Warning: spoilers for all episodes of Doctor Who Season Two
The Fifteenth Doctor throughout his era on Doctor Who was curious about the universe, friendly, often flirtatious, and unafraid to show all of his emotions. Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor was first introduced in 2023’s third 60th Anniversary special, “The Giggle”, which established the fact that Time Lords can “bi-generate” into two distinct bodies. Christmas special “The Church on Ruby Road” was shown later that year. In it, Fifteen encounters his first companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), at first as a child mysteriously abandoned and then later as an adult. Evil goblins kidnap Ruby and as a result she’s eager to follow Fifteen because he could be the key to solving the mystery of why she was abandoned. Neither of them noticed at the time that Mrs. Flood, Ruby’s next-door neighbor, potentially knew far more about the Doctor’s world than an ordinary person should.
In Season One, Fifteen and Ruby find an abandoned space station filled with babies, meet the Beatles, and travel to several far-flung planets. He often shortens her name to “Rubes” and also gives other characters chummy nicknames. Initially, Fifteen was afraid to form a close bond with Ruby as the Doctor had lost so many loved ones before, but they slowly developed an intimate platonic relationship. Season One established Fifteen as joyful and a flirt – especially with men he finds attractive – as well as somebody willing to defend the underdog. Notably, when the TARDIS lands in Regency England in “Rogue”, Fifteen meets the title character played by Jonathan Groff. Unfortunately, the villains of that episode force Fifteen and Rogue’s short-lived romance to conclude.
Unlike other Doctors except the Eighth, Fifteen does not encounter Cybermen or Daleks on screen. The 60th Anniversary specials introduce elements of the supernatural and gods as villains, and this theme continues through both of his seasons. Fifteen has to stop the gods of games, light, stories, myth, and music from killing the entire universe. Although Fifteen didn’t back down from these fights, he also realized there were times when moving on or walking away was the smarter choice. The Season One finale not only answered the mystery of who was Ruby Sunday’s biological mother but also reintroduced the Classic villain and god Sutekh as another member of The Pantheon. These battles are where Fifteen’s equivalents of the Tenth Doctor’s “Time Lord Victorious” speech come from.
Season Two introduced Belinda Chandra, a nurse who was kidnapped by aliens who misinterpreted those ‘name a star after you’ certificates as her being the ruler of their world. Fifteen assists her in getting out of there, but is repeatedly thwarted from returning Belinda home. The TARDIS can’t land at the moment right after the kidnapping. Fifteen then spends the next few episodes attempting various workarounds to the situation. Belinda is initially extremely skeptical of the Doctor’s outer space shenanigans and sees right through his more evasive statements, but she grows to trust him and even enjoys some of the adventures. Fifteen and Belinda travel to 1950s Miami, return to the planet featured in “Midnight”, and are serenaded by the contestants from the Interstellar Song Contest.
Halfway through Season Two, Ruby Sunday returns to the story in “Lucky Day.” Ruby meets Conrad, someone who seems like a normal boyfriend, but he quickly reveals his adversarial agenda and his stubborn refusal to believe that the Doctor has good intentions for all of humanity.
While both seasons consistently affirmed Fifteen’s sexuality, there is more of a mixed bag when it comes to his outward appearance as a Black man. Season One’s “Dot and Bubble” was a notable low point as Fifteen cries out of frustration that the racists on the planet Finetime refuse to accept his help. This is a real remove from Twelve punching the racist Sutcliffe in “Thin Ice” and other moments where much less serious antagonists provoked a physical response. In Season Two, “The Story and the Engine” shows Fifteen finding community with a group of fellow Black men in a barbershop in Lagos, Nigeria.
Many Doctor Who fans are in mourning after Fifteen’s final episode, “The Reality War,” which closes the book on Season Two and reintroduces some of the inconsistencies in the way racial optics are handled in the series. All of the remaining threads left from earlier episodes were converging to form a full story arc. For all of that setup, the very end of “Reality War” ultimately does a disservice to the Fifteenth Doctor’s character development as well as the development of both of his companions. The plot twists and turns add up to a reversal of the progress made this season.
Many Black Whovians in particular feel like the rug that the TARDIS is indeed for everyone has been pulled from underneath them. Some wanted more episodes to explore Fifteen’s character development. So many reactions included admissions that they couldn’t even fully express how they felt. Black fans may not know any of the behind-the-scenes details, but several have concluded that showrunner Russell T. Davies could have made different choices and failed to. The cameo appearance from Jo Martin in “The Story and The Engine” led many to theorize that the Fugitive Doctor would make a full return appearance. That didn’t happen, and neither did another Black actor or actor of color replace Ncuti Gatwa when he stepped down from the role. The face we saw in the regeneration sequence was that of Billie Piper, who, though not credited as the Doctor, represents another return to the show’s past and could give the appearance of the series placating its racist and homophobic critics – though obviously not its misogynist detractors.
“The Reality War” was packed with top-notch performances from the actors, excellent directing and skillful visuals and special effects, and the early scenes quickly tied together the preceding episodes, which revealed Mrs. Flood to be a bi-generation of Classic adversary The Rani, alongside another version of the Rani played by Archie Panjabi. The Rani created an alternate reality that distorted the memories and experiences of everyone on Earth as part of an elaborate scheme to resurrect the Time Lord Omega. Conrad, Ruby’s evil ex, also has a share in this plan. However, there are several weak points in the script before the regeneration that go far beyond the usual timey wimey plot holes.
Belinda’s main motivation being revealed as wanting to go home to take care of Poppy as her biological daughter not only unintentionally carries negative stereotypes of Black men as ‘deadbeat dads’ but also of women of color as single mothers. On top of that, almost everything about Belinda’s career was sidelined. In addition, her sharing screen time with Ruby also brought up the unfortunate parallels of the Rose Tyler vs. Martha Jones dynamic. Black Whovians have pointed out previously that Martha was not only unfairly compared to Rose, but also received racist vitriol from some parts of the fandom (despite saving all of Planet Earth).
Speaking of sidelining, the decision for Omega to kill Archie Panjabi’s Rani and not Anita Dobson is one more instance of a repeated criticism of Doctor Who killing off Black and POC characters-of-the-week. Some may argue this was similar to Sacha Dhawan’s Master being defeated, however, the Rani had far less screen time in comparison to any of the Masters in previous story arcs. All of these points together suggest that this season’s Black guest screenwriters Inua Ellams and Sharma Angel-Wallfall perhaps didn’t have the opportunity to provide feedback or sensitivity reading beyond their work on “The Story and the Engine” and “The Well”. (Another questionable decision is having Jonathan Groff’s Rogue appear from ‘hell’ – divine punishment being a classic homophobic trope with no clear attempts of parody or subversion.)
There are so many questions fans have about why Season Two is ending with Ncuti Gatwa regenerating into an image of Billie Piper, and unfortunately, there are not many official answers from either the BBC or Disney+. BBC social media has mentioned the scene as a farewell, and also released a goodbye statement from Gatwa This is not the first time that a Doctor left the series before writers could fully flesh out their story arc. Christopher Eccleston quit playing the Ninth Doctor after only one season, after falling out with the producers of Doctor Who. Right now, there is no indication that there is any comparison between Eccleston and Gatwa other than having short screen time, but in response to Fifteen’s regeneration, some Black fans have been reposting an old Eccleston interview where he discusses his grievances.
In October 2024, Gatwa, in an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, said that production on Season Three would be starting soon. Deadline then reported that the BBC edited out that mention from the interview. It’s now clear that Season Three is in limbo. At this time, neither the BBC nor Disney has announced a renewal or a cancellation of their partnership, which ends this year. It is important to note that, despite many claims to the contrary online, Disney’s primary role is to advise on scripts and lead international advertising and distribution efforts. Disney does not have control over casting or the UK production process, as that is managed by Bad Wolf and the BBC. Based on the Deadline article and fandom blog reports of scenes from “The Reality War” being reshot earlier this year, the most likely explanations for the finale are that at some point between October 2024 and now, either actor availability or other logistical factors forced a change in the script that Russell T. Davies initially wrote, or that negotiations between the BBC, Disney+, and Bad Wolf are taking longer than initially projected.
The only clear indication about the future of Doctor Who is that the BBC has released the trailer for the U.N.I.T spinoff series “The War Between the Land and the Sea,” which will air later this year.
All of these issues have the potential for Doctor Who to lose the support of casual viewers and diehard fans alike. This is especially a problem for Disney+’s viewership, which has a considerable share of international and American Black and POC audiences. These viewers are very likely not following UK sources of Doctor Who info due to a fear of spoilers, or have limited overall participation in the fandom. Many are casual viewers who became engaged because of Ncuti Gatwa’s electrifying performance as Fifteen. There’s a possibility that future episodes may reveal that these considerations are indeed addressed, but there is still much uncertainty. Every day that there isn’t an official word on what’s next means that hope for a diverse future for Doctor Who may continue to dwindle.
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ around the world.
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