The 15th Doctor in Doctor Who history steps onstage with the show debuting on Disney Plus May 10. It is Ncuti Gatwa, who played Eric Effiong in Sex Education. He is joined by Millie Gibson, who plays his new companion, Ruby Sunday.
Gatwa and Gibson were seen in a special episode called “The Church on Ruby Road,” which aired on Christmas Day 2023.
Showrunner Russell T. Davies called selecting the new Doctor “a process,” and an extensive one at that.
“You have to be fair and diligent and look at a wide range of people,” he said. “It’s our job to have covered every eventuality. You can’t sit there and say, we failed to look for this.”
As the producers were searching for their new Doctor, Sex Education was ending and Gatwa became available. “He’s absolutely magnificent,” said Davies. “It’s so hard to imagine who else we could’ve cast.”
What exactly do the producers look for? Davies sums it up in a word: Limitless.
“It’s someone who can do comedy, who can do tragedy, who can do things you weren’t expecting,” he said.
The Doctor typically hides his emotions, Davies said. Gatwa goes about it differently. Davies describes him as “open and free.”
“He brings an extraordinary range of emotions,” he added, and a smile “that lights up the whole of London.”
Davies said Millie Gibson brings unique skills to the series as well. Ruby Sunday, who was left on a church’s steps on Christmas Day as a baby, accompanies the Doctor on his adventures, while searching for details about the mother who left her 19 years before.
“That becomes the story of the show,” he said. “It looks like we keep heading toward the reveal — are we … are we? There are enormous tricks, enormous reverses, enormous surprises.”
He likes that a 19-year-old is played by a 19-year-old. “[Gibson] brings a proper young energy to the screen that I think is beautiful,” Davies said.
The show shoots in Cardiff and is a co-production between BBC1 and Disney Plus. With Disney Plus on board, Davies noted how the new season premieres in a vast array of nations, and languages. “It’s dubbed ferociously, and that’s really exciting and brand-new to the show,” he said. “I hope it opens the door to lots and lots of new viewers.”
Davies is 61, and Doctor Who, debuting back in 1963, is too. “It literally was my first memory of television, and one of my first memories of life,” Davies said. “I’ve loved it my whole life.”
Gatwa will be the Doctor for the foreseeable future. Season two shooting is halfway done, and Davies said it’s “even madder than this one.”
Gatwa succeeds David Tennant as Doctor Who. Jodie Whittaker had the job before Tennant.
Davies said Gatwa gives the producers abundant possibilities. “I still think he’s untested,” he said. “I still think there’s a million things we can do with him.”
