Doctor Who's new specials celebrating the franchise's 60th anniversary are coming up soon, and there are already plenty of reasons for new and old fans to be excited. Part of the anticipatory glee ties into returning stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate as The Doctor and Donna Noble, as well as the all-around mystery surrounding these upcoming canonical installments. And now Tennant's latest comments hinting at what's ahead have officially sent my expectations sky-high.
As we eagerly await the premiere dates for Doctor Who's first episodes following Jodie Whittaker's run, David Tennant spoke briefly to Empire Magazine about his first impressions of the specials' scripts. And two of his thoughts made my eyes light up upon reading them. In his words:
I was surprised when I saw what that first script was based on, then I read the second script, which is unlike any Doctor Who episode ever. These new specials are Russell off the leash.
Doctor Who has been around for a long time, so to make the claim that one of its specials is unlike anything the series has ever done before is bold indeed. It's something I'd believe, however, with Russell T. Davies and his celebrated screenwriting skills back on board. If anyone could deliver an episode that fans haven't seen before, I'd put easy money on him delivering. And presumably not in a "we've never seen a whole episode taking place in a broom closet" kind of fashion.
I am also interested in hearing about Russell T. Davies being "off the leash," which does seem to be a theme surrounding his grand return as showrunner. So far, it seems The BBC is handing him the reigns to the franchise to set it up for future success, and perhaps that means allowing for any kind of storytelling imaginable to help set up something entirely new.
One key part of this new and inventive story presumably hinges on why David Tennant's upcoming performance is noted as being the 14th iteration and not the classic 10th iteration he'd portrayed before. Tennant spoke briefly about that detail, though assured that there are some clear similarities between his two Doctors that fans will be able to pick up on. As he put it:
That was the first exciting piece of mischief that Russell created. That I was going to be Doctor No. 14 rather than Doctor No. 10 again. You’ll just have to wait and see why the 14th Doctor is so much like the 10th.
The Doctor has never turned into a previous iteration before, though based on what we know so far, this is not technically the same Doctor. I'll admit I'll be a bit miffed if the whole 14th Doctor explanation is just done more or less as a formality and the new Doctor is, for all intents and purposes, the 10th Doctor with a goatee. At the same time, we don't necessarily want to see Tennant play the Doctor differently than he did the first time around, so perhaps I can live with it.
There's a big cast attached to Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, and it's all paving the way to the eventual torch passing to Ncuti Gatwa as the new lead of the series. We're still somewhat in the dark on just how much Gatwa will appear in the specials, but even if it's fleeting, we should see more of him in the holiday special the month after. Here's hoping we're all dying for more when it rolls around because the anniversary specials delivered on the hype!
Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials are coming in November, and you'll need a Disney+ subscription to watch them. Hopefully, we'll have some official dates for when the specials will air soon, and we won't have to wait much longer to finally see what all the mystery is all about.
