Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, Trailer, TV | Tagged: bbc, david tennant, doctor who, russell t davies

Doctor Who 60th Annv Specials Are RTD "Off The Leash": David Tennant

Showrunner Russell T. Davies and star David Tennant offered some more insights into the BBC & Disney+'s Doctor Who 60th Anniversary event.

Next month brings the BBC, Disney+ & showrunner Russell T. Davies' three-episode Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special event – and with it, the returns of David Tennant (but as the Fourteenth Doctor?) and Catherine Tate (Donna Noble). With the on-screen spectacle set to celebrate the long-running show's history – as well as set the stage for Ncuti Gatwa (Fifteenth Doctor) and Millie Gibson's (Ruby Sunday) new series of adventures – we're getting a chance to hear from both Davies and Tennant on what fans can expect – and what they won't see coming.

"It's like the band getting back together for one last hurrah," Tennant shared in a recently published profile of the anniversary special. But fans shouldn't assume that Tennant's Fourteenth will just be a "newer model" version of his Tenth Doctor, with Tennant adding, "That was the first exciting piece of mischief that Russell created. That I was going to be Doctor No. 14 rather than Doctor No. 10 again. You'll just have to wait and see why the Fourteenth Doctor is so much like the Tenth [Doctor]. For RTD, it was about finding the best way to bring Tate's Donna back into the action – and the best way to do that was to tap into the franchise's 1980s comics universe. "I needed to bring Donna back into the story. Which meant setting it in London, which meant something alien landing on top of London, and I automatically thought of 'Star Beast' as the best way to tell that story," Davies explained. And the results of Davies' work on the three episodes "surprised" even Tennant. "I was surprised when I saw what that first script was based on, then I read the second script, which is unlike any 'Doctor Who' episode ever. These new specials are Russell off the leash," Tennant added.

Joining Tennant & Tate for the anniversary episodes are Neil Patrick Harris in the big bad role as The Toymaker and Yasmin Finney as Rose – the daughter of Donna Noble and Shaun Temple (Karl Collins), with Jacqueline King returning as Sylvia Noble. In addition, Ruth Madeley is set to appear as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Bernard Cribbins is set to posthumously appear, reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. Fans of the comics can expect to see Beep the Meep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) and the Wrarth Warriors play a major part, and – as if all of that wasn't enough – Ncuti Gatwa is expected to debut as the Fifteenth Doctor. And let's not forget that Jemma Redgrave will be returning as UNIT head Kate (Lethbridge-) Stewart.

With all three episodes written by Davies, we learned the episode titles during this weekend's Eurovision 2023 broadcast: Special One: "The Star Beast" (directed by Rachel Talalay), Special Two: "Wild Blue Yonder" (directed by Tom Kingsley), and Special Three': "The Giggle" (directed by Chanya Button).

Button, Kingsley & Talalay on Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Episodes

Directors Button, Kingsley & Talalay shared their reactions to first reading Davies's scripts with Doctor Who Magazine. "Each special has a really different flavour. It feels like Russell [T. Davies] flexing his muscles and showing all the different things 'Doctor Who' can do," Kingsley shared – a sentiment shared by all three directors. Here's a look at some of the highlights:

Kingsley Discusses "Absolute Nightmare" Episode, Teases "Aliens" & "The Thing" Comparison: "I opened mine and just tore through it. Even as a reading experience, it was so exciting. But I kind of got to the end of it and thought, 'Well, I pity whoever has to direct that cos it's an absolute nightmare!' I was planning to email my agent the next day and say, "It's amazing, but… no way." But when I woke up the next morning, I was still thinking about it, and I started to figure out: 'Well, how could you actually do this?' Because a lot of my episode is quite weird. Even at the readthrough, Rachel, your episode went down so well, and I was really jealous of you getting to direct it. Because there are so many complicated stage directions in mine, the reaction in the room was a bit like, 'Um, sorry, what?' Which made me think it was going to be a disaster. But of course, when you come to film it, it's actually really cool. It's got a lot of similarities with two of my favourite films, 'Aliens' and 'The Thing.' It's a little bit of the DNA of those mixed in with 'Doctor Who.'"

Talalay Read All Three, Outlines Some Key Differences Between Them: "I read all three, and my first reaction was, 'Wow!' The first one is classic family 'Who.' It's bringing back that world that Russell left [in 2010] with David and Catherine. And then after that, it becomes much more expansive, with Russell really throwing his massive imagination at it while also being thoughtful about setting up the next series.

Talalay's Episode Allowed Director a Chance to Embrace "The Stuff That Scares You": "My episode features lots of people in lots of scenes. There's soldiers, there's battles, and I thought, 'I haven't always succeeded in doing the action stuff, with loads of extras, that well in the past. This is really scary for me.' So I was determined to do that part really, really well. It's all about embracing the stuff that scares you."

Button's Episode "Was Just the Most Expansive Thing" That the Director Has Ever Read: "It was just the most expansive thing I've ever read. Every page I turned, it was a different world and a different idea and a different sort of bonkers and inspiring adventure. It was just the ultimate luxury to read it and go, 'This is a writer at the very peak of his abilities, completely unbound and confident in what he's putting on the page.' Which, as a director, is really empowering. It's challenging, in the most positive way possible, for someone to go: 'Here's a big idea; let's see how you do it.'"

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