David Tennant and Catherine Tate reunite in the teaser for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary specials
Neil Patrick Harris appears as a new, theatrical villain for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary
Aux News David Tennant
Allons-y! Ahead of Doctor Who’s return in the new year, the long-running series shares a new teaser for its set of specials celebrating 60 years of the Doctor, the TARDIS, and lots of timey-wimey adventures. The teaser reunites the beloved tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) for the first time since 2008.
When we last saw Donna, she was stripped of all the memories of her and the Doctor, in exchange for saving the universe. From then on, she’s lived a normal life, ignorant of her cross-space-and-time travels. That is—as we see in the trailer—until these long-forgotten memories begin to resurface.
“Sometimes, I think there’s something missing,” Donna says. “Like I had something lovely, and it’s gone.”
Tennant made his return to the popular series earlier this year, becoming the fourteenth iteration of the Time Lord. In the teaser, we see him set out for Donna once more, looking to save her from a newfound threat.
Neil Patrick Harris makes his Doctor Who debut as a whimsical (unnamed) new villain, who’s previously been teased as the “greatest enemy the Doctor has ever faced.” Also appearing in the three-part special are Jacqueline King and Karl Collins as Sylvia Noble and Shaun Temple, respectively, as well as Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham.
Right at the end, we get a little look at Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) as the fifteenth Doctor, who will take over the series following Tennant’s three-part specials. With the specials, showrunner Russell T. Davies makes his return to the Doctor Who universe and will serve as the head writer for Gatwa’s first season.
We still have a while to wait until the specials air, as they won’t arrive until November 2023, with the Gatwa-led season arriving sometime in 2024.
21 Comments
For a second I thought Michael Richards was the new Doctor.
No, but you should hear Michael Richards’ nickname for the new doctor!
I can’t wait for next year’s Doctor Who Festivus special!
It’s worth pointing out too that the little cute alien appears to Beep The Meep, it and the insectoid dudes actually debuted decades ago in Doctor Who Weekly.I think Beep was created by Pat Mills and John Wagner, who are behind a lot of the 2000AD characters and stories.
For a brief moment I was thinking the “insectoid dudes” were the Gromflomites from Rick and Morty. Then I went back to cold hard reality.
Ooh, I too thought they were very similar, only when I started typing it out though.
“They’re bureaucrats, Donna! I don’t respect them!”
Glad someone else noticed this. Immediately recognized the Star Beast story from Doctor Who #1 back in 1984. Marvel did a 23 issue run in the US reprinting stories from the UK Doctor Who magazine. Tennant instead of Tom Baker now, but it looks to be the same basic story from the images. Should be fun. Maybe they’ll do the next story too and have the Doctor turn into a werewolf…
I’m hoping that they use this ‘reunion’ as a way to allow Donna to regain and retain her memories of her time with the Tenth Doctor without it killing her.
Are we sure NPH is someone new and not, y’know, The Celestial Toymaker from almost 60 years ago? (56 years, 1966)
oh please, like any of the current crop of AVClub writers would know that, or bother proofreading long enough to learn that
Normally I would be inclined to think this was mere fanservice (and it is undoubtedly that), but they set this up so long ago that I can’t help but be excited. Doctor Who is the rare show that can pay off an unresolved story thread from nearly fifteen years ago, which is not even particularly long in the full scope of Doctor Who history.
What story thread? Sorry it’s been a while
They gave Tennant’s Doctor and Tate’s Donna, two of the most beloved characters in all of Doctor Who, one of the most tragic endings.
Everyone is looking forward to see what happens next. This is fan service done appropriately right.
I like that the teaser didn’t actually give away much more about the specials, but did result in Beep the fucking Meep trending on Twitter. Who the hell ever saw that coming?! xD
I can’t help but feel the greatest enemy the Doctor has ever faced outside Michael Grade was the Black Guardian so unless NPH is secretly playing …
Would rather they had brought back Eccleston. I consider him the best of the NuWho Doctors, and would have loved one more ride.
He IS back, albeit in audio capacity. I think he’s got four audio bundles over at Big Finish already, and while it was a little spotty at first (you get the sense he had trouble acclimating to voice acting) he’s really come into his own the last couple of entires. There’s even one where he meets the Brigadier!
It looks finished and we have to wait a whole year to watch it. Ugh.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion but I really did not like Donna.
Donna was the sort of person I would hate in real life, but really liked as a fictional character. That she had no attraction to The Doctor, and was always more than willing to call him out on his BS was a nice change of pace for a Companion.