Doctor Who News & Review Roundup: 19 May 2022
Here's a quick guide to recent Doctor Who news and to The Vestibule's Doctor Who reviews.
1. Taking Stock
So much has happened on the Doctor Who front since Russell T. Davies and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced, on Sunday 8 May 2022, that Ncuti Gatwa would succeed Jodie Whittaker as the program’s lead actor that a roundup of recent news, as well as The Vestibule’s many Who television reviews, seems necessary.
For the uninitiated, Doctor Who (1963-1989) premiered its first episode, “An Unearthly Child,” on 23 November 1963 at 5:16pm London time. If this date seems familiar, that’s because the world’s longest-running time-travel television series bowed the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which cast such a pall over this opening installment (of the program’s inaugural four-episode serial, also titled An Unearthly Child) that the BBC repeated Episode 1 on 30 November 1963 right before broadcasting the serial’s ominously titled second episode, “The Cave of Skulls.”
As difficult as it may seem to believe, 2023 will mark 60 years since this auspicious event (Doctor Who’s premiere, not JFK’s assassination). And as 2022 unfolds, Whovians everywhere can celebrate the run-up to six full decades of the franchise’s voyages through space and time by welcoming a new-old showrunner and a brand-new Doctor to their ranks.
Yes, friends, Russell T. Davies—the man who regenerated Doctor Who by bringing it back to television in 2005 (16 years after Classic Who’s 1989 cancellation and seven years after the 1996 television movie Doctor Who tried, but failed, to resurrect the franchise on the small screen)—returns as showrunner for the 60th Anniversary Year.
Ncuti Gatwa, moreover, will be a sight to behold when he takes command of the TARDIS. The first Black man and the first openly gay actor to essay the franchise’s title role, Gatwa will continue Doctor Who’s long tradition of casting brilliant performers to play its protagonist, a two-hearted extraterrestrial who bops around the time vortex in a blue police box helping out where he (or she) can.
Jodie Whittaker’s marvelous Thirteenth Doctor has one final adventure to enjoy before she regenerates into Gatwa’s Fourteenth Doctor (or will she?) in Autumn 2022’s still-untitled Centenary Special, so named because it will celebrate the BBC’s centennial as a television network, broadcaster, and institution.
Gatwa’s status as the Fourteenth Doctor may be in doubt (slight doubt, perhaps, but doubt nonetheless) now that filming has begun on Doctor Who’s newest era, dubbed RTD2 (or, for the dandies among us, R2D), compelling everyone to acknowledge how firmly Davies has taken the program’s reins from Chris Chibnall, the man who’s captained the Who ship since late 2017 (and who officially has until the Centenary Special’s October or November 2022 broadcast to go).
Davies, who announced Ncuti Gatwa’s casting as the Doctor via a Sunday 8 May 2022 Instagram post, has this week (i.e., 16-22 May 2022) employed his Insta account to update fans about 60th Anniversary tidbits that can’t be hidden from public scrutiny any longer now that filming new Who episodes is underway (beginning on the morning of Monday, 16 May 2022, in and around London’s Camden district).
Perhaps the most exciting aspect for New Who’s admirers is seeing David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) and Catherine Tate (companion Donna Noble)—the duo that led Series 4, Davies’s last full season as showrunner, to splendid dramatic heights—working near what appears to be the same TARDIS exterior used by Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor during her Series 11, Series 12, and Series 13 voyages.
This prospect suggests that the Thirteenth Doctor may not, in fact, regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa’s Fourteenth Doctor at the Centenary Special’s conclusion, but might instead “retrogenerate” into the Tenth Doctor—or an alternate version of the Tenth Doctor—during one or more specials that will eventually see Ten (or Alt Ten) metamorphose into Gatwa’s Doctor.
Considering that Tennant’s Tenth Doctor regenerated into himself at the conclusion of Series 4’s “The Stolen Earth” (the first installment of that season’s two-part finale) before birthing a second version of himself (known as the Meta-Crisis Doctor) in the second installment (“Journey’s End”), the presence of yet another incarnation of the Tenth Doctor—who would technically become the Fourteenth Doctor—can’t be much of a surprise to faithful viewers.
Plus, given that Steven Moffat introduced a previously unknown regeneration called the War Doctor (played by John Hurt) in the franchise’s 50th Anniversary Special, 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor,” and that Chris Chibnall unveiled another never-before-seen incarnation called the Fugitive Doctor (or the Ruth Doctor, played by Jo Martin) in Series 12’s “Fugitive of the Judoon,” the existence of an alternate Doctor existing between Thirteen and Fourteen nicely aligns with notable developments in the Doctor’s backstory.
Ever since the 1976 Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) serial The Brain of Morbius suggested that several incarnations of the franchise’s protagonist existed before William Hartnell’s First Doctor, this implication has nibbled around the edges of the Doctor’s complicated personal history. Chris Chibnall finally canonized this notion by first mentioning the Timeless Child myth that’ll forever define his era of New Who in Series 11’s second outing, “The Ghost Monument,” before intermittently returning to this storyline during Series 12 and heavily addressing it in Series 13 (subtitled Flux).
The fact that Tennant and Tate were recently seen shooting scenes with the three actors who played Donna Noble’s family members during 2008’s Series 4 and/or the 2009-2010 two-part “The End of Time” special—namely, Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott (Donna’s grandfather), Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble (Donna’s mother), and Karl Collins as Shaun Temple (Donna’s husband)—implies that Ten and Donna will appear in an installment that’ll kick off 12 months of anniversary celebrations by revisiting these characters more than a decade after their last appearance (in 2010’s “The End of Time: Part Two”) to catch us up, nearly in real time, with their lives.
How, you might ask? Davies himself acknowledges the many possibilities implied by Ten’s and Donna’s reunion in his 15 May 2022 Instagram post announcing their return: “THEY’RE BACK! The Doctor and Donna! But . . . how?! He wiped her memory! If she remembers, she’ll die! But, but . . . is it a flashback? A dream sequence? A lie? A fantasy? A parallel universe?! Alt Doctor? The Land of Fiction?! You’ll find out in 2023 as Doctor Who hits its 60th—diamond!—anniversary!”
Davies is talented enough to write an episode (or episodes) that combine(s) all these prospects into one wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ball of Whovian fun, folly, and goodness. Time, as always happens in real life and in stories about temporal displacement, will tell. Like so many fans who’ve taken to Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube these past few days, I can’t help but feel pleased that Davies is bringing back one of Who’s best onscreen partnerships to salute is sixtieth year (yes, its 60th Year!) on television.
Despite Davies’s promise to release no additional revelations about the 60th Anniversary Special (or what some observers are now calling the 60th Anniversary Celebration) to avoid trampling over Chris Chibnall’s and Jodie Whittaker’s Autumn 2022 swan song, Davies was forced by circumstances to announce, via a 16 May 2022 Instagram post, that Yasmin Finney had joined the Who family after additional photographs and videos of New Who’s London shoot (taken by insatiable fans descending en masse on its filming locations) made their way onto social media.
“Welcome to the Whoniverse, Yasmin Finney!,” Davies writes in his post’s caption, saying, “the star of the wonderful Heartstopper @netflix joins us for the 60th anniversary shoot, playing . . . Rose! Another Rose? But how? Who? Why? Where? What, what, what?!” This cheeky declaration implies that Finney will play Rose Temple-Noble, Donna’s daughter, in the 60th Anniversary Special, a suspicion later confirmed when Finney was seen and heard filming street scenes with Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins, Jacquline King, and Karl Collins on Tuesday, 17 May 2022.
Other franchise watchers are reporting that Finney’s Rose may become the new companion to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor (whether he’s Doctor Fourteen or Fifteen) when Series 14 launches after the 60th Anniversary Special (or Specials) premiere(s) (meaning sometime in late 2023 or early 2024). If true, Finney’s presence would become another barrier-breaking bit of Doctor Who casting since she’s the first openly transgender performer to play one of the flagship program’s principal roles.
My response to these news items is, as always, sheer joy. The fact that Doctor Who continues under the stewardship of such fantastically creative, talented, and hardworking people makes me greet the future with enthusiasm. Since that emotion’s harder and harder to embrace in these exceptionally tough times, all the missives from Who’s 60th Anniversary production are boons that help soothe our troubled thoughts as we approach the long, hot Summer of 2022.
Having updated The Vestibule’s readers about these exhilarating Doctor Who developments, it now seems wise to provide a clearinghouse for the 31 television reviews that I’ve written about Who’s three most recent seasons. My Series 11 reviews were originally prepared for Washington University in St. Louis’s The Common Reader: A Journal of the Essay, while my Series 12 and Series 13 reviews were composed for this humble Substack newsletter.
Without further ado, here they are.
Be safe, be well, and be happy. — Jason
2. Series 11 Reviews
As menioned above, my Series 11 reviews are available here, at The Vestibule, and at The Common Reader’s official website.
Series 11’s individual episode reviews are:
“I’m in Love with Her and I Feel Fine”: Review of 11.1_“The Woman Who Fell Earth” (Original TCR Review Here)
“Off to the Races”: Review of 11.2_“The Ghost Monument”
(Original TCR Review Here)
“Marvelous Mrs. Parks, The”: Review of 11.3_“Rosa” (Original TCR Review Here)
“Spider Night”: Review of 11.4_“Arachnids in the UK” (Original TCR Review Here)
“Births and Rebirths”: Review of 11.5_“The Tsuranga Conundrum”
(Original TCR Review Here)
“Brexit by Any Other Name”: Review of 11.6_“Demons of the Punjab”
(Original TCR Review Here)
“Special Delivery?”: Review of 11.7_“Kerblam!” (Original TCR Review Here)
“Witchy Women”: Review of 11.8_“The Witchfinders” (Original TCR Review Here)
“When Worlds Elide”: Review of 11.9_“It Takes You Away”
(Original TCR Review Here)
“Last Battle, The”: Review of 11.10_“The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos”
(Original TCR Review Here)
“Best of Enemies”: Review of 11.11_“Resolution” (New Year’s Day Special 2019) (Original TCR Review Here)
3. Series 12 Reviews
As mentioned above, my Series 12 reviews are available here, at The Vestibule.
Series 12’s individual episode reviews are:
“Masterful Return, A”: Review of 12.1_“Spyfall: Part One”
“Falling Spies”: Review of 12.2_“Spyfall: Part Two”
“Motherless Earth”: “Review of 12.3_“Orphan 55”
“Tesla Test, The”: Review of 12.4_“Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror”
“Doctor New”: Review of 12.5_“Fugitive of the Judoon”
“Doctor(ing) Disaster”: Review of 12.6_“Praxeus”
“Whispers in the Dark”: Review of 12.7_“Can You Hear Me?”
“Monster Mash(up)”: Review of 12.8_“The Haunting of Villa Diodati”
“On the Precipice”: Review of 12.9_“Ascension of the Cybermen”
“Re-Writer’s Tale, The”: Review of 12.10_“The Timeless Children”
“Blowhards, Best Buds, & Big Bads”: Review of 12.11_“Revolution of the Daleks” (New Year’s Day Special 2021)
4. Series 13: Flux Reviews
As mentioned above, my Series 13 reviews are available here, on/at The Vestibule.
Series 13: Flux’s individual episode reviews are:
“Doctor Whew!”: Review of 13.1_“The Halloween Apocalypse”
“Seeing Mrs. Seacole”: Review of 13.2_“War of the Sontarans”
“Time Out(s)”: Review of 13.3_“Once, Upon Time”
“They Take a Village”: Review of 13.4_“Village of the Angels”
“Staying Alive”: Review of 13.5_“Survivors of the Flux”
“Time’s Orphan”: Review of 13.6_“The Vanquishers”
“Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve of Destruction”: Review of 13.7_“Eve of the Daleks” (New Year’s Day Special 2022)
“Legends of the Fall”: Review of 13.8_“Legend of the Sea Devils” (Easter Day Special 2022)
“Thank You, Farewell, & Amen”: Review of 13.9_“The Power of the Doctor (Centenary Special)
