Doctor Who’s David Tennant calls his return to the series “an unexpected treat” and reveals the latest preview of his Fourteenth Doctor incarnation.
Unsurprisingly, David Tennant was more than happy to return to Doctor Who and the TARDIS one more time.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Tennant revealed what it was like playing the Doctor again for Doctor Who’s 60thanniversary specials this November and reuniting with former co-star Catherine Tate. Calling the experience “joyous,” the actor found his much-hyped, albeit short, tenure as the new Doctor “an unexpected treat to get to revisit something that had been such a lovely wonderful experience 15 years ago. To get to have another proper runaround, in an albeit slightly different long coat, was a joy I never really imagined.”
Unlike 2013’s 50th anniversary special ‘The Day of the Doctor,’ the 60th anniversary episodes will see Tennant play not his iconic Tenth Doctor, but the Time Lord’s fourteenth incarnation. Though Tennant pointed out how “There’s some precedent for ex-Doctors showing up for guest appearances” — such as Tom Baker’s ‘Day of the Doctor’ cameo as a potential future regeneration dubbed ‘The Curator’ — he is the first mainline actor to play the Doctor twice, taking over from his Broadchurch co-star Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. An Entertainment Weekly-exclusive photo also teased the newly-regenerated Fourteenth Doctor emerging from the TARDIS with a new set of clothes, minus his “The Power of the Doctor” coat.
Alongside Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble and former showrunner Russell T Davies, the anniversary specials will mark the final appearance of Bernard Cribbins as Donna’s grandfather and the Doctor’s ‘The End of Time’ companion Wilfred Mott. Jacqueline King and Karl Collins will also reprise their Davies-era roles as Donna’s mother Sylvia and now-husband Shaun Temple, with Yasmin Finney playing Donna’s daughter Rose. The anniversary special’s trailer, meanwhile, provided a look at Neil Patrick Harris’ unnamed villain, Beep the Meep’s live-action debut, and titles for each of the special’s three episodes.
Doctor Who’s anniversary special will presumably conclude with Tennant regenerating into Ncuti Gatwa, who first appeared in the special’s teaser trailer last year. Since his casting announcement, fans have received glimpses of Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor era, including his various outfits, new companion Ruby Sunday, and a new adversary played by RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Jinkx Monsoon. In a July interview, Gatwa — who recently played a Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie — described his Doctor as “emotionally vulnerable. He hides it with humor, but he’s lonely. I can’t say much more than that; I don’t want to spoil anything. But he’s also energetic! The poor cameramen struggled to keep up.”
