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Doctor Who: Tennant & Tate Talk "Timeless Child," Return Prep & More

David Tennant & Catherine Tate on preparing (not preparing) for their Doctor Who returns, "The Timeless Child" skewing the numbering & more.

As we inch closer to November, we're starting to see some cool stuff hitting social media when it comes to the BBC, Disney+ & Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies's plans to celebrate the 60th-anniversary of Doctor Who. That included new key art posters for  David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor & Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, as well as a look at the Fourteenth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. For this go-around, we're actually getting to hear from Tennant & Tate regarding their returns, courtesy of Doctor Who Magazine #593 (subscribe here). In the following highlights, the two discuss if they needed to prepare for their returns by brushing up on the series; Tennant explains to Tate how Jo Martin's Doctor & "The Timeless Child" storyline blurred the numbering system & why fans should expect his new Doctor to be like the Tenth Doctor.

When it came to researching to catch up with their characters, Tennant explained that he didn't "partly because I was terrified," and neither did Tate – though she added, laughing, "let's not compare and contrast." Tate continued, "And Donna doesn't understand any of it anyway! Neither me nor Donna know what's going on. I believe my soul is too lowbrow to comprehend what happens. My intellect is too low-rent. It's quite tricky for me. So it almost would have been counterproductive to put all those adventures into my head. That's me being quite method…" For Tennant, it was about getting a fresh start – while also reminding us that neither he nor Tate is playing characters who should resemble their past selves. "The Doctor's been three different people in the meantime, so I'm not necessarily the same version of the Doctor that I was before. I'm not the Tenth Doctor now, I'm the Fourteenth. Well, strictly speaking, we don't know what the actual number is anymore, do we?"

And that's when Tate asked about why there would be confusion over the "Doctor" count – which gave Tennant a chance to summarize the canon-changing storyline during the Jodie Whittaker-Chris Chibnall run. "Jodie's Doctor met another version of herself. She met a previous version of herself, which was a big surprise to everyone, including her, including the Doctor," explained Tennant. "That's right, isn't it? I think I've got that right. From a standing start, there's a lot to catch up on. I don't think that means you can't just jump in and enjoy the ride. But if you're going to be immersed in it, it's a lot. There's 60 years' worth of stuff."

Joining Tennant and Tate are Neil Patrick Harris in a big bad role (possibly The Toymaker/The Celestial Toymaker?) & Yasmin Finney as the interestingly-named Rose (Hmmm…). Also, Jacqueline King & Karl Collins are returning as Sylvia Noble & Shaun Temple, respectively, Ruth Madeley is set to appear as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Bernard Cribbins is set to posthumously appear, reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. In addition, fans of the comics can expect to see Beep the Meep 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. 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). Here's a look at the announcement video that was released to confirm the episode titles:

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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