David Tennant Is Returning To Doctor Who
David Tennant is returning to Doctor Who in the final Jodie Whittaker episode and will be on for three episodes total.
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Doctor Who has a familiar face in Jodie Whittaker’s finale in the role, and it looks like he’ll be staying for a few episodes. David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor, is returning as the Fourteenth in the leadup to Ncuti Gatwa’s first episodes in the role. Deadline reports that David Tennant will be on three more Doctor Who episodes in 2023.
He is not the only returnee to the show. Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble, will also be returning for the same episodes. Donna Noble is known for traveling with the Tenth Doctor, during which she became the most important person in the universe. She was in Jodie Whittaker’s finale as well.
Fans will have to wait until next year to find out how David Tennant’s Doctor Who and Ncuti Gatwa’s are connected, but it would seem that when Gatwa takes the role, he will be the Fifteenth Doctor rather than the Fourteenth. No other actor has played two regenerations of the Doctor before.
David Tennant has a storied history with Doctor Who. As a child, he was a fan of Peter Davidson’s Fifth Doctor, which lasted for three series from 1982-1984. He eventually auditioned for the role but was passed up for Christopher Eccleston.
When Eccleston left after only one season, David Tennant was called in by the Doctor Who showrunners and is still considered a favorite regeneration of the Doctor by fans worldwide. As if to punctuate that fate brought David Tennant and Doctor Who together, the actor filmed an episode with his future wife, Georgia, who happened to be the daughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davidson.
If the Doctor were a real person and not a fictional character, he could not have arranged time and space any better than David Tennant’s relationship with Doctor Who. Although the actor had a thriving career prior to helming the TARDIS, including a role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, his appearance on the show was followed by other high-profile roles, voice acting, and more movies.
Jodie Whittaker and David Tennant worked together on Broadchurch prior to filming the Doctor Who finale special The Power of the Doctor, and the Tenth Doctor actor also played a lead role in Amazon Prime’s adaptation of the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel Good Omens.
It would seem, however, then David Tennant will always be connected to Doctor Who in his professional life as well as his personal.
The fan favorite is back as part of a special 60th-anniversary celebration of the show. Doctor Who premiered on television on December 14, 1963, and has been sporadically on television since. Before the “modern Doctor” era that started with Christopher Eccleston, eight other men had played the role.
Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor marks the first time a woman has been cast in the role, and Ncuti Gatwa will represent the first Black Doctor. Currently, The Power of the Doctor can be viewed on BBC America. David Tennant and Catherine Tate will appear in Doctor Who episodes that will be released in November 2023.
