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Gizmodo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Doctor Who' Needs to Go Away and Think About What It Did
Doctor Who is frequently bad television. In some ways, it's part of the charm: dodgy production values redeemed by inspired storytelling or character work, or clunkily camp B-movie sci-fi elevated by glimmers of spectacle, the perpetual promise of big ideas yearning to escape one holdback or another. So rarely do those myriad failings combine, so rarely do those big ideas fail to emerge, to deliver a truly wretched piece of television. That scrappy charm in spite of it all is one of several reasons that, just like its protagonist, the series has managed to cheat death for over 60 years. Unfortunately, all those things combined this past weekend in 'The Reality War.' And they made for a state so dire that maybe Doctor Who shouldn't get out of this one, at least for a good long while. You can't really describe the plot of 'Reality War,' in so much that it is less a coherent narrative and more of a collection of scenes that barely hold things together—some altogether good, some altogether frustrating—before they are forced to collapse with still a good third of its run time to go, to give way to a sudden long goodbye to Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor—one sudden surprise among several that feels less like it was the plan for this story, and more like bracing for the show's still-uncertain future. Characters, sometimes literally, vanish in and out of proceedings as they're needed (some are shoved into a box, actually literally, which we'll get to). Plot threads built up across the season either get left hanging, cut off abruptly, or in some cases, just undone for the sake of a completely different change in direction. A mess from a production standpoint, again, might be redeemed in part if 'Reality War' had anything incisive to say about the mishmash of characters it starts flinging about its myriad plot threads, but alas, it is a story as incoherent from a thematic and narrative standpoint as it is logistically. From the moment the Doctor is saved from last week's cliffhanger—falling into the underverse, alongside the rest of reality—by the arrival of Anita from the 2024 Christmas special (who has fallen in love and become pregnant, a point that will become important later, but otherwise largely exists to hold doors open, a way for the Time Hotel she now works for to let the prime reality begin to flood back into existence), 'Reality War' is on a scramble. First, to snap our various heroes and UNIT out of Conrad's Compulsory Heterosexuality Reality from last week (that will also become important later), and then to have them thrust into the path of the vengeful Rani as she explains why she is trying to provoke the rules of existence into granting her access to Omega's imprisonment beneath reality itself. That reason is, rather succinct, and in a moment where 'Reality War' slowing down to actually have its characters discuss something together works. Desperately seeking a way to restore her people with Omega's body to save the Time Lord race from the aftermath of genetic sterilization (although it's unclear just which calamity the Time Lords and Gallifrey faced the Rani is referring to here), it lets Archie Panjabi's Rani become, in contrast to last week's Master-like villainess cackling about wishes and prophecy, that cold, sinister woman of science she was in classic Who, ruthless and blinded at any cost of finding the answer wrought of her experiments. A Rani who makes a callous remark about humanity as impure cattle beneath her—because Poppy, the Doctor and Belinda's Wish-World child is a combination of human and Time Lord DNA—and then jokes that she's lost the room for making a discriminatory remark is pure Rani, and far away from the essentially new character with an old name we'd been delivered last week. It's a shame then, that as spectacle forces all the talking to stop and the action to commence, that 'Reality War' the just as quickly discards this Rani, and its bizarre take on Omega, and brings the episode's whole set of stakes to a juddering crash of a conclusion. As soon as the Rani departs, the Doctor shoves Belinda and Poppy into a literal box—a tiny room built in a handful of hours by Susan Triad, of all people, to protect anyone inside from the effects of the Wish World reality being erased entirely—and tasks Ruby to go confront Conrad, while he chases after the Rani… only to watch Omega emerge from his prison as a giant, baby-ish skeleton, eat her, and then be blasted back into his prison by the Doctor shooting him with the charged up Vindicator. All this—the moment the series has been building towards all season, the return of villains from its past for the first time in decades—is resolved in a handful of minutes in the middle of the episode. The Mrs. Flood incarnation makes a glib Two Ronnies joke and promptly vanishes, but Omega and the new Rani are dealt with all the dramatic weight of a dull thud. The day is not quite yet saved though, as meanwhile, Ruby has to confront the man who first harassed and stalked her, and then re-wrote the entirety of earth into a dystopian reality where strict traditional roles of gender and sexuality rule the day (trans people literally cannot exist in Conrad's world, we learn this week, when Yasmin Finney's Rose Noble pops back into existence early in the episode, if you were excited to add another bigotry to Conrad's long list!) and minorities like the disabled are an invisible second class. Her resolution to this confrontation with arguably one of Doctor Who's most compellingly awful villains in years? To tell him he must be awful because he had a bad childhood, and then use the wish baby the Rani picked up to facilitate this whole wretched thing to wish him a happy life, free of any of the consequences of his heinous actions from either these episodes or earlier in 'Lucky Day'. Doctor Who loves itself a sympathetic villain, sure, but Conrad never argued for, or justified, his retrograde attitudes: he happily was just an awful person, and instead of facing any kind of reckoning or even acknowledging that, one of his biggest victims instead gets to wish him to freedom. Oh, and Ruby's adoptive mother gets a new baby to raise too, giving Ruby the extended family she'd been seeking throughout her time on the show. So after doing away with all three (technically four, if you count the Ranis) of its villains with a good 20 minutes to go, what other ignominy can 'Reality War' offer? The complete and total re-writing—and essentially assassination of—Belinda Chandra as an interesting character. As Conrad's wish world reality begins to buckle, it initially seems like shoving Belinda and Poppy in a box has worked, but just as soon as she, the Doctor, and Ruby begin to celebrate, Poppy vanishes from reality and their memories… save for Ruby's, whose prior experience with altered realities gives her some ability to retain some recollection. After being gaslit for a few minutes by the Doctor, Belinda, and her UNIT colleagues, Ruby's pleas eventually break through, and Belinda—who had briefly escaped the tradwife version of herself that Conrad had wished her into in his reality—suddenly flips back into her singular driving desire being safeguarding Poppy. It's her wish to see the child again that sees the Doctor similar make a sudden pivot, deciding to give his current incarnation's life to fuel the TARDIS with an overwhelming shunt of regenerative energy, allowing it to twist reality just enough to save the life of a child that otherwise wouldn't exist. On the surface, this would be an incredibly compelling way for the Doctor to go out. The Ninth Doctor died to save Rose from the power she absorbed to become the Bad Wolf, the Tenth gave his own to save Wilfred Mott, even all the way back into the classic era, you can see the Fifth Doctor's relentless, fatal quest to save Peri, a girl he'd just met, in 'The Caves of Androzani'—echoed here. But 'Reality War' never actually builds up to this decision in a dramatically organic way. The Doctor isn't fatally wounded in the process of stopping the Rani and Omega or anything; part of the initial tragedy is that he seemingly forgot Poppy's existence along with the rest of the world when Conrad's wish dissipated. He just decides that now he has to die, to do this one thing, even if it potentially means sundering all of time and space, as he's warned by none other than the 13th Doctor, who gets to make a brief, reassuring appearance as reality begins to crack, first to try and stop her future self but then to ultimately aid him, realizing the noble intent behind his actions. It is again, another rare moment where in isolation 'Reality War' shines, but only in that isolation, removed from any of the incoherence that lead to the moment in the first place. The Doctor's plan works, however, and we return to earth with a dying Time Lord reuniting with a happily mothering Belinda. Reality has shifted, we're told via retroactive flashbacks to points throughout the season, to establish that Poppy was always Belinda's daughter, and her reason for getting home wasn't because she had her work and life to get back to. It was once a life that the Doctor and his world had whisked her away from with little in the way of consent—but now, that life is Poppy herself. Retroactively having reality itself establish an entire character arc that previously dig not exist throughout the season might carry a level of existential horror to it, akin to Belinda's initial challenging of the Doctor's own invasive attitudes at the climax of 'The Robot Revolution'. But that version of Belinda Chandra—a strong, independently minded person, one who forced the Doctor to earn her trust by realizing where her boundaries were—is discarded with a handwave. She's replaced by a Belinda whose sole defining trait is motherhood to Poppy, a desire she never even expressed before (and was arguably against, in some ways, when we met her with her first toxic boyfriend Alan!). That familial desire isn't inherently a bad trait to give a character, but it's one that was never once actually indicated as part of Belinda's story during this season. If anything, it feels more true of Ruby, after her search for her birth mother and her own feelings about being adopted. This entire plotline is thrust upon Belinda in a choice she doesn't actively make—either when Conrad wishes Poppy into existence in the first place, or when the Doctor decides to break reality for her—and the nail is hammered into the coffin when we watch her not say a single word as the Doctor, without even asking, scans Poppy with his sonic screwdriver to confirm that she has been restored to reality as completely human, rather than with any Time Lord DNA. The very thing Belinda first challenged the Doctor on back in the first episode of the season now goes by unquestioned! For a season that started so strongly with this vision of Belinda, only to end it with a complete absence of her starting characterization, taking an actual characterization of motherhood and watering down to a singular, flat trait is beyond disappointing. Last week, the enforcement of a traditional, matronly role on Belinda by Conrad's usurpation of reality was a horrifying thing, a breach of consent and sign to the audience of his dystopia being wrong and aberrant. Now the Doctor essentially re-enacts that same reality back onto her, and it is Belinda's happy ending. While that's where we leave Belinda, seemingly for good, 'Reality War' has one last confounding twist to give, as the 15th Doctor prepares to say goodbye. Again, this is a fleeting moment that in isolation works: it's a beautiful goodbye to a Doctor that embodied so much joy and lightness, to want to go out sharing his explosive energy one last time with a universe he cherished, regenerating as he flings the doors of the TARDIS out to see the great breadth of the cosmos beyond him. Except, that regeneration ends with a familiar face: Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor gives way in a flash of light to Billie Piper, who, of course, is famous for having played Rose Tyler (and the Bad Wolf, and the Moment) across Russell T Davies' initial term as showrunner. Having a landmark Doctor in terms of representation regenerate into a familiar face from that 2005-2009 era of the show might be a surprise, albeit a slightly questionable one if we hadn't already done this two years ago. Gatwa's time as the Doctor, already cruelly short, is now bookended by two 'weird' regenerations that overshadow both his arrival (especially in so much as that, in bi-generation, David Tennant's 14th Doctor got to stick around) and his exit with a play to nostalgia. A play that we have no idea exactly how it's going to play out any time soon, given that Doctor Who's latest end has yet to come with news of its renewal. This is the last Doctor Who we will get to see for at least several years, and it is a moment where the show's future should feel bursting with potential. Instead, it's closed doors and rehashed cheap tricks. If 'The Interstellar Song Contest' represented a vision of Doctor Who at its most cowardly from a politically minded standpoint—so unwilling to be seen as saying anything it offered singsong in the face of genocide, while torturing its victims—then 'Wish World' and 'Reality War' together as a whole represent a vision of the show at its most creatively cowardly. A companion that challenges the Doctor? Out the window for a one-note character to be discarded and defined by a singular motherly trait. The return of classic villains with something to say about their place in the modern era? Smoothed over, cut short, discarded as emptily as they're introduced. A bright future of new promise? Only old faces, old ideas, reheated and re-delivered at the expense of wasting a generational talent. Whoever Billie Piper's mysterious figure portends to be as the show clumsily teases that there may be more than meets the eye to this regeneration, whenever we get to find out, should the BBC's deal with Disney fall through or carry on, the only thing that is clear coming of out 'The Reality War' is that the current version of Doctor Who cannot carry on like this. Doctor Who has no future without building on its past, to be sure, but as it stands, its creative guideline in the here and now has no interest in building on it: only returning to it in increasingly arcane and shallow ways, pointing fingers and jangling keys over any meaningful engagement that would set the stage for future ideas and vitality. Perhaps, for now, this should be the end. The moment has certainly been prepared for, in delivering an era of the show at its absolute nadir.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Doctor Who fans are furious again, but they should just enjoy the ride'
Doctor Who fans are furious. That's probably an evergreen sentence, to be quite honest, but in this case it's truer than usual. This weekend saw the latest series of the time-travelling show come to an end with hour-long epic episode The Reality War. To say it has been divisive would be the understatement of the year. In fact, divisive might be the wrong word. The reaction has been almost universally negative, whether it's to the return of Omega, the resolution of the story involving the Rani or, of course, that big surprise in the final few moments of the episode. With so many rumours about the cloudy future of the show, many fans were disappointed to see this series end in the way that it did. Note: There are spoilers ahead for the Doctor Who finale, so tread carefully. Many of the headlines in the wake of the episode are, naturally, focused on the surprise regeneration scene that ended the series. Ncuti Gatwa has said farewell to the TARDIS and, barring any sort of further twist, it appears that Billie Piper will be the next incarnation of the Doctor — 20 years after she became the first companion of the revival era when she debuted as Rose Tyler alongside Christopher Eccleston as the Time Lord. Notably, though, Piper's name in the final credits was not listed as playing the Doctor. So there's something afoot and the door is very much ajar for a different actor to jump in and grab the TARDIS key in the near future. In a series dominated by big, audacious swings on the part of showrunner Russell T Davies, this surprise regeneration was arguably the biggest risk of all. After all, it's very rare that a Doctor's goodbye is a complete shock. In 2013, the BBC dedicated an entire TV special to revealing Peter Capaldi as the next Doctor and, back in 2022, Gatwa was announced as the new permanent Doctor several months before Jodie Whittaker regenerated on screen. Read more: 'Doctor Who's new series is its boldest ever, and you should be watching' (Yahoo Entertainment, 4 min read) Times have changed. Unless you really had your ear to the ground in hardcore fan spaces, Billie Piper's return was an enormous surprise. And ultimately, that's the sort of thing we should welcome. The fact that a 60-year-old TV show covered in breathless detail by the tabloid press can still pull off a shock like this is worthy of celebration. And broadly, that's how I feel about the episode as a whole. The Reality War was Doctor Who at its silliest, moving at a breathless gallop of the kind that Davies proved so good at back in his previous tenure as the head Whovian. This episode had a lot of plates to spin and a smorgasbord of baddies to dispatch. There was slimy manosphere scumbag Conrad, two incarnations of the Rani, returning uber-Time Lord Omega, and the infant god of wishes Desiderium — not to mention the marauding Bone Beasts. Almost all of them were swatted aside with quite frankly hilarious ease via the sort of writing trickery that only a show this frantic can allow. Read more: This Is Why Doctor Who Fans Aren't All Convinced That Billie Piper Is Really The New Doctor (HuffPost, 5 min read) Doctor Who excels at getting itself out of corners, whether that's with a wave of the sonic screwdriver, a flourish of timey-wimey nonsense, or a smart line of dialogue. That sort of thing has been part of the show forever. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's profound, and sometimes it's frustrating, but it seems churlish to start complaining about it now. Put simply, this episode of Doctor Who was loads of fun. It never paused for breath long enough to allow you to think about how messy it all was — and it was — but delivered very impressive spectacle and joyous energy. It's hard to imagine the Doctor Who of old giving us an enormous battle between UNIT and skyscraper-sized bone critters and you just have to Google images of Omega's classic form to show how much he has changed thanks to the influx of Disney cash. If this was the last hurrah for Doctor Who's bond with Disney, then Davies decided to make sure he was spending every penny of that money and embracing every inch of the increased scope he was allowed. His series finales over the years have always delighted in testing the limits of the show's spectacle and The Reality War had more than a few echoes of the 2008 two-parter The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, which also featured a surprise regeneration — albeit one used as a fake-out cliffhanger — and brought back just about every significant companion of the era. Read more: Ncuti Gatwa blames bad knees for Doctor Who exit (BANG Showbiz, 3 min read) More than anybody else, Davies understands that Doctor Who is at its best when it's speedy and silly, capering through time and space with its tongue lodged firmly in its cheek and its two hearts beating double-time. Why not have the Rani munched down by Omega? Why not resolve the most powerful god of the pantheon with a single whisper? Why not bring Jodie Whittaker back for a two-minute cameo? Doctor Who fans need to relax and enjoy the silly sci-fi show. It's absolutely capable of being profound and smart and intricate at times, which is great, but its default setting is to be a rollicking adventure through time and space with an immortal hero at the top of the cast list. It would be wrong to say that The Reality War completely stuck the landing or that it managed to deliver satisfactory pay-offs to the myriad plot threads introduced throughout the series. Those brief appearances of the Doctor's granddaughter, for example, came to precisely nothing. But what this finale did do was provide a healthy dose of chaos for the "mad man with a box" — and tease plenty more chaos to come. Sit back and enjoy the ride. Doctor Who is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
The Review Geek
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Doctor Who – Season 15 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained
The Reality War Episode 8 of Doctor Who season 15 begins with the Doctor saved by Anita from the Time Hotel, with a magical doorway opened up in the balcony and pulling him out to safety. Anita is now head of HR but the hotel is in limbo because when it comes to Earth, the timeline keeps resetting to the same day as soon as it hits midnight. Rani is doing all of this so reality stretches thin and then breaks so Omega is unleashed. The Palace is a point of no-entry so Anita can't get in there… unless it's a falling bit of balcony, that seems to be okay. Anita brings The Doctor back to his old house, where he rocks up in a dress to see Belinda and Poppy. Anita saves them both, bringing them into the Time Hotel which snaps them out of this fantasy world funk. Next, the doorway arrives in UNIT, where the Doctor shows them all the truth. It works to see reality start to reset, and here we learn that large skeletal creatures patrolling London are Bone Beasts, creatures that feed off the energy being created by projecting this new reality. There are trackers inside every member of UNIT, and Kate presses a button which sees all of these guys snap out of their funk and head off to the palace, including Shirley, who presses a button on her wheelchair and zooms off, leaving skid marks and flames on the floor. At UNIT, the Rani pops up and explains that she had a split second to survive back in the day – and she took it. She flipped her DNA and made a biological side-step. She has a Time Ring and this led her to the TARDIS. Now, Poppy is apparently a biological anomaly. There can't be another child of Gallifrey given all the Time Lords are sterile. Poppy has come out of this wish as an accident and she's half-Time Lord. Belinda and the Doctor are determined to save their make-believe daughter, and refuse to let the Rani press ahead with her plan of turning Earth into the next Gallifrey. The Doctor decides to use a contraption called the Zero Room to save the day. This will allow them to place Poppy inside and if the Wish comes to an end then Poppy will still be alive. Belinda decides to join Poppy and leave the fighting to the rest of the group. The rest of UNIT fight off the Bone Beasts, which the Rani has managed to manipulate into fighting the group. The Doctor though, flies straight into Rani's palace and hangs back, watching as the Rani summons Omega. Omega has now become his own legend, the Mad God, coming in the form of a large creature crawling out the portal. It eats the Rani, while the Doctor just stands and watches, while Mrs Flood (the other Rani) grabs the Time Ring and leaves. The Doctor grabs the Vindicator and fights back, pushing Omega back into its tomb while Ruby also makes it inside the palace, thanks to a UNIT teleporter that jumps her into Conrad's room. Ruby brings up his daddy issues before grabbing the baby from the crib, wishing for Conrad to be happy, and leaving. The Palace disintegrates as the fantasy world ends, with the Doctor making it back with Ruby and wishing for no more wishes. The Zero Room has also been successful in keeping Poppy alive… or has it? When Belinda and the Doctor make it back into the TARDIS, Poppy disappears completely and both the Doctor and Belinda have no memory of it. Only Ruby does. Ruby is the only one who remembers the imaginary child, while everybody else has been course-corrected. Ruby convinces The Doctor to remember, and after a bit of a monologue, heads off in his TARDIS to change reality and get Poppy back. Jodie Whittaker shows up and speaks to the Doctor, explaining that he could damage the whole of creation if he ruptures the Time Vortex, which is what he intends to do in order to get Poppy back. In the end, she decides to help and gives some words of encouragement and affirmations before leaving. After all, on her watch half the universe was obliterated with the Flux which – if we're taking count – still hasn't been resolved. The Doctor uses his Regeneration energy to shatter reality and when he awakens, he finds himself face down on grass in Belinda's garden. Poppy is alive in this world, ands after some reunions, the Doctor leaves. Just before he does, he thanks Joy before regenerating into… Billie Piper. The Episode Review It's quite funny to see Ncuti Gatwa touching grass because that's precisely what all the Doctor Who fans have been doing this year – in their masses. The writing this season has been nothing short of disastrous, with Russell T. Davies determined to rip every shred of Doctor Who apart. The entire finale continues to violate parts of Doctor Who's past, and the desperate call-backs to old Doctors, along with contrived writing like the Time Hotel (which can apparently open a doorway anywhere except the Time Palace unless a chunk is falling off?) feels like sloppy writing and a poor excuse to find the easiest way to 'save the day.' Speaking of which, the Doctor brute-forces his way into defeating Omega, using a Vindicator rather than his intelligence (a hallmark of the Doctor's character of course) while also standing back and letting the Rani get killed and not even batting an eyelid. This is the same Doctor who tries to save The Master numerous times, and also forgives a psychopathic barber hell-bent on destroying reality. With poor writing and one of the worst companions we've ever seen in Belinda, season 15 has solidified itself as the absolute worst in the show's history and a feeble attempt at a regeneration into Billie Piper feels like the rotten icing atop this lop-sided cake. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a cancellation notice soon for this one. Previous Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ncuti Gatwa breaks silence after becoming the second shortest ever Doctor Who lasting just two seasons before being replaced following controversial Israel Eurovision storm and falling ratings
Ncuti Gatwa has sensationally left Doctor Who after just two series playing the iconic science fiction character. The actor's time on the long-running science fiction programme came to an end as The Reality War episode brought this season to a close on Saturday. In a statement released by the BBC Gatwa, 32, said: 'This journey has been one that I will never forget, and a role that will be part of me forever. There are no words to describe what it feels like to be cast as the Doctor, nor are there words to explain what it feels like to be accepted into this iconic role that has existed for over 60 years and is truly loved by so many across the globe.' 'I'll truly miss it, and forever be grateful to it, and everyone that has played a part in my journey as the Doctor,' he added. The announcement puts an end to speculation that Gatwa would not return as the Doctor. It also comes after Gatwa unexpectedly pulled out of delivering the UK jury votes at Eurovision for the grand final earlier this month, leaving Murder on the Dancefloor singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor to take his place. The BBC offered no explanation for this last minute change and merely blamed 'unforeseen circumstances'. A statement issued by the BBC said: 'Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.' But speculation online suggested that the actor may have pulled out as the UK's Eurovision spokesperson in protest of Israel, represented by October 7 survivor Yuval Raphael, qualifying for the final. Gatwa has previously been vocal in his support for Palestine, sharing photographs of Free Palestine graffiti in Italy on his Instagram and posting links to fundraisers for Palestinian causes. It also comes after The Sun claimed on Thursday that Gatwa, who has been described as 'Doctor Who's wokest ever lead star', was 'exterminated' from the series after ratings took a nosedive. Doctor Who was watched by around 2.5milion last Saturday - around 2million fewer people than the numbers watching when Jodie Whittaker, the previous Time Lord, was on the show until 2022. But this is still a tiny fraction of the sort of interest it used to attract. At its peak it was watched by around 13million on a Saturday night in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The BBC last week had firmly denied that the actor had been 'axed' as Doctor Who, but refused to comment on whether he would be back for a third series. The broadcaster posted a statement following rumours that the renowned actor would not return as the Doctor, branding the speculation 'pure fiction'. 'Whilst we never comment on the future of the Doctor, any suggestion that Ncuti Gatwa has been 'axed' is pure fiction,' a spokesperson for the BBC said. Furthermore, they confirmed that a decision regarding Gatwa's third series with the beloved science fiction show would not be made until the season two finale aired. Gatwa is the first openly queer or black actor to play the role of the Doctor in the show's 62-year history and since last month, the two lead parts have been portrayed by ethnic minority actors for the first time. MailOnline has approached Gatwa's representatives for comment. Meanwhile, Billie Piper has replaced the actor as the Doctor, with the character regenerating during the finale of the show today. Piper, 42, first starred as the companion to the ninth Doctor in 2005, playing Rose Tyler alongside Christopher Eccleston's Time Lord. She will now be the second woman to take on the role as the Time Lord after Jodie Whittaker portrayed the 13th doctor. Gatwa's time on the long-running science fiction programme came to an end as The Reality War episode brought this season to a close. The two-part season finale saw the Doctor face the Rani in a battle to save the world after making the decision to safe the life of one little girl. As he bid farewell to companion Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu, he said: 'I hope you'll see me again, but not like this.' The finale also saw Whittaker, the 13th doctor, make a guest appearance as Gatwa's Doctor appeared to be travelling through alternate universes. Reacting to the news Billie Piper said: 'It's no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return to the Whoniverse as I have some of my best memories there, so to be given the opportunity to step back on that Tardis one more time was just something I couldn't refuse.' After Doctor Who was broadcast, Billie Piper posted on Instagram 'A rose is a rose is a rose !!!' with images from her previous time on the show playing the Doctor's companion Rose Tyler.
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Ncuti Gatwa makes shock exit after two series as Doctor Who fan theory confirmed
Ncuti Gatwa has bowed out of Doctor Who after only two series – regenerating into Billie Piper. As the BBC sci-fi drama returned for the second part of its series finale, all of reality was at stake. And, with the Doctor battling two Ranis (Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi) and an ancient beast known as The Omega, he had his work cut out in restoring the world as we know it. With rumours spiralling that showrunner Russell T Davies had a surprise regeneration planned, viewers eagerly tuned in to see the outcome of the Reality War. These rumours turned out to be true as, in the episode's closing moments,the Doctor bid farewell to companion Belinda Chandra, before heading back to his TARDIS for a private regeneration. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. And, as he did so, the identity of the sixteenth doctor was apparently confirmed – Billie Piper, who previously played iconic companion Rose Tyler. As Ncuti's face faded out, it was replaced with that of a surprised-looking Billie. More Trending She began to smile as she addressed the camera, quipping 'oh, hello,' as the end credits rolled. View More » It remains to be seen why or how the Doctor settled upon Rose's face as their sixteenth iteration. This is a breaking news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates. If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. For more stories like this, check our entertainment page. Follow Entertainment on Twitter and Facebook for the latest celeb and entertainment updates. You can now also get articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. MORE: 7 best shows to binge if you're already missing Doctor Who after finale MORE: Celebrity Race Across the World 'signs up' beloved Strictly duo MORE: Strictly star says show left her in more pain than childbirth
