Quick Thoughts on the "Doctor Who" Specials

Spoilers ahead.

Are we still talking about how bizarre it is that "Doctor Who" is now a co-production between the BBC and Disney?  Because it's bizarre.  I certainly don't mind having access to "Who" on Disney+, but everything about this situation still feels weird, like "Sesame Street" on HBO or the Peanuts specials on Apple TV+.  It's going to take me a while to get used to it.  

Anyway, I've finally caught up on the recent "Doctor Who" specials, which were designed to transition the series into a new era with a new Doctor, played by the extremely charming and likable Ncuti Gatwa.  In order to do this, we had Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor transform into David Tennant's Tenth Doctor for three episodes (now technically also the Fourteenth Doctor), where he got to run around with his old companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) for a bit, before Gatwa properly took over as the Fifteenth Doctor with his own companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).  

I feel a little upset for Whittaker that returning showrunner Russell T. Davies felt it necessary to shoehorn some Tennant and Tate adventures into the middle of this transition.  And while many of the other "Who" adventures and characters got shoutouts in the specials, Whittaker's era was barely referenced.  On the other hand, there's no denying that the Thirteenth Doctor adventures helmed by Chris Chibnall were not popular, and getting the wider audience's attention back required drastic measures.  Also, the Donna Noble storyline was a big loose end that really did require addressing, so I'm glad Davies and crew got to take care of that.  Of course they created more loose ends and never properly explained why David Tennant's Doctor returned, but I suppose we can always come back to that, considering the shameless loophole concocted to keep Tennant around for future adventures.

Russell T. Davies being Russell T. Davies means that Donna now has a mixed race nonbinary daughter named Rose (Yasmin Finney), Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor may be more more pansexual presenting than Captain Jack Harkness, and the big villain in the regeneration episode, the Toymaker, is played by a very over-the-top Neil Patrick Harris.  There are lots of cameos and lots of good lines.  It's all delightful, especially with Disney contributing funds for bigger budgets.  There's all kinds of fancy CGI effects in the show now, which probably accounts for the longer production times - the teasers for the specials were released more than a year before they actually aired.  Honestly, I don't think they made much of a difference though.  The bottle episode "Wild Blue Yonder" featured all sorts of shiny visual trickery, but was about as effective as the similar "Midnight" from fifteen years ago.  Yes, it's been that long.    

I liked all the specials just fine, though I wouldn't call any of them standouts.  It was nice to get a taste of the Davies era again, and Tennant really is the best at playing his particular brand of manic-pixie inhuman adventurer.  As a milestone anniversary event, this is fine - classic-era companion Mel Bush is a hoot - but the 2023 specials really feel like Davies trying to give this chapter of "Doctor Who," that he helped kick off in 2005, some closure before moving on to the next one.  I like that he tries to address the Doctor's existential angst and lingering PTSD issues - a hallmark of all the modern Doctors - in a healthy way.  There's a lovely moment where the two versions of the Doctor take a moment in "The Giggle" to acknowledge how much trauma they haven't taken the time to process.       

However, I'm more interested in what we're going to get with Gatwa's version of the Doctor.  Traditionally it takes me about a season to get used to any new actor in the role, but I already like Gatwa very much and I'm rooting for him to succeed.  Millie Gibson is more of an unknown quantity, and her introduction in the Christmas special was fine, but very familiar.  We're back to the regular formula of one main companion, and that feels like the right place to start again.  The next proper season of "Doctor Who" starts in May and I can't wait.     

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