A TWO-MINUTE trailer has dropped for the new Doctor Who specials and fans are going wild.
After an agonising wait, fans cheered that "We are so back" and "the hype is real", as David Tennant returns to the iconic role he embodied more than a decade ago.
In the trailer we see him link up with Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, as he faces off against Neil Patrick Harris's mysterious yet menacing-looking "Toymaker".
The official Doctor Who account tweeted: "Destiny isn’t done with them just yet… The Doctor and Donna return for three special episodes #DoctorWho returns this November to @BBCiPlayer in the UK and @DisneyPlus in the rest of the world."
Watch the trailer below:
Destiny isn’t done with them just yet… The Doctor and Donna return for three special episodes ❤️❤️➕🔷 #DoctorWho returns this November to @BBCiPlayer in the UK and @DisneyPlus in the rest of the world. pic.twitter.com/LAsVTZW419
— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) September 23, 2023
Joining Tennant and Tate for the anniversary episodes are Neil Patrick Harris in a big bad role (The Toymaker/The Celestial Toymaker) and Yasmin Finney as Rose – the daughter of Donna Noble and Shaun Temple (Karl Collins), with Jacqueline King returning as Sylvia Noble.
In addition, Ruth Madeley is to appear as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Bernard Cribbins is set to posthumously appear, reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. Fans of the comics can expect to see Beep the Meep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) and the Wrarth Warriors play a major part, and – as if all of that wasn't enough – Rwandan-Scot Ncuti Gatwa is expected to debut as the Fifteenth Doctor.
With all three episodes written by Russell T Davies, we learned the episode titles: Special One: "The Star Beast" (directed by Rachel Talalay), Special Two: "Wild Blue Yonder" (directed by Tom Kingsley), and Special Three': "The Giggle" (directed by Chanya Button).
60th anniversary fact: David Tennant playing the Doctor today is only 3 years younger than William Hartnell was in 1963. pic.twitter.com/6Nu1SaRKv7
— Joel (@PoorlyAgedWho) September 19, 2023
Directors Button, Kingsley and Talalay shared their reactions to first reading Davies's scripts with Doctor Who Magazine.
"Each special has a really different flavour. It feels like Russell [T. Davies] flexing his muscles and showing all the different things 'Doctor Who' can do," Kingsley shared – a sentiment shared by all three directors. Here's a look at some of the highlights:
Kingsley discusses "absolute nightmare" episode, teases "Aliens" & "The Thing" comparison:
"I opened mine and just tore through it. Even as a reading experience, it was so exciting. But I kind of got to the end of it and thought, 'Well, I pity whoever has to direct that cause it's an absolute nightmare!' I was planning to email my agent the next day and say, 'it's amazing, but… no way'.
"But when I woke up the next morning, I was still thinking about it, and I started to figure out: 'Well, how could you actually do this?' Because a lot of my episode is quite weird. Even at the readthrough, Rachel, your episode went down so well, and I was really jealous of you getting to direct it.
"Because there are so many complicated stage directions in mine, the reaction in the room was a bit like, 'Um, sorry, what?' Which made me think it was going to be a disaster. But of course, when you come to film it, it's actually really cool. It's got a lot of similarities with two of my favourite films, 'Aliens' and 'The Thing.' It's a little bit of the DNA of those mixed in with 'Doctor Who.'"
Talalay read all three amd outlines some key differences between them:
"I read all three, and my first reaction was, 'Wow!' The first one is classic family 'Who'. It's bringing back that world that Russell left [in 2010] with David and Catherine.
"And then after that, it becomes much more expansive, with Russell really throwing his massive imagination at it while also being thoughtful about setting up the next series.
Talalay's episode allowed director a chance to embrace "the stuff that scares you":
"My episode features lots of people in lots of scenes. There are soldiers, there are battles, and I thought, 'I haven't always succeeded in doing the action stuff, with loads of extras, that well in the past. This is really scary for me.'
"So I was determined to do that part really, really well. It's all about embracing the stuff that scares you."
Fourteen years ago today, millions of fans witnessed their first ever regeneration scene at the end of Series 1. We said goodbye to Christopher Eccleston as the amazing Ninth Doctor, and welcomed David Tennant as the soon-to-be renowned Tenth Doctor. An iconic scene!#DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/kp1fYQJTvg
— Bad Wolf Archives (@BadWolfArchives) June 18, 2019
Button's episode "was just the most expansive thing" that the director has ever read:
"It was just the most expansive thing I've ever read. Every page I turned, it was a different world and a different idea and a different sort of bonkers and inspiring adventure. It was just the ultimate luxury to read it and go, 'This is a writer at the very peak of his abilities, completely unbound and confident in what he's putting on the page'.
"Which, as a director, is really empowering. It's challenging, in the most positive way possible, for someone to go: 'Here's a big idea; let's see how you do it.'"
