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After years of not watching, Doctor Who has won me back again – all it needed was a little David Tennant. The latest special, The Power of the Doctor, sees Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor regenerate into Tennant's Tenth (and now also Fourteenth), making for an absolutely delightful surprise, especially as it came with a hilarious callback to a 17-year-old joke.
But it wasn't just the actor’s return that reminded me of why I fell in love with Doctor Who all those years ago. The Power of the Doctor manages to weave together dozens of nods and references to the series as a whole, while also giving Whittaker a proper sendoff. Consider me hooked right back in.
The power of the Doctor
Whittaker's finale is a bombastic reminder that the Doctor’s power is the friends she makes along the way. Companions as far back as Sophie Aldred's Ace, Janet Fielding's Tegan, and original cast member Ian Chesterton (played by 97-year-old William Russell in all his glory) return to help the Doctor take on the Master. This episode wasn't just Whittaker's send-off; it was also part of the BBC's 100-year anniversary, so there was a lot of heavy lifting that needed to be done. And while outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall's writing is, as always, lightning-fast and somewhat erratic (the TV equivalent of being inside a pinball machine), it works well in this situation, effectively weaving together past Doctors, companions, and enemies.
In total, there are eight different Doctors and nine different companions in the episode, but Chibnall makes sure to give Whittaker's Thirteen and Mandip Gill's Yaz center stage. Whenever the episode starts to feel too chaotic, it cleverly returns the focus to these two women, whose connection has been the beating heart of Whittaker's tenure on Doctor Who. Their final moment is a beautiful one: the two of them sitting atop the Tardis, eating ice cream and staring lovingly at Earth from outer space. Although I haven't been regularly plugged into Doctor Who since about 2016, I couldn't help but well up at Whittaker and Gill's final moment – and burst into tears when I saw Russell amongst the former companions at their newfound support group.
The Doctor's friends have always been the Time Lord's most powerful asset, but the Doctor has always felt like a friend of the fans. It's why we're so protective over the role and why we pick favorites, referring to them by their numbers in the storied lineup as if it's our own personal nickname. For many, myself included, Tennant is our favorite doctor, and after a whirlwind of reminders of how many friends every iteration of the doctor has, the series brings him back as one of our old friends. It's a brilliant move, especially after Whittaker and Gill's touching goodbye, and a clever way to rope in lapsed fans who may have fallen by the wayside.
That Tennant appears in Whittaker's place, breaking traditional Time Lord regeneration rules not only by returning to an older version of himself, but by somehow changing his clothes, it’s all clearly a ploy to tug on our heartstrings. It's transparent and in some ways maybe even slightly dismissive of Whittaker's tenure – but I can't deny its effectiveness. Tennant's first words as the Fourteenth Doctor are a callback to his very first words as the Tenth Doctor: running his tongue along his teeth, he proclaims, "I know these teeth!" When Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor regenerated into Tennant back in 2005, the Doctor's first words are, "Hello. Okay. New teeth, that's weird."
The return of Russell T. Davies as showrunner and the prevalence of both Tennant and returning companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in the trailer for next year's Doctor Who 60th anniversary special brings back a wave of late-2010s nostalgia that has me absolutely hooked. However, I hope that the future of the series will let the incoming Fifteenth Doctor, played by Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, carve out his own path and not rely too heavily on what many of us consider the golden age of Doctor Who. After this last episode, I'll be tuning in again on the regular for the first time in well over five years.
Doctor Who returns for three special episodes in November 2023. For more on what else is coming your way, here’s our guide to new TV shows.
