateful,” she says. Gesturing to her co-stars, she adds: “These guys are just a riot, and they’re good-looking, too, aren’t they? Which doesn’t hurt. I’m just having the best time.”
Deaf actor and another EastEnders alumni, Rose Ayling-Ellis, 30, also stars. “That episode is terrifying. Rose delivers such an incredible performance in it and our characters communicate through British Sign Language (BSL),” says Gatwa. “It was incredible to learn BSL. I feel like it should be a language that we learn in school.”
Alongside the inclusion of BSL and deaf actors, Doctor Who is breaking other new ground – this will be the first ever series where both the Doctor and their companion are people of colour. Sethu told the Radio Times: “There’s been a couple of Doctor Woke [references] or whatever, but I just think we’re doing the right thing if we’re getting comments like that.”
For Davies, being inclusive is a no-brainer. “We don’t think about it at all. It’s just like breathing,” he says. “That’s just life. It’s like opening your front door. There is the world. There’s nothing special or unique about that, although there is something important about opening that door and showing the world, and then you see yourself on television, you feel visible. You feel seen. And that’s a better day. That’s a wonderful thing to do.”
“[The Doctor has] been doing that for 60 years. [It’s] just a beacon of learning and inclusion and adventure and compassion,” says Gatwa proudly. “It’s a beautiful show to be a part of.”
Doctor Who will return on Saturday, April 12 exclusively on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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