Lois Hannon evaluates The Oxford Doctor Who Society’s predictions for the 60^th anniversary trilogy.

In September 2021, the BBC broke the news that Russell T Davies was to return to the helm of Doctor Who, the show whose initial 2005 revival he was responsible for. As is the nature of fandom, opinion was divided – some people were sceptical, and others elated. Most were simply curious to know what RTD, with the critically acclaimed It’s A Sin (2021) and other well-regarded TV shows such as Cucumber (2015) and Years and Years (2019) fresh under his belt, would do with his new lease on Who. 

By May 2022, we knew that he had cast then-29-year-old Ncuti Gatwa as the first Black British man in the role of the (then unnumbered) Doctor – a decision received with near-unanimous approval, especially following Jo Martin’s well-regarded performance as the Fugitive Doctor under Chris Chibnall’s leadership. A week later, the announcement that David Tennant and Catherine Tate were returning to their former roles as the (similarly unnumbered) Doctor and Donna Noble was met with similar applause. The future looked bright for RTD’s second go at Doctor Who, as far as the court of public opinion was concerned.

Casting Gatwa and Tennant in the same role at the same time generated enough speculation to power the National Grid. Was Tennant’s return to involve a crossing of the time-streams, Day of the Doctor-style, or would he be making a different kind of comeback? Five months after Gatwa was cast as Jodie Whittaker’s successor, Chris Chibnall’s The Power of the Doctor (2022) introduced the Fourteenth Doctor. Whittaker’s final line, given as she stands upon a cliff overlooking the sea at sunset, directly addresses the next Doctor: “Tag, you’re it.” And then she regenerates… into David Tennant. With a full suit and a witty “I know these teeth. What? What? What?”, viewers were reassured that a long-time fan favourite was back for an encore. Nobody had a clue what was going on, nor what was to come.

Thirteen months later, the 60^th anniversary specials finally aired, consisting of The Star Beast (November 25^th 2023), Wild Blue Yonder (December 2^nd 2023), and The Giggle (December 9^th 2023). In the span of time between Tennant and Tate declaring their return and their on-screen debut, the content of the Specials remained largely opaque. We learned, among other things, that Neil Patrick Harris had been cast in an ambiguous role, that Heartstopper star Yasmin Finney was playing Donna’s daughter, and that Bernard Cribbins, who had passed away in mid-2022, was reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. Most importantly, we learned that live television audiences would finally witness Beep the Meep (of the 1980 DWM comic Doctor Who and the Star Beast) in glorious HD. 

To borrow some imagery from Series 14, then, the run-up to the 60^th anniversary was akin to No Man’s Land: a grey zone between two Doctors, with some landmines thrown in for good measure. What did the Oxford Doctor Who Society make of all of this?

Tennant and Tate’s return opened the floor to speculation on potential cameos or surprise returns to Doctor Who. WhoSoc’s suggestions ranged from serious to silly – River Song and Alpha Centauri were both mentioned, as was Benni, a memetic side character from Series 12’s Orphan 55 (2020). One member suggested that Paul McGann might bag another cameo, although they admitted that this was “a bit more of a manifestation than a prediction.” (We’ve all been there. You’re welcome to join my Peter Capaldi 2033 Prayer Circle.) Other members riffed on aspects of RTD’s original run by making jokes about “references to at minimum five different Series Four episodes”, “dramatic Bad Wolf mentions”, and “much like Journey’s End… a convoluted flashback sequence to random events from the last 60 years.”  “RTD ruins canon again” isn’t so much a prediction as a statement of fact – ruining canon (and the show) forever and ever is a rite of passage for Who showrunners. 

Ncuti Gatwa graced trailers with a single, practically metonymic line: “Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?!” Whittaker’s regeneration into Tennant left Gatwa’s status up in the air, and many of the Society’s predictions ruminated on the circumstances of his entrance into the role and his place in the grand order of Doctors. Gatwa’s unexpected casting as the Fifteenth Doctor generated some controversy – although it wasn’t the first time the numbering had been upset (and it certainly won’t be the last), many felt that Gatwa had the right to succeed Whittaker, and that Tennant’s ephemeral “Fourteenth Doctor” should not have been graced with an integer. One member suggested that “something timey-wimey will happen so that Gatwa will turn out to be the 14th Doctor after all” in order to resolve this problem. Gatwa-Tennant coexistence in some form was a predictive throughline, but nobody predicted that The Giggle would literally split the Doctor in two.

Members also indulged in meta-speculation, if you will, by musing about the sociopolitical climate around the show and its reception. One member predicted that “we will not get an in-universe explanation why the Doctor’s clothes regenerated,” following the controversial Doylist justification for the change provided by RTD, who did not want to appear to be “making a mockery” of drag culture by depicting David Tennant in women’s clothing (Doctor Who Magazine, issue 584). The reintroduction of a “behind the scenes” miniseries in the form of Doctor Who: Unleashed portended RTD’s “well-meaning comments about something progressive… causing an angry firestorm.” Someone speculated on the marketability of Beep the Meep plushies (I’d buy one).

Thoughts on The Star Beast boiled down to three things: the Doctor’s reunion with Donna (and Sylvia, and “WILF WILF WILF WILF WILF”), Rose Noble, and Beep the Meep. The first hurdle was getting around Donna’s brain explosion curse/memory block – one member predicted that the Toymaker would “magically cure” it, another that he would force the Doctor to intervene in Donna’s life at the risk of her sanity, and another thought she’d remember him but be absolutely fine, sans drama, and RTD’s just been having us on the whole time for a laugh. Predictions about Rose Noble focused on her relationship with Donna (and with Rose Tyler), about the role she would play in the story, and how RTD might integrate Yasmin Finney’s transgender identity into her character, with one person speculating that Donna had used her lottery money to fund her daughter’s transition. Another suspected that Rose had no connection at all to Rose Tyler, joking that she named herself after the “your mother named you Rose because she loved roses” meme. (The coincidence is never explained – I think RTD just likes naming characters ‘Rose,’ which I respect but still dislike.) 

Many people correctly predicted that, as in its debut comic, Beep the Meep would turn out to be evil. Someone imagined that the Doctor would make a misanthropic speech about “how dumb humans are for liking toys and see through Beep the Meep immediately,” playing again on the shadow cast by the impending Toymaker. Alas, no Toymaker in this episode, nor the next, but the comparison between Beep the Meep and toys turned out to be plot-relevant, as this aspect of its appearance is what initially endeared it to Rose Noble. No one guessed that the Incredible Power of Being Transgender would save Donna and the Doctor – some things are simply too awesome to be foreseen – but the enthusiastic response to the casting of a transgender actress, and WhoSoc’s various hopes that that aspect be addressed by the narrative rather than glossed over, were pleasant to see. 

Wild Blue Yonder was the dark horse of the 60^th trio. It received the least speculation, but engendered the highest approval from our members next to its siblings (see our article reviewing the 60^th anniversary specials). We knew very little about it going in, other than that there was a cool robot on the poster and that it had been filmed entirely in studios, leading to speculation on potential cameo appearances by a variety of actors. One person correctly guessed that it would “effectively be a two-hander between David Tennant and Catherine Tate, with few other characters,” and another, less accurately, that it would be “recontextualised by Werner Herzog-style narration.” A few people speculated on how it might bridge The Star Beast and The Giggle, including references to a more involved Toymaker, and one person hoped specifically for a mention of Tecteun or a Jo Martin cameo – though neither were referenced by name, Wild Blue Yonder did address the Doctor’s response to the events of Doctor Who: Flux, indicating RTD’s willingness to wholeheartedly enfold the sometimes-controversial events of the Chibnall Era into his vision of canon. 

“Neil Patrick Harris is playing the Toymaker” was practically an open secret, but the returning Classic villain’s exact role in the specials was a mystery. Many people suspected that he would act as the proverbial “final boss” of the specials, and ultimately catalyse Tennant’s regeneration into Gatwa. Naturally, then, predictions about The Giggle converged on the Toymaker, and the circumstances of said regeneration. Regarding the Toymaker, the award for 2023’s Most Accurate Prediction undoubtedly goes to whoever guessed that the Toymaker would “host a puppet show” for the Doctor and Donna in which he would “taunt them with the fates of past companions”. Multiple submissions also correctly guessed that John Logie Baird’s puppet Stooky Bill would act as some kind of conduit for the Toymaker’s power, and that the Toymaker’s nefarious plan would function as some kind of commentary on the evils of social media. The Giggle also received some post-Wild Blue Yonder predictions in the intervening week, including one person who inferred that the Toymaker’s return would have something to do with the Doctor’s reality-breaking salt line.

One world-weary prophet foresaw “great drama” about “either Fourteen wanting to go… or not wanting to go.” That Tennant’s last words pre-regeneration would echo his famous “I don’t want to go” was a popular prediction. Although they would not, as it turns out, be his actual last words, we did get an “It’s time. Here we go again,” preceding his supposed regeneration, conveying a philosophy of acceptance markedly at odds with the sentiment of “I don’t want to go” (and one well in line with Whittaker’s “tag, you’re it.”). Members speculated that Gatwa would appear before the actual regeneration occurred, that Tennant would kick the bucket halfway through The Giggle and leave Gatwa to finish the job, or that the Doctor would spend the episode oscillating between two bodies before settling on Gatwa. A surprising number of people expected Donna to die, either at the hands of the Toymaker or because of her memory block (pre-The Star Beast, which resolved this thread in its conclusion.)

Finally, tying up loose ends: one member hoped for Kate Stewart to “default to Plan A, which is always “nuke London””, and another that the day would be saved when the Toymaker attempted to comprehend the returning Melanie Bush’s timeline. Murray Gold, who soundtracked the specials, received a few mentions – someone expected a Vale Decem reprise, and another some “VERY LOUD music.” Hopes that the 60^th would refer to the Thirteenth Doctor’s era in some capacity rang true – as mentioned, Wild Blue Yonder addressed the Flux and the fallout of The Timeless Child directly – but the two people who had hoped for references to Yasmin Khan were left hanging. 

WhoSoc rolled the dice on the specials – some people won, and others lost, and yet others were happy as long as they got to see Ncuti Gatwa onscreen for the first time. But after the cards had been dealt, what would the citizens of the Oxford Doctor Who Society make of the 60^th anniversary specials?