David Tennant and Catherine formed a cult tandem in Doctor Who, in the roles of Ten and Donna Noble. The actor and actress are back for the 60th anniversary of the series: what surprise can this BBC announcement hide?
The new era of Doctor Who hasn’t started yet, but it’s already full of surprises. While the BBC announced in early May 2022 that the Next Doctor will be played by Ncuti Gatwa, the channel just revealed on May 15 that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be back in 2023 – an unexpected announcement that literally crashes the BBC website.
David Tennant is the interpreter of Ten, the cult 10th Doctor, from 2006 to 2011. His narrative arc was marked in particular by the love story with Rose (Billie Piper), then the arrival of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) . It was during the fourth season that we met Donna Noble, giving rise to an eccentric tandem between Catherine Tate and David Tennant.
This historic duo in the series ended tragically. Donna had absorbed some of the regeneration energy, but her human body couldn’t handle it: the doctor erased from Donna’s memory any memories she might have had of the Time Lord and his space adventures. -temporal. This immediately put an end to the tandem forever.
A return for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who
The return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate in 2023 coincides with the 60th anniversary of the series – which has been on the air since 1963. During the 50th anniversary, in 2013, a special episode also brought together several doctors, confronting David Tennant and Matt Smith. But this time, the arc will obviously be different.
” They are back ! And it seems impossible — first we announce a new Doctor, then an old Doctor, plus the wonderful Donna, what the hell is going on? Maybe it’s a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or an illusion, or a flashback. The only thing I can confirm is that it’s going to be spectacular as two of our biggest stars come together for the battle of their lives. “, commented for his part Russel T. Davies, new showrunner from 2023, literally delivering no real clue.
However, there is a theory. When Ncuti Gatwa was announced, a strange rumor surfaced that he wouldn’t really be the 14th Doctor, but rather the 15th. In the vocabulary of the BBC, he is actually never cited as the 14th doctor, but exclusively by “new doctor”. One possibility would therefore be that Jodie Whittaker regenerates as David Tennant, who would be in control of the Tardis in 2023 during the celebrations, before it finally regenerates as Ncuti Gatwa.
This thesis is quite plausible for Doctor Who, and would also make it possible to gradually increase the enthusiasm for this new era. Russel T. Davies could, however, hold an even more surprising story.