Peter Capaldi, Friday I'm In Love

Peter Capaldi, Friday I’m In Love live in Edinburgh

Introducing Guest Star as the Doctor

Daft celebratory thing for this year, idly thinking that almost as soon as Doctor Who came back it had guest stars who’d make great Doctors. Off the top of my head examples starting with where I got the idea:

2005: Zoë Wanamaker

2006: Don Warrington

2007: Christina Cole, Miranda Raison, Jessica Hynes (Mark Gatiss did it already and Carey Mulligan might as well for Blink)

2008: Peter Capaldi! Wait... Fenella Woolgar, Steve Pemberton

2009: Lindsay Duncan, David Harewood

2010: Iain Glen, Helen McCrory, Meera Syal, Neve McIntosh

2011: Sarah Smart

2012: Mitchell and/or Webb

2013: Jessica Raine, Rachel Stirling

2014: Jonathan Bailey, Keeley Hawes

2015: Reece Shearsmith

2016: Charity Wakefield

2017: Stephanie Hyam

2018: Alan Cumming (who was up for the role in one of the unmade 1990s versions)

2019: Charlotte Ritchie

2020: Maxim Baldry

2021: Jacob Anderson, Annabel Scholey

2022: Aisling Bea

2023: Davina McCall

2024: Majid Luke Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy

2025: Ariyon Bakare

The Reality War

15.2.8 The Reality War

Anita! Yay!

The Interstellar Song Contest

15.2.6 The Interstellar Song Contest

As multicultural things with lots of weird costumes and effects and eccentric side bits that goes out here on BBC One, Eurovision and Doctor Who have always been a bit connected, so here we are.

But as an actual episode it’s as RTD says Eurovision meets Die Hard, and that’s fun, and it’s also a lot of surprise guests.

Belinda rightly gets the big crying moment.

I was just thinking we haven’t had any animal people this year.

Iona Anderson (Wynn) looks so much like Eve Myles I was expecting that to come up somehow.

The Story And The Engine

15.2.5 The Story And The Engine

Largely a bottle episode - I wasn’t surprised when I learned writer Inua Ellams is a playwright. (Thanks to Emmet Asher-Perrin at Reactor for linking his prologue to the episode.)

Having downplayed Ncuti Gatwa’s Blackness, an episode stemming from where the Doctor feels more accepted. Various Doctors have had places to go and feel at home, but the ones we’ve seen are usually with recurring supporting cast in the U.K.

The delayed reveal of the Barber had me expecting him to be someone familiar. I hope he will be, or this gets us more of Ariyon Bakare as wise and possibly sinister mysterious characters.

Big slow artistic spider probably not going to set off too many arachnophobes, which is nice.

Fifty years of the Fourth Doctor

The Fourth Doctor debuted fifty years ago, becoming the defining style of Doctor Who in world popular culture for a long time since as well as the first I remember, as much thanks to Doctor Who Weekly and the toys as the show itself.

Playing the Fifteenth Doctor

Fifteen is good at talking his way out of mundane situations, especially by being helpful.

The Giggle

One more special and we could have been weekly!

Still, there’s quite a lot to unpack here.

Bear in mind that this is the casual viewer friendly version of Doctor Who. Doctor Who is a weird show.

(Extra behind the scenes featurette where the end about what come next repeats the Unleashed episode)

The Toymaker!

Creepy puppets!

The Toymaker having a creepy puppet copy of the Doctor, as seen in the first Eighth Doctor comics!

Mel!

Wild Blue Yonder

Quite Midnight but also very Eighth Doctor comics. Also showing off the virtual set bit, while also being a bottle episode.

It does feel like we got one “normal” episode in a very compressed season as a result. (Not necessarily a complaint - I wish the nine episode Buffyverse audio drama Slayers had had standalone episodes - but odd when we only have three, like Sherlock.)

We are, in a very real sense, back

Davros presents his Mark III Travel Machine in the Children In Need mini-episode. It’s about as RTD as RTD can be. This was so Russell T Davies in funny mode that I’m surprised he didn’t narrate it himself.

Ncuti Gatwa interview

Ncuti Gatwa talks about being the Doctor at Rolling Stone. Thanks to io9 for the heads up.

Dressing Up Docs

How often do TARDIS crews dress for the occasion?

Between the shot in the specials trailer, two behind-the-scenes looks at variations of the main costume, and the Swinging 60s and Regency outfits we’ve had official photos for, I’ve already seen Fifteen in as many different looks as Thirteen in her entire run.

Of course Thirteen avoided historical clothing because a lot of it is heavily gendered and the show kept her in trousers the whole time. (Yaz had a few historical feminine looks, but not often either - Ruby is already approaching her number before we actually see her in an episode.)

Where do you and your Doctor Who characters land on this?

The Doctor and Ruby - the Lewk

The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday.

And in motion.

Ruby’s mot that different from Millie Gibson’s out of character intro look, but Ncuti Gatwa’s is a lot more different than the keyhole shirtless suit he was rocking at the BAFTAs.

13 character sheets

Siskoid provides unofficial Doctor Who RPG first (revised) edition character sheets for Thirteen, Yaz and Dan.

Regeneration surprises

For obvious reasons I was thinking about regeneration episodes, and how the last time one surprised me was Four to Five, when I was six. These days they’re hyped up immensely. Or spoiled by newspapers, like Nine leaving so early.

The closest we got was Ten not quite regenerating a year early. For a week, we were wondering if they’d actually done it - I guessed not as I’d seen press coverage of filming The Next Doctor, but it was fun to speculate.

The Power Of The Doctor

The Power Of The Doctor

Bits of it worked great for me. Other bits didn’t.

Siberia, early 20th century. Are we doing Tunguska? Oh, apparently not. That was 1908.

So the Master with a Rasputin look is actually doing Rasputin...

Has Doctor Who never done a Rasputin episode? Apparently not. Nearly during the Capaldi run. And apparently the Boney M joke was in that script.

Sacha Dhawan playing the adviser to another Russian monarch is an odd but of typecasting.

The trailer of The Power Of The Doctor

Two weeks and a day ahead, the trailer of The Power Of The Doctor is now on the computer via the site of the Times of the Radio and I’ll stop now.

Sunday the 23rd.

All the monsters.

Love the regenerating flame logo.

Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor!

Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor! One of the stars of Sex Education, interviewed here for it. And here for Doctor Who!

“It was our last audition. It was our very last one. We thought we had someone, and then in he came and stole it. I’m properly, properly thrilled. It’s going to be a blazing future.”

Russell T Davies

“There aren’t quite the words to describe how I’m feeling. A mix of deeply honoured, beyond excited and of course a little bit scared. This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. I will endeavour my upmost to do the same.”

Ncuti Gatwa, talking to the BBC

A perfect demonstration from a Sex Education clip.

Also, save Channel 4 and the licence fee.

The Centenary Special

Tonight we ended with a trailer for the next special, coming in... probably October or thereabouts for the BBC centenary... will be the Thirteenth Doctor’s bow.

Flux: Once, Upon Time

And Flux episode 3 was the ongoing plot, with a chunk of the old Timeless Child bit, mixed with a nice adventure idea about time travellers being stuck in their own distorted memories. That bit is a great basis for an episode.

Also the second episode in a row to start with the travellers together and then being pulled apart into different times.

(And a character we never met before got the gratuitous Dalek and Cybermen cameos.)