Doctor Who: David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return for 60th anniversary

[The Myopic Sniper]

It feels like RTD has gotten more headlines in two weeks than we have gotten since Jodie Whittaker's casting in 2017. Probably the strategy of treating everything, including non-spoilery plot descriptions and returning characters like it was a state secret was no the way to go. That probably led to questionable decisions like the "no-returning monsters" policy of Series 11. It sounded good on paper, but it just deflated a lot of the hype people had going in. RTD doesn't seem to be on the same page with that approach.

I am really looking forward to seeing Ncuti Gatwa in the role, but this seems to have reignited interest in lapsed fans even more.

David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary

A special starring Tennant and Tate will air in 2023.

www.theverge.com

 

[Morrus]

Generally when they announce stuff like this far in advance its because they're filming or about to film in a semi-pubic locations and if they don't control the announcement, the tabloid papers will. It's almost certainly above the show runner's pay grade. RTD won't be in charge of the marketing (though he will likely have inout into teaser visuals and the like).

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Generally when they announce stuff like this far in advance its because they're filming or about to film in a semi-pubic locations and if they don't control the announcement, the tabloid papers will. It's almost certainly above the show runner's pay grade. RTD won't be in charge of the marketing (though he will likely have inout into teaser visuals and the like).

Yeah, my friends in Cardiff said they saw David Tennant in town last week so it wasn't totally unexpected (and honestly I think we all figured that David Tennant would figure into a 60th anniversary headed by RTD in some way).

I am glad that they got Ncuti's announcement out a week before this so he had the DW media cycle to himself for that time.

I actually think that RTD will have far more input into marketing that one might guess if his last go-round is any indication. I know some fans were upset that there wasn't a full blown Doctor reveal on BBC-1 like they did for Smith, Capaldi and Whittaker. But I think the roll-out on Instagram and into the BAFTA red carpet seemed to get a lot more buzz among younger folks than I expected.
Maybe we will get some Confidential-like material on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok going forward. The official Doctor Who online video stuff the past couple of years really missed the mark in terms of what I think fans wanted. A whole lot of short clips of Whittaker, Bishop and Gill playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type party games to promote Flux on YouTube rather than behind the scenes footage or minisodes like they had done in other eras.

We will see what happens, but I imagine Bad Wolf will do a huge push on publicity compared to what BBC Studios has done the last couple of years. My question is why they went so purposely low-key. I am not sure why stuff like the return of Captain Jack in Fugitives of the Judoon wasn't all over the trailer for that season. That wasn't even the real secret of that episode.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, my friends in Cardiff said they saw David Tennant in town last week so it wasn't totally unexpected (and honestly I think we all figured that David Tennant would figure into a 60th anniversary headed by RTD in some way).

I am glad that they got Ncuti's announcement out a week before this so he had the DW media cycle to himself for that time.

I actually think that RTD will have far more input into marketing that one might guess if his last go-round is any indication. I know some fans were upset that there wasn't a full blown Doctor reveal on BBC-1 like they did for Smith, Capaldi and Whittaker. But I think the roll-out on Instagram and into the BAFTA red carpet seemed to get a lot more buzz among younger folks than I expected.
Maybe we will get some Confidential-like material on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok going forward. The official Doctor Who online video stuff the past couple of years really missed the mark in terms of what I think fans wanted. A whole lot of short clips of Whittaker, Bishop and Gill playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type party games to promote Flux on YouTube rather than behind the scenes footage or minisodes like they had done in other eras.

We will see what happens, but I imagine Bad Wolf will do a huge push on publicity compared to what BBC Studios has done the last couple of years. My question is why they went so purposely low-key. I am not sure why stuff like the return of Captain Jack in Fugitives of the Judoon wasn't all over the trailer for that season. That wasn't even the real secret of that episode.

A lot of that was Covid. I’ve seen interviews where they said they just couldn’t make stuff they wanted to or get people together when they needed to.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I will give them that. The fact that they got the Flux season out and some specials produced during the pandemic after they scrapped almost all of the entire season that they had written is is a staggering accomplishment. Kudos to the cast and crew for pulling that off.

 

[John R Davis]

I thought Tate's character had been mind wiped of all knowledge to protect her sanity?

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I thought Tate's character had been mind wiped of all knowledge to protect her sanity?

I imagine if she is travelling with the 10th Doctor that they could simply just be in the Series 4 timestream.

Of course when the 2nd Doctor came across Zoe and Jamie in the Death Zone on Gallifrey in the Five Doctors their mind wipe was a clue as to what was really going on there, but opened a whole different can of Season 6b styled worms.

RTD hinted at other possible ways around it. I think they are going to keep it simple and assume the audience can handle older looking actors playing the same role like they did in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and in the Two Doctors. I don't think current audiences are more superficial than they were forty and fifty years ago who could easily accept older actors playing the same parts. But we will see what they do.

 

[Zardnaar]

It feels like RTD has gotten more headlines in two weeks than we have gotten since Jodie Whittaker's casting in 2017. Probably the strategy of treating everything, including non-spoilery plot descriptions and returning characters like it was a state secret was no the way to go. That probably led to questionable decisions like the "no-returning monsters" policy of Series 11. It sounded good on paper, but it just deflated a lot of the hype people had going in. RTD doesn't seem to be on the same page with that approach.

I am really looking forward to seeing Ncuti Gatwa in the role, but I am this seems to have reignited interest in lapsed fans even more.

David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary

A special starring Tennant and Tate will air in 2023.

www.theverge.com

Big Tennant as Doctor fan but it's kinda frustrating. He's pretty much the most popular Doctor ever and Ncuti hasn't even had a shot yet.

He casts a big shadow.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Gosh I didn't know Ncuti had taken the role.
He is great in Sex Education and thankfully season 4 of that show has been confirmed.