- 13 hours ago
There’s much more to David Tennant’s second stint as the Doctor than three anniversary specials…
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials made history by not just bringing back an old Doctor,
00:05but making them the new incumbent. And if you're going to pull off a stunt like that,
00:09you might as well do it with David Tennant, the Doctor many regard as revived Who's Tom Baker.
00:15As a result, Tennant now has two Doctors to his name, and you can't talk about the Tennant era
00:20without clarifying which one you're referring to. On screen, the 14th Doctor's era only lasted
00:25three episodes, making it one of the easier ones to binge. However, if you think those episodes tell
00:30you everything you need to know about him, think again. So grab some Tuna Madras and cast your mind
00:36back to November 2023 for a deep dive on the 60th anniversary Doctor.
00:41Number 10. Tennant had major input on his new costume.
00:46The whole idea of the 14th Doctor was that he was similar but subtly different to the 10th.
00:52This was reflected in his costume, which incorporated a blue rather than brown coat,
00:57plaid rather than striped suit, and a square end rather than pointy end tie.
01:01And being the massive Doctor Who fan that he is, Tennant had lots of input on the design.
01:06As costume designer Pam Down has since revealed, he chose the 14th Doctor's coat fabric himself.
01:12And in terms of more obscure touches, he insisted on wearing the waistcoat with the top button done
01:17up, but none of the others. No one was quite sure why, not least Russell T. Davis, who recalled that
01:23quote, in moments like that, you trust your lead actor. It's like the way that Doctors often wear
01:28big flowing coats, but rarely do them up, even when it's clearly a bit nippy, because it just looks
01:34cooler. It's also worth noting that he did something similar as the 10th Doctor, fastening different
01:39jacket buttons for each story. And if you don't believe us, you can go back and check. I promise it's
01:43true. Whatever the case, knowing that so much thought went into the creation of 14's costume
01:48makes it all the more special.
01:519. We Almost Got A Returning Doctor Decades Prior
01:55Bringing back Tennant as a new incarnation was a controversial move, but it wasn't the first
02:00time a returning Doctor had been mooted. Back in the 1980s, Doctor Who founding father Sidney Newman
02:06actually suggested bringing back Patrick Troughton to replace Colin Baker. And to be fair, there was some
02:12logic to the idea. At the time, Troughton was the oldest surviving Doctor actor, following William
02:18Hartnell's death in 1975. He'd also returned to the show already on three separate occasions,
02:24appearing in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, and The Two Doctors. In true 60th style, Troughton's
02:29return would only have been temporary, with Newman making an equally radical for the time proposal for
02:35the next Doctor, that they should be female. Of course, it would be many years before either
02:39suggestion was taken seriously. However, the 14th Doctor foreshadowing continued in Doctor
02:45Who's 1990s wilderness years, when thanks to a series of returns and public appearances, John Pertwee
02:51essentially became the face of the show again. And lest we forget, even before the 60th, Tennant had
02:56reappeared in various expanded media projects such as headlining Time Lord Victorious, meeting past
03:01Doctors in Big Finish's Out of Time series, and constantly gate-crashing 13th Doctor video games and comics.
03:07All of which is to say that, in hindsight, we really should have seen this one coming.
03:13On screen, the 14th Doctor never got to fight the Daleks, save for a brief encounter with a
03:22prototype Dalek in the Children in Need mini-sode Destination Scarrow, which might not even be canon
03:28anyway. Doctor Who magazine made up for this in their comic strip with Liberation of the Daleks,
03:33a 14-part epic told in the year between The Power of the Doctor and the Starbeast.
03:38Picking up directly after the 13th Doctor's regeneration, the story sees the Doctor land in
03:43the Dalek Dome, a twisted amusement park where Dalek invasions are restaged as simulations.
03:49As part of this, the Doctor encounters various Dalek facsimiles, all inspired by design seen on screen.
03:56However, the Dome also features some new models, namely Dalek info points who offer assistance to
04:02tourists and a Dalek priest who officiates weddings in the Dalek wedding zone. Yep, seriously, it's right
04:08here, see? Look, right here. It's a characteristically wacky moment for a strip which begins with the
04:13Daleks invading the 1966 World Cup and ends with a replica Jules Rimet trophy melting on the TARDIS console.
04:20What's more, the final frame sees the Doctor remark that he, quote, wouldn't want to go back to
04:24Scarrow in a hurry, implying that 14's Dalek encounters take place directly next to each other.
04:307. The 60th Anniversary Specials Were Originally A Lot Different
04:36When it was announced that David Tennant would be returning to Doctor Who, fans naturally assumed
04:40he'd be playing the 10th Doctor. That is, until he was spotted on set alongside the 13th Doctor's
04:45TARDIS in a striking new costume, prompting rumours that he would actually be playing a
04:50new incarnation. However, it's since been revealed that the 60th was originally going to take the
04:55form of a flashback special, taking place during the events of Series 4, with Tennant clarifying that,
05:01quote, it would have been an unseen adventure from years before. Russell immediately had an idea for
05:06a story, which I'm not going to mention because I don't think it's yet seen the light of day.
05:10It certainly wouldn't have been part of an ongoing story, but I hope one day he does use it
05:14because it sounded great. As great as the 60th ultimately was, it's tempting to speculate about
05:19what might have been, and where this story might have fitted in. Maybe between the Doctor's daughter
05:24and the unicorn and the wasp, or maybe after the library two-parter, who knows? Hopefully it will
05:29reach screens eventually, either with the 10th Doctor and Donna or another TARDIS team. Or how about
05:34its own spin-off show? Failing that, Big Finish will probably adapt it, let's be honest.
05:396. His First Line Was Improvised
05:42Many fans correctly guessed that the power of the Doctor would end with Jodie Whittaker
05:47regenerating into David Tennant rather than Shuti Gatwa. Some even predicted that it would
05:52end with Tennant exclaiming, What? What? What? Just as he'd done at the end of Doomsday and
05:59Last of the Time Lords. It wasn't exactly the longest day at the keyboard, Russell T. Davis later joked.
06:04One aspect of the regeneration that was a surprise was Fourteen's first line,
06:08I know these teeth. A reference to the end of The Parting of the Ways when the newly regenerated
06:1310th Doctor remarks that his new teeth feel weird. The line even came as a surprise to Russell T.
06:18Davis because he didn't actually write it. Instead, it was added by Tennant himself as a tribute to his
06:23first ever Doctor Who scene. Presumably, he drew the line name-dropping Barcelona too. As such,
06:29for the first time in the show's history, an incoming Doctor helped pen their first scene. Which,
06:34given the fact that Tennant has played the Doctor before, and that he's such a big Doctor Who fan,
06:38feels very apt. 5. He had cameos everywhere
06:44Doctor Who magazine was far from the only place where fans could get their 14 fix while they waited
06:49for the 60th anniversary specials. On TV, there was the skit that opened Comic Relief's 2023 telethon,
06:56which saw a queasy Lenny Henry retreat to his dressing room, only to regenerate into the 14th Doctor.
07:02Again, the canonicity of this is up for debate, though it becomes even funnier when you remember
07:06that Lenny Henry had actually played the Doctor before in a 1985 sketch. Also, fun fact, one of my
07:12best friends from childhood wrote that Comic Relief sketch in 2023, and I was so proud of him.
07:17Then, in the days leading up to the Starbeast, 14 cropped up in the aforementioned Destination
07:22Scarrow, and even read the CBeebies bedtime story, something which Doctor actors, including Tennant,
07:27had done before, but never in character. Elsewhere, 2023 saw 14 make his video game debut as part of
07:34a Doctor Who Fall Guys crossover event. Following this, he was also made available as a character in
07:39the Doctor Who mobile game Lost in Time. And last but not least, there were the linked short stories
07:44Under Control, Into Control, first published in the 2024 Doctor Who Annual, which saw 14 go up against
07:51the Sycorax, including their Queen, who naively assumes he's just 10. All of this before he
07:56finally touched down in Camden Market in November 2023. To be honest, it's a wonder he was still
08:01standing by then.
08:03Number four, the reason he regenerated into his own clothes.
08:08The second most notable thing about the 13th Doctor's regeneration was that her clothes regenerated
08:14with her. This had only ever happened once before when the first Doctor regenerated into the second,
08:19with every subsequent Doctor inheriting their predecessor's costume, and in many cases not
08:24changing out of it until the end of their debut story. As such, fans were convinced that it would
08:29be part of a bigger plot, and we speculated about this a lot ourselves, potentially involving the
08:33Toymaker, given that he faced the first Doctor shortly before his regeneration and would shortly be
08:38facing the 14th. However, in the end, the explanation was much less complicated, with
08:43Russell T. Davis simply wanting to avoid disrespecting drag culture. He said, quote,
08:47With respect to Jodie and her Doctor, I think it can look like mockery when a straight man wears
08:52her clothes. To put a great big six-foot Scotsman into them looks like we're taking the mickey.
08:56Now, your mileage on this may vary, but the decision was clearly well-intentioned,
09:00if a little odd, considering that Sasha Dewan had worn the 13th Doctor's costume literally
09:05in that same episode. However, it's understandable that you'd also want
09:08the first image of 14 to be him in his own outfit, given that he was only going to be
09:12wearing it for a year. 3. COVID-19 Was Responsible for Tennant's Return
09:19The COVID-19 pandemic was an awful time, but it did have one very unexpected benefit
09:24for Doctor Who fans. The road to the 14th Doctor began two years before he arrived on screen. It all
09:30started with the Doctor Who lockdown tweet-alongs, which brought fans and creatives together to watch
09:35old episodes during those pandemic days when we were all stuck indoors. Russell T. Davis,
09:39David Tennant and Catherine Tate first got involved for a tweet-along of The Stolen Earth
09:44and Journey's End in April 2020. But it was the tweet-along for The Runaway Bride later in the year
09:50that changed everything, with the trio continuing the conversation afterwards via text. As part of
09:55this exchange, Tate commented that she'd love to do it all again, with Tennant responding that he'd
10:00come back to Doctor Who in a heartbeat. Believing it to be his duty, Russell T. Davis took the proposal
10:05of a Tennant-Tate return to the BBC, and the rest is history, with the BBC then coercing him to come
10:11back as showrunner. And thus, RTD2 was born. It's one of the few good things to come out of COVID,
10:17and a wonderful example of Doctor Who's past shaping its future. Essentially,
10:21people watching old Tennant and Tate stories together actually brought them back. We manifested this.
10:26Now, if only we could do the same for Eccleston, Smith and Capaldi. Though please, let's not have
10:31another pandemic, shall we? 2. He had a pig companion. Yep, seriously.
10:37On screen, the 14th Doctor never got a companion of his own, spending his entire tenure in the
10:42company of an old friend. But as we've established, the 14th Doctor's adventures extend far beyond
10:47what was seen on TV. And though many of his expanded media exploits saw him travelling solo,
10:52he did acquire an original companion in the under-control, into-control, expanded media stories.
10:58With this being Doctor Who, said companion, was a pig. Not a space pig or a talking pig,
11:03just an ordinary Earth pig that the Doctor rescues from the Sycorax and christens Alfredo.
11:08He might not be capable of speech, but Alfredo is skilled in other areas, saving the Doctor's skin
11:13by tripping up the Sycorax Queen at just the right moment. He's nowhere to be seen in the interim,
11:18wandering off at the first available opportunity. But hey, you can't have everything, can you?
11:22Regardless, he ends up going off with the Doctor at the story's end. It's not known if they had any
11:27more adventures, but given how many stories took place between the power of the Doctor and the
11:31Star Beast, it's entirely possible. Alternatively, perhaps he's still knocking around the TARDIS
11:36somewhere, chameleon-style. TARDIS pig-pen, anyone? Look, if we see the Doctor eating a bacon sandwich
11:41one day, then maybe we should be a little bit concerned.
11:441. Tennant is open to another return, but Russell T. Davis has bad news about his fate.
11:51Ever since the 14th Doctor's era came to an end, fans have been wondering whether we might
11:56see him again. Not least because he's still alive and well, enjoying domestic bliss with
12:01the nobles in Chiswick. Initially, the focus was, quite rightly, on Shuti Gatwa establishing
12:05himself as the Doctor. As such, the notion of another comeback was immediately shot down,
12:10with Tennant claiming that, quote, the door is not any more open than it ever was,
12:14and Russell T. Davis insisting that, quote, he's absolutely not coming back.
12:18But now, the landscape is slightly different. Billy Piper has returned to the show, seemingly
12:23as the 16th Doctor, with Tennant rumoured to be joining her. And controversial though it would be,
12:28it would kind of make sense. Indeed, a cynic would say that the whole idea of parking the 14th
12:33Doctor on Earth was to have a fallback, should the 15th Doctor's era not work out as planned,
12:38which is clearly what's happened. These days, Tennant seems more open to a return,
12:42and resigned to the fact that it will probably happen at some point. There's just one problem,
12:47however. According to Russell T. Davis, the 14th Doctor has already met his end during a trip to
12:522060's Venice. But time can be rewritten, right? Russell T. Davis's comments on this matter are
12:57clearly quite jokey as well, so don't be surprised to see him wheel out Tennant again at some point in the
13:03future. And that concludes our list. Well, we've spoken about David Tennant's most recent incarnation,
13:09but what about his first? You can check out 10 things you didn't know about the 10th Doctor on
13:14the channel now. In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture, and in the words of Riversong herself,
13:19Goodbye, sweeties.
Comments