It’s official! We have another new Doctor! Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, Lynne, and Tansy as we dive into our reactions to this amazing news and welcome Ncuti Gatwa (Ncuti, pronounced SHOO-tee) to the Doctor Who family!
Have you seen him in Sex Education or anything else? Drop us a tweet or let us know in the comments!
^E
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Comments on: "Extra! – New Doctor News!" (11)
It’s going to be so interesting to have the Doctor played by an actor who watched RTDs Doctor Who as a teen and knows Doctor Who. And I think he’ll be wonderful in the role, just based on the presence and vibrancy of his performance in Sex Education.
Chris Chibnall made a massive mistake in instructing Jodie Whitaker to not watch any episodes of Doctor Who, not even the 50th anniversary, or listen to any Big Finish etc. So she had no links to the thematic history of the character and she had a lot of extra work to do in building a character from scratch rather than finessing the character in her way. That made it so much harder for her to try to do something with the boring scripts she was given.
You can tell which guest actors and companions, Graham, know what Doctor Who is and commanded the screen in strong Who fashion, in a way that Whitaker rarely did because she hadn’t seen anything.
Has Chibnall said that’s what he did, because Jodie seems to contradict that. Purely coincidentally, I was listening to her appearance on “David Tennant Does a Podcast with…” today (I am WAY behind the curve on many podcasts) and she specifically says she started to watch old episodes for the audition but chose to stop because it was a bit overhwelming and not giving her what she needed.
Her comparison was that you if you’re cast as Hamlet, you don’t go and see what the latest production of Hamlet was like, you have to find your own truth in the role.
What I’ve found I liked about her Doctor is that she’s not a hero on a mission and she doesn’t need to make sure everyone know she’s the smartest person in the room. She’s a scientist who travels because she wants to meet new people and see new places and if she find’s trouble, she stops it, but delights in the situations where she doesn’t (Taking the fam to see multiple fireworks displays for New Years, just because it’s fun)
That, to me, is a terrific place for the Doctor to operate from, and we haven’t seen that in many incarnations iMHO. I keep seeing echoes of Hartnell in that approach, without the same waspishness… usually.
Thanks Icon_UK,
I’ll look into that podcast
The only hesitation I have is that I only know RTD from Doctor who and I will be honest and say I don’t like alot of his era. I only really liked 10 until Donna, though there was some good Martha stuff but Rose was always there in some ways. I really got into Doctor Who in the Rory/Amy era so that might be part of it.
I’m looking forward to what the new Doctor will bring. I try not to have expectations and just go with what the actor brings to the role. So far I haven’t been disappointed by any of the actors (The stories sometimes, and the execution of some stories, but not the actors). And none of you kids is allowed to complain about Ncuti being younger than them now that I’m more than twice as old as a Doctor.
Considering that the Doctor travels back-and-forth through time making the usual temporal order meaningless I like the idea of abandoning the one-dimensional, totally-ordered labelling of the Doctors. So as a starter (people should be able to improve on most of these that I didn’t borrow from the podcast): The curmudgeon Doctor, the cosmic hobo Doctor, The vehicular Doctor, the scarf Doctor, the celery Doctor, The Trial Doctor, the umbrella Doctor, The New Year’s Doctor, the war Doctor, The fantastic Doctor, the allons-y Doctor, The bow tie Doctor, The guitar Doctor, The Fam Doctor, the Swarm Doctor(I feel like all the Doctors are fugitives at some level), The good cop Doctor?, the Morbius Doctors.
I can understand the reasoning of doing away with calling the Doctors by number order, but for me that order helps me better keep track. It all depends on how your brain works. We already describe Doctors by both their number and specific traits they have, why not keep both? As for potentially scaring away new fans, there are many fans who are drawn to the show because of it’s deep history; it’s part of why we care there’s a 60th anniversary. The thing is, some people will attach themselves to one Doctor, and when they go, those fans go with them. What always matters most are the stories and performances.
I was surprised by Ncuti’s casting, just like everyone else. That having been said, I’ve watched all the available seasons of Sex Education, so he’s not an unknown to me. If you’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Sex Education, you’ll really haven’t seen what he can do. He’s got a lot of range that goes way beyond comedy. He definitely has potential, very much like Matt Smith did.
Hi, Verities.
On the BAFTAS Red Carpet, RTD said that he couldn’t wait to start working with Ncuti, so, no, shooting has not yet begun.
He did also confirm, however, that the news about Ncuti’s casting was about to become public (probably by way of a Tabloid ‘scooping it), which is why it was announced the way that it was.
heh–shooting HAS begun, but it’s not shooting with Gatwa, so we were right, but not about the actors involved! (It was the OTHER casting news the in-public shooting was going to ruin, and they clearly wanted to announce Gatwa first with some time for that well-deserved squee before they announced Tennant and Tate!)
I’m having a similar experience to the one I had with Matt Smith. I’m totally unfamiliar with Ncuti’s work and am quite happy about that, because it means I can come to him fresh without any preconceptions. I like it when the new Doctor is a surprise.
Any yay for yet ANOTHER Scottish Doctor! đŸ˜€
I would have no problem doing away with Doctor numbers, as I always thought referring to people (and actors) as numbers was a bit rude anyway!
If you say ‘Pertwee’s Doctor’, everyone knows exactly who you’re talking about and no-one has to do any mental arithmetic.