Notice: this submit comprises spoilers for this previous weekend’s Physician Who season finale.
Within the closing moments of “The Actuality Struggle,” the Fifteenth Physician (Gatwa) sacrificed his present type to avoid wasting the life of a kid, and in traditional Physician Who vogue, the Time Lord’s regeneration course of ended with him getting a (kind of) new face. It’s not precisely clear how or why, however the Physician regenerated right into a type that appears loads like Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), the human companion to the Ninth (Christopher Eccleston) and Tenth Physician (David Tennant).
That is the second time in latest Physician Who historical past that the titular character has regenerated right into a physique portrayed by a collection veteran. Beforehand, Tennant returned to become the Fourteenth Doctor after the Thirteenth (Jodie Whittaker) regenerated. “The Actuality Struggle” strongly implies that the Sixteenth Physician might need reworked right into a Rose Tyler facsimile for emotional causes. However, notably, the episode’s credit don’t specify who her new character is.
In an announcement about her Who reveal, Piper famous how she has “at all times stated I’d like to return to the Whoniverse as I’ve a few of my finest reminiscences there.” Showrunner Russell T Davies added that “it’s an honour and a hoot to welcome [Piper] again to the Tardis, however fairly how and why and who’s a narrative but to be instructed.”
In an announcement of his personal, Gatwa thanked the Who fandom and “everybody that has performed an element in my journey because the Physician.”
“You recognize whenever you get forged, in some unspecified time in the future you will have handy again that sonic screwdriver and it’s all going to come back to an finish, however nothing fairly prepares you for it,” Gatwa stated. “There aren’t any phrases to explain what it feels prefer to be forged because the Physician, nor are there phrases to clarify what it feels prefer to be accepted into this iconic function that has existed for over 60 years and is actually cherished by so many throughout the globe.”
The casting information was considerably shocking coming after an look Gatwa made on The Graham Norton present final fall the place he stated that there were plans for him to begin shooting a third season as The Doctor. On the time, Gatwa’s feedback felt like an indication that the BBC supposed to maintain the Fifteenth Physician’s adventures going for some time longer. However, curiously, when Gatwa’s interview in the end aired on tv, his feedback have been edited to take away any point out of a 3rd season. It now looks like the community determined to shift gears relatively drastically and concentrate on taking part in to Who followers’ nostalgia by bringing again an outdated face.
It’s not clear when Physician Who will return and clarify the Physician’s youtube face, however the BBC isn’t letting the franchise go dormant for too lengthy. The community additionally dropped a brand new trailer for The Struggle Between The Land and The Sea, a derivative collection starring Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Uncooked, Jemma Redgrave, and Alexander Devrient as a bunch of individuals attempting to cease a battle with creatures referred to as the Sea Devils.
Presently, The Struggle Between the Land and the Sea doesn’t have a agency launch date, however we will anticipate to see it a while later this 12 months.