Ncuti Gatwa Made Me Excited to Start Doctor Who — Until His Disappointing Farewell
So much for the new era.
I’ve been jumping from fandom to fandom most of my life, but for one reason or another, I never became what netizens call a “Whovian.” Sure, I’ve watched an episode or two of Doctor Who, but most of what I know about the series has been absorbed through social media. I watched from the sidelines as David Tennant stepped aside to welcome Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, as Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman kindled an intriguing quasi-romance, and as the franchise made history with its first female Doctor (Jodi Whittaker). I was intrigued by all of that, but nothing I saw truly gave me an incentive to tune in: as the longest-running sci-fi show ever, I felt too daunted by its history. I didn’t know where to start, so I resolved to be a passive spectator. That is, until Ncuti Gatwa was tapped to lead the next chapter of “timey-wimey” shenanigans.
As a dutiful fan of Sex Education, I was already well aware of what Gatwa could bring to Doctor Who. His comedic timing and pathos were among the few reasons I kept my Netflix subscription — and the fact that he’d be the first Black actor in history to pilot the TARDIS (or whatever it is you’re meant to do in there) was an even bigger draw. The addition of Andor’s Varada Sethu in his second season as the Doctor only piqued my curiosity. With the series starting fresh on Disney+ and Russell T. Davies, the architect of Who’s modern era, back at the helm, it felt impossible to ignore the signs. I was finally ready to take my first real step into a franchise I’d orbited for decades. Then, the unthinkable happened: Gatwa’s tenure as the Doctor ended after only two years and 19 episodes, in a farewell sandwiched between two not-so-subtle ploys for nostalgia.
Even to an outsider, Ncuti Gatwa was a perfect Doctor — and his tenure’s ending way too soon.
Gatwa’s departure isn’t a total surprise, apparently. Those who’ve watched Doctor Who for years say that the writing has been on the wall for a while now. The series has yet to be renewed for a third season, and most assume that Gatwa isn’t willing to wait for a reprisal that may never come. I can’t fault him for that instinct, if true: he wouldn’t be the first actor who’s been dragged along by Disney in the past few years. With his star rising and his upcoming projects getting bigger and buzzier, it’d certainly make sense to move on while the going is good.
Still, that Gatwa is departing just as his Doctor was beginning to come into his own — in spite of constant cameos from Doctors of the past— makes his goodbye feel more bitter than sweet. His final episode doesn’t even give him the chance to really stand on his own, with Whittaker’s Doctor returning thanks to a “schism in time” and Gatwa later regenerating with a very familiar face, Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler.
At this stage of franchise storytelling, no property is immune to a nostalgia grab, especially not Doctor Who. But the return of Rose, even to an outsider, feels gratuitous. Not only does it undermine Gatwa’s farewell, one that’s already coming much too soon, it also makes zero sense in the grand scheme. Many fans are already working to figure out how or why the next Doctor would choose a former companion to emulate, but no explanation can do this choice justice. As a Who novice who was gearing up to watch the show for real, it’s put me off the series entirely.
Doctor Who was closer than ever to winning me over, but its last-ditch callback alienated me all over again.
The whole point of Gatwa’s tenure was, allegedly, to bring new fans into the fold, but replacing him with a legacy character just reads as a cheap retreat to something that’s worked in the past. It’s a shame to watch Davies, once synonymous with a new era of Who, walk back everything that made this most recent reboot interesting. There’s no telling how the next season will deal with this reveal — or if it will get the chance to deal with it at all — but the damage has been done either way. Doctor Who was closer than ever to winning me to its ranks, but if this is what the series has to offer, I’d rather deal with a devil I already know.
