Hello, Doctor!
Greetings, felicitations, and welcome to Fourteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa (SHOO-tee GAT-wah).
1. Greetings!
Ncuti Gatwa is the Fourteenth Doctor.
This unexpected announcement, made via Gatwa’s and incoming showrunner Russell T. Davies’s Instagram accounts, set social media ablaze on Sunday 8 May 2022, lighting fires that, as I write these words, still burn across our collective digitalscape.
Doctor Who’s official Instagram and Twitter feeds confirmed Gatwa’s casting within hours of his cheeky, low-key post about succeeding Jodie Whittaker as the protagonist of the world’s longest-running televised time-travel series, in the process surprising just about everyone, including myself, who, in the nearly ten months since Whittaker announced her departure from the role on 29 July 2021,1 have incessantly speculated about Doctor Fourteen’s identity.
I can’t recall or locate anyone who thought that Gatwa was in the running—or, indeed, anywhere near contention—for one of British television’s most coveted parts, which once again proves how good Russell T. Davies is at keeping secrets, or, more accurately, how much better he’s become at guarding them ever since the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) prematurely announced, on 30 March 2005, Christopher Eccleston’s exit as New Who’s first leading man, the Ninth Doctor.
This error, whether accidental or deliberate, deprived Davies and his production team of what would have been the shocking regeneration of Eccleston’s incarnation of Gallifrey’s renegade Time Lord into David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor at the conclusion of Series 1’s magnificent season finale, “The Parting of the Ways.”2
2. Felicitations!
Gatwa’s casting is joyous news for anyone hoping that Doctor Who would extend the franchise’s 59-year track record of hiring marvelous performers to play its central role. If you’ve seen the 29-year-old Gatwa’s work as the irrepressible Eric Effiong in Laurie Nunn’s fun, funny, and subversive Netflix teen comedy Sex Education (2019-Present), then you know how good he is. Making Eric far more than the Black sidekick we’re programmed to expect from such a character, Gatwa etches a memorable portrait of the gay son of religious African immigrants to the United Kingdom whose intelligence, humor, and resilience help him navigate the confusions inherent in late-teen life and the final years of secondary education.
Gatwa is also impressive as Dougie in both installments of David Kane’s 2015 two-episode BBC miniseries adaptation of Iain Banks’s 2012 novel Stonemouth, while his turn as Demetrius in Emma Rice, Ian Russell, and Tanika Gupta’s 2016 Bollywood-musical stage version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been justly praised (significantly, Russell T. Davies adapted this same play into a delightful 2016 movie for BBC Television starring Maxine Peake, John Hannah, and the wonderful Bernard Cribbins, best known to New Who fans as Wilfred Mott, grandfather to Catherine Tate’s companion Donna Noble during Series 4).
So, dear reader, Whovians will see a fantastic actor take command of the TARDIS after Jodie Whittaker sadly vacates the premises in her final episode, the still-untitled Autumn 2022 special that will celebrate the BBC’s centennial as a television broadcaster. As I’ve said many times in my reviews of Series 11, Series 12, and Series 13, Whittaker’s been brilliant, fabulous, inspirational, and at least a dozen other superlatives I won’t mention here.
Gatwa’s red-carpet interviews about stepping into the Doctor’s boots have been reassuring so far, as has the enthusiasm of the vast majority of Doctor Who’s viewers, who’ve already embraced Gatwa as the first Black man to play the franchise’s protagonist. Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy and Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith have already welcomed Gatwa to the fold with grace, wit, and acclaim, so I expect we’ll hear similar salutations from every other living actor who’s played the Doctor—to say nothing of the people who’ve played companions, antagonists, and monsters—in the coming days and weeks.
I’m on record as hoping that Jo Martin’s brilliant Fugitive Doctor would continue into Series 14 (and perhaps she will, despite the tendency of New Who’s new showrunner to move past many of his predecessor’s additions to franchise lore), but Big Finish Productions is riding to the rescue by producing a series of audio adventures starring Martin’s groundbreaking Doctor for release (with luck, before year’s end).3
Failing Martin becoming the Fourteenth Doctor, I supported Jodie Whittaker’s suggestion, made during a 22 December 2021 interview with BBC Radio 1, that Lydia West—a terrific young actress who starred in Russell T. Davies’s two most recent miniseries (2019’s Years and Years and 2021’s It’s a Sin)—would be a marvelous choice for the Doctor.
And she is! Given Davies’s propensity for bringing performers he’s cast in past productions to new projects (Davies, after all, worked with Christopher Eccleston in 2003’s ITV miniseries The Second Coming and David Tennant in 2005’s BBC miniseries Casanova before selecting them as the Doctor), we may just see West turn up in New Who as a guest character, a recurring antagonist, a companion, or, perhaps, even the Fifteenth Doctor.
That pipe dream isn’t worth contemplating just yet given the many years of voyages (I hope!) we’re about to enjoy with Doctor Who’s terrific new leading man.
3. Welcome!
Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan-Scottish actor who, as a two-year-old boy, accompanied his parents to Scotland after they fled Rwanda’s civil war (1990-1994). He’s the first African man and the first openly gay actor to play the Doctor, making his casting a welcome (and barrier-breaking) event that will reverberate for decades.
And let’s not overlook how current showrunner Chris Chibnall helped pave the way for this wonderfully progressive development by making both Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin the Doctor. By respectively shattering Doctor Who’s glass ceiling and color line, they’ve given Gatwa the freedom to maneuver in the role however his talent, commitment, and hard work see fit.4
I’ll be sorry to see Whittaker and Martin depart during the Centenary Special, as I’m always sorry to see the incumbent Doctor leave our television screens, yet Doctor Who perpetually embraces renewal, change, and hope by enshrining its revolving-door protagonist (and her/his beautiful openness to these ideas) at the center of its ongoing narrative.
The odds now favor Gatwa’s Fourteenth Doctor appearing at the conclusion of the Centenary Special when Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor regenerates, if, that is, Russell T. Davies follows the pattern he established with the Ninth Doctor’s regeneration in 2005’s “The Parting of the Ways” and the Tenth Doctor’s exit in 2009-2010’s two-part “The End of Time.” Yet there’s no guarantee that Davies will stick to this script since he’s brimming with excitement about taking Doctor Who in fresh directions for next year’s 60th Anniversary Special and, of course, throughout Series 14.
As such, we may need to wait until 2023 to see Doctor Fourteen onscreen, but just as I’ll lament Whittaker’s passing of the TARDIS torch to her splendid successor, I’ll be excited to see what Gatwa brings to a character I’ve loved all my life. I can’t wait to see her final journey and his first trip through the time vortex, as well as all the adventures to come.
So, without further delay, I’ll say what I came to say after experiencing the most pleasant Sunday surprise I’ve had in ages.
Welcome, Mr. Gatwa.
We’re glad to have you.
NOTES
See Clark Collis’s 29 July 2021 Entertainment Weekly article “Jodie Whittaker Is Leaving Doctor Who after 3 Seasons” and K.J. Yossman’s 29 July 2021 Variety article “Doctor Who Loses Jodie Whittaker and Showrunner Chris Chibnall after Three Seasons” (among many others) for information.
“BBC Admits Dr. Who Actor Blunder,” British Broadcasting Corporation, 4 April 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4410943.stm.
“Jo Martin Brings the Fugitive Doctor to Audio,” Big Finish Productions, 23 April 2022, https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/jo-martin-brings-the-fugitive-doctor-to-audio.
Diane Darcy, “Doctor Who: How Jodie Whittaker Paved the Road for Ncuti Gatwa,” Comic Book Resources, 9 May 2022, https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-ncuti-gatwa-14th-doctor/.