“I think a one-off would have been a disappointment.”
Fans of Doctor Who are gearing up for what is set to be a very exciting end of year stint for the sci-fi series.
As well as a brand new season coming our way in 2024 after a Christmas special over the festive period, the much-anticipated 60th anniversary episodes finally kick off this weekend.
Premiering this Saturday (25th November), The Star Beast is the first of three special episodes that mark the return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the beloved Doctor and companion duo.
Having last graced our screens in 2010 together, it’s been a long time coming for fans of the show, who have been eagerly counting down the days until they return to the Whoniverse for one last adventure together.
But it seems as though, despite us already getting three episodes with Tennant back as the Doctor, it actually could’ve been more.
Revealing more in this week’s issue of Radio Times magazine, Russell T Davies said: “It was simply as many episodes as David and Catherine could do.
“If they had said, ‘We’ve got time to make 12,’ we would have made 12. If they had said, ‘We’ve got time to make one,’ then we’d have made one. But I think a one-off would have been a disappointment.”
The new episodes will follow Tennant, this time as the official Fourteenth Doctor rather than his previous Tenth, as he is faced with new challenges and villains, and is doing all he can to ensure Donna doesn’t end up in chaos.
The episodes will air over the coming Saturday evenings, with Tennant telling The One Show that the series “lives on a Saturday, I think”.
While appearing on the show with returning showrunner Davies, the pair remained tight-lipped about what’s to come in the new episodes, but did reveal that there’s a lot to get excited about.
Tennant revealed: “Yes, they’re very different. Each one is really quite unique. The first one is the sort of world of Doctor Who that you’ll recognise, I think. The second one is unlike any episode of Doctor Who ever done before. And the third one is… bananas.”
The official BBC synopsis for The Star Beast is as follows: “The Doctor is caught in a fight to the death as a spaceship crash-lands in London. But as the battle wreaks havoc, destiny is converging on the Doctor’s old friend, Donna.”
