^{Spoilers for Doctor Who, up through June 2025, below.}

The Disney+ era of Doctor Who will be the subject of much debate in the years to come, but one thing that feels certain to me is that Russell T. Davies nailed the casting of the Doctor by picking Ncuti Gatwa. With supreme charisma and talent, Ncuti presented a Doctor who was both familiar and much evolved from his previous incarnations. More emotionally open and at peace with himself, he nonetheless had the sort of flaws and inner conflict that we’ve come to expect from our favorite Time Lord.

Unfortunately, all things end, and Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor departed long before many were ready to see him go. So now that his era has come to a close, here’s some reflections on the Fifteenth Doctor’s era and what comes next.

1: Recurring Enemies Got a Much-Needed Break

In the fifteen seasons of the revival era, some combination of Cybermen, Daleks, and the Master have featured in ten of them. All three got a much-needed break during the last couple of seasons, albeit with a hint that the Master will return after being trapped inside the Toymaker’s gold tooth. The old bad guys got mentions here and there, so they’re not gone, but it was nice to have a breather from them.

I hope the break gives the classic baddies a chance to come back in style. The last time the show actively avoided such classic villains was during the Thirteenth Doctor’s first season, and when a Dalek finally appeared during the Christmas special it was something to behold.

2: I Wish We Had Gotten a Musical Episode

Most Doctors have a moment in their premier that clicks with me and gets me invested in the character. For David Tennant, it was hitting a big red button. For Jodi Whitaker, it was electrocuting a monster after falling through the roof of a train. For Ncuti Gatwa, it was improvising a song and dance to help him escape the Goblin King.

I adore the way the actors play that scene, with Gatwa taking a moment to process a plan before breaking into song and Millie Gibson playing someone completely out of her depth but forced to improvise lyrics lest she get eaten. And it makes me wish there had been an actual musical episode featuring those two. We got bits here and there, especially when the duo faced off against the Maestro, but I would have really enjoyed something along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s “Once More, with Feeling” or Strange New Worlds‘ “Subspace Rhapsody” where some alien threat forced everyone to sing.

Ah, well. Maybe some future version of the Doctor will be played by a famous pop star…

3: I Hope the Gods Leave Earth Alone for a While

Fighting gods is nothing new for the Doctor. The First Doctor matched wits with the Toymaker in 1966, the Fourth Doctor clashed with the Black and White Guardians, and the Seventh Doctor blew up the Gods of Ragnarok. That said, we’ve had a lot of gods in the last couple seasons of Doctor Who, and I hope we get a break from them for a while.

Since the Doctor accidentally woke the gods at the edge of the universe, he’s dealt with the Toymaker, the Maestro, Sutekh, Lux, and Desidirium–the gods of play, music, death, light, and wishes. All of them made for compelling battles, and all nearly cost the Doctor his life. However, like the Cybermen and Daleks, they’ve been a bit overexposed now. Hopefully, future seasons will see the Doctor going back to less universe-shattering dangers for a bit. I like the show best when it’s more like a wonky version of The Incredible Hulk, with the Doctor and friends popping into a place, solving some troubles, and moving on.

4: I Liked “Space Babies”

One of my problems with online discord is that folks often speak one opinion loudly enough that it becomes accepted truth and reiterated as though it were a fact. In Doctor Who online communities, the episode “Space Babies” became a punching bag for folks who claimed the show was going downhill. The hatred was vitriolic enough that folks who voiced another opinion got shouted down quickly or chose not to engage. But in my opinion, it’s a fine episode.

Is it great? No. Is it silly and cheesy? Absolutely. But that’s what Doctor Who does. This show presents the universe as a wonderful, crazy place full of infinite possibilities. Often times, that means some absolute silliness. It’s part of the show’s charm. “Space babies” showed off the Doctor’s compassion, his willingness to accept even scary monsters, and his desire to help everyone. In short, it’s a perfectly fine episode of Doctor Who.

5: Doctor-Lite Episodes Aren’t Fun in Short Seasons

All told, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor got two seasons of eight episodes each, plus two Christmas specials. Of those, “73 yards” and “Lucky Day” were Doctor-lite episodes, where our Time Lord protagonist only got a few minutes on-screen and most of the focus was on his companion Ruby Sunday.

Doctor-lite episodes are a tradition going all the way back to William Hartnell, whose Doctor was sometimes put out of commission for an episode or two so the actor could get much-deserved time off. Some of the best episodes of the revival era are Doctor-lite, such as “Father’s Day” and “Blink.” However, it really sucks in an eight-episode season to have no Doctor for most of a full episode.

“73 Yards” and “Lucky Day” are both top-notch episodes, but they really needed a longer season to truly shine. If you get 13 episodes in a year, missing the Doctor for one of them isn’t so bad. If the episode count is only eight, it feels like you never get a chance to really settle in with the Doctor…especially when the last story of each season is a two-parter that cuts down the number and variety of adventures even further.

6: Series 14 Has One of the Strongest Four-Episode Stretches in the Show’s History

While the lower episode count bothers me, the writers of the show definitely made the most out of what they had. Opinions may vary, but for my money Series 14 had one of the best four-episode stretches ever, beginning with “Boom” and going through “Rogue.”

“Boom” is a very good, intense episode that manages to pack a lot of action in despite the Doctor being unable to move off a landmine he stepped on. “73 Yards,” despite being a Doctor-lite episode, does an amazing job of showing off Ruby at her most isolated. “Dot and Bubble” has the Doctor solve a problem remotely only to have everyone turn their back on him because of a racism that had been subtly woven through the narrative from the beginning. And “Rogue,” despite being a more run-of-the-mill Doctor Who adventure, really pops thanks to the romantic tension between the Doctor and the bounty hunter Rogue.

I don’t think there’s a really weak episode in the Fifteenth Doctor’s run, but I would put those four episodes up against any string of four stories in the show’s history. That was excellent television all around.

7: Doctor Who‘s “Big Friendly Button” Doesn’t Jive with Universe-Ending Threats

While I love Doctor Who, its typical storytelling method gets very frustrating at times. A typical 50-minute episode of Doctor Who has 45 minutes of building action, then an almost-instant wrap-up when the Doctor finds a big friendly button to push that solves all the problems. This is most on display during the Series 7 episode “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS,” where the Doctor throws a device to his past self that is actually labeled “Big Friendly Button” and resolves the plot instantly.

Sometimes this problem is more grating than other times. The “button” in “The Unquiet Dead” was Charles Dickens realizing that the aliens of the week relied on gas to manifest, which felt earned given what had happened earlier in the episode. The “button” in “The Power of Three,” on the other hand, basically happened because the episode was out of time so the Doctor just did some technobabble and saved the day.

Love it or hate it, the “big friendly button” is a storytelling technique that Doctor Who has relied on since the early days. But it becomes a big problem when the show delves into universe-ending threats.

At the end of both Series 14 and 15, the Doctor has to deal with destruction on a global or universal scale. In “Empire of Death,” Sutekh kills almost everything in the entire universe. In “The Reality War,” the Rani destroys all of Earth in an attempt to awaken Omega. In both cases, the problem gets reversed far too quickly. The Doctor’s “big red button” against Sutekh is dragging him through the Time Vortex and undoing all the death he caused. Against Omega, he uses the Vindicator to blast the mad god back into the Underverse before the first Time Lord even got three minutes of screen time.

For a typical Doctor Who story, the “Big Friendly Button” is a predictable but acceptable storytelling crutch. But it really doesn’t work well if you spend an entire season building up a cataclysmic situation only for the Doctor to press the button and save the day in the space of five minutes or less.

8: “Lux” was a Rare Special Effects Triumph

Doctor Who is not a show that often wows you with special effects. It’s best known for silly monsters in rubber costumes, and its low-budget quality is part of the series’ charm. That said, “Lux” actually does impress with its special effects and really shows off how innovative the show can be on those rare occasions when it has the budget to pull it off.

Lux, the god of light, comes into our world as a two-dimensional animated being. He exists, impossibly, alongside the Doctor and Belinda. The episode sees those two turned into animation, and it sees Lux become three-dimensional when he drains the Doctor’s regenerative energy. The transformation is impressive and uncanny, and the episode as a whole is a real spectacle. It’s one of the most visually impressive Doctor Who episodes and a rare time when the special effects on the series look really slick.

9: I Hope Future Seasons Stop Teasing the Villain Every Episode

Remember back in 2005 when the words Bad Wolf seemed to follow the Doctor through time and space, and then those words became important in the season finale? That was pretty cool because the words didn’t seem to have importance early on, but they became a sort of Easter egg that could be appreciated on a rewatch of the season. That wasn’t the case with Susan Triad and Mrs. Flood.

Both seasons featured an actress who appeared to follow the Doctor throughout his adventures, appearing as different characters every time. And while Susan Triad’s appearances were lot relevant because of her status as a herald of Sutekh, Mrs. Flood basically only showed up to tease a finale that didn’t live up to the hype. It was worse in Mrs. Flood’s case because she repeatedly broke the fourth wall, particularly at the end of “Empire of Death” where she promised that the Doctor’s adventures ended in terror (which they didn’t).

If you’re going to have a bit character be a hype man for the season finale, you’d better make sure the payoff is there. While I don’t dislike “Empire of Death” or “The Reality War,” the payoff certainly didn’t match the buildup. I hope we can stop with characters like Susan Triad and Mrs. Flood in the future.

10: I’d Love to See the Doctor Explore Their Identity More

Way back in 1966, the Second Doctor told the Time Lords that appearance was very important when he was making the case that he should get to choose the face of his next regeneration. Now that the Doctor is no longer stuck regenerating into another straight white British male, that has become more true than ever.

My favorite episode of Series 15 is “The Story and the Engine,” which delves into the Doctor’s identity as a black man. He’s not always treated fairly by others, but he has a little barbershop in Nigeria where he feels like he has a family.

More than just an exploration of the Doctor’s current identity, I really like episodes like this because they expose me to cultures that I know little about. I’m only just starting to understand the role of barbershops in black culture, and I have very little knowledge of African mythology. Episodes like “The Story and the Engine” really help broaden my horizons. Now that the Doctor can truly be anyone, I hope there are more such tales on the way.

11: It’s Time for Susan to Come Back

Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter and first companion, was left on Earth at the end of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth.” She appeared in “The Five Doctors,” but the Doctor has never really fulfilled his promise that he would one day return to see her.

(Well, not on the show, anyway. There have been plenty of audio tales and short stories where they did meet again.)

I really hoped that the Doctor would meet Susan face-to-face in “The Reality War,” especially since Susan’s actress Carole Ann Ford is old enough to be Ncuti Gatwa’s grandmother. Alas, it was not to be. Nonetheless, it’s time for the Doctor to meet his granddaughter again.

12: I Wish the Sonic Screwdriver Would Go Away

I liked the redesign of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver to make it more of a multitool. I especially liked the little Easter egg where the sonic had Gallifreyan writing on it that featured the Rwandan proverb “The sharpness of the tongue defeats the sharpness of the warrior,” because there’s no better statement to describe the Doctor. That said, I wish the sonic screwdriver would go away for a while.

In “The Reality War,” the Rani seemed to overload the Doctor’s screwdriver, and for a second I hoped that it was permanent. But then it all turned out to be a bluff and he used the sonic’s magic to save the day.

The sonic screwdriver has long been a crutch, and the way it’s used as a lazy plot device became especially obvious in “The Interstellar Song Contest” where the Doctor was asked how he did something with his sonic and he just said, “Magic.” If you can’t even be bothered to put in some technobabble to explain what just happened, you should probably stop pretending that the screwdriver is anything but a crutch that gets pulled out when you’re too lazy to think of another answer.

I could go on and on about how much I’ve grown to dislike the sonic screwdriver over the years, but suffice to say that I would be thrilled if the darned thing got sucked into a black hole and the Doctor had to use their brains to solve problems instead of whipping out their magic wand.

13: Relying on Disney Money was a Mistake

My last three thoughts are all about the end of the Fifteenth Doctor’s short era, and this one is about the business side of the show.

There will always be a little bit of sadness for me about the Fifteenth Doctor era because I wasn’t ready for Ncuti Gatwa to go. He got fewer than 20 episodes, and two of them were Doctor-lite episodes. And while only the folks behind the scenes know what really happened, all rumors suggest that the BBC’s partnership with Disney caused too long a delay and forced the young actor to move on so he could continue with his career.

Most telling was an appearance by Gatwa on The Graham Norton Show where he said he was going to be filming a new season in 2025, only for his statement to be edited out in the final airing of the show. And, come June 2025, he regenerated instead of going forward with another season.

Apparently, Disney, who provided some funding for the show in exchange for streaming rights on Disney+, declined to make a decision on whether to renew the series, placing it in limbo. While the cash infusion from Disney certainly did some good (see my comments about “lux” earlier), putting the fate of the show partly in the hands of a company that ultimately doesn’t care about it was not a good long-term move.

So now Doctor Who is in limbo, and for the first time since the show’s revival there are no announced plans for a new season. Whether we have to wait a year or a decade for the next episode, the BBC’s reliance on Disney probably cost us more stories about the Fifteenth Doctor.

14: The Doctor Told a Great Six-Word Story

I may not have wanted Ncuti Gatwa to go, but he nailed his final words.

In “The Story and the Engine,” the Doctor challenged someone to fgure out what their “six word story” would be: what six words would define them? With his last words, the Fifteenth Doctor gave us his six word story: “This has been an absolute joy.”

The regeneration scene was supposedly worked in hastily due to Disney’s refusal to commit to a third season, but sometimes necessity yields good results. As short as this era has been, it truly was a joy.

15: The Doctor Finally Loves Themself

In the closing minutes of “The Reality War,” the current Doctor meets the Thirteenth Doctor and concludes their meeting with the words, “I love you, Doctor.” It was a very significant moment for a character who has long hated themself. From the First Doctor calling out what an old codger he was to the Eleventh Doctor creating an entire new persona dedicated to insulting him and beyond, the Doctor has always shown a great deal of self-loathing.

The Fifteenth Doctor, though, is the most emotionally healthy incarnation we’ve seen. He still has his conflicts, but he’s much more at peace with himself and has learned how to love himself. To express that to the Thirteenth Doctor, who struggled with her very identity, was something special.

I think it also explains why the apparent Sixteenth Doctor looks like Rose Tyler.

The Doctor finally learned to love themself. And so their next face is the face of the woman they deeply loved.

Admittedly, we don’t know if Billie Piper is going to play the next incarnation of the Doctor or if she was just an emergency stopgap due to the show’s uncertain status. But I do hope she’s given a chance to show what she can do in the role. I prefer when Doctor Who casts new actors to play the Doctor, but we’ve never had someone serve as both a companion and the Doctor, so it could be very interesting.

Now if only she dropped the sonic screwdriver into space when she regenerated…

_{Images: BBC}