David Tennant and Russell T Davies talk 'joyous' “Doctor Who” return in 60th anniversary 'mini-season'

The star and executive producer are teaming up again with Catherine Tate for 60th anniversary special episodes.

When EW last spoke with returning Doctor Who star David Tennant about his appearance in the three upcoming 60th anniversary special episodes, the actor said, "I just hope I look as fast as I did in the 2000s." Well, showrunner Russell T Davies has good news for both Tennant, who is reprising the role of the titular time-traveling alien, and his fans. "Don’t worry. That man limbered up. He's no fool," says the executive producer, laughing, upon being informed of Tennant's concerns. "We didn't need any camera tricks." Like Tennant, the showrunner left Doctor Who in 2010 but is now clearly delighted to be back and working with Tennant again. "He’s as fit as a fiddle," Davies continues about his star. "He's gorgeous!"

The pair are reuniting on the three shows with Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble, a companion of Tennant's "Tenth Doctor." Tennant reveals that this get-together was inspired by a Doctor Who tweet-along that took place during the pandemic.

"Russell T Davies got involved, and then Catherine Tate and I got involved, and we all tweeted along to an episode," he says. "That led to a conversation between Russell and Catherine going, wasn’t that great, wouldn’t it be great to get the band back together for one last hurrah, which I think was only meant as an aspirational bit of fun really." But then? "It snowballed and, before we knew it, we were coming back to the show with the Doctor and Donna," says the actor. "Russell was running the show again and we were doing three in a row!"

Davies wrote all of the 60th anniversary episodes and describes them as "a mini-season, really. It's three different stories. There's a little link between them, each one kind of cliffhangs into the next, but actually they are three separate stories."

The first of those stories is titled "The Star Beast" and premieres on Disney+ Nov. 25. The tale starts with Tennant's Doctor arriving back on planet earth just as an extraterrestrial craft crashes in the vicinity of Tate's Noble. Davies describes the episode as "a great big family film. An alien spaceship falls in London, which is the Doctor’s meet and drink really. But is it by coincidence that that lands practically on the doorstep of an old friend of his who’s lost all memories of him?" The showrunner says the episode "becomes a huge, great big adventure with fights, and chases, and monsters, and terror, but also some great laughs as well."

"The Star Beast" is based on a comic strip by legendary comics writer Pat Mills and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons originally published in Doctor Who Weekly more than 30 years ago. The story introduced the alien character of the Meep, voiced in the new episode by Miriam Margolyes.

"It's from 1979, an absolute classic," Davies says of the original strip. "Pat Mills and David Gibbons, they were kids back then, but they created this marvelous thing. It’s always been one of my favorite Doctor Who stories, and coming back I thought it would be such enormous fun to celebrate the 60^th, and also to grab hold of a great idea, to adapt it, And for those who might know the comic strip of old, don’t worry, there’s a lot of new stuff woven into it."

Tennant, a lifelong Whovian, admits to being confused when he was initially sent the script for the episode. The actor recalls that "it arrived, and says on the cover page that it’s an adaptation of 'The Star Beast' by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, which I remember reading as a child. I was thinking, that can’t be what I’m thinking of. But, of course, Russell is a longterm Doctor Who fan, too, so of course it is. Actually that makes perfect sense, because that kind of storytelling energy that is in that comic strip is very reminiscent of Russell’s storytelling energy. It sort of is a perfect fit."

The cast of "The Star Beast" includes Yasmin Finney (Heartstopper), who plays Donna's daughter Rose. Davies reveals that he had never heard of the actress before casting her, "because that was before Heartstopper had been shown. Luckily enough, the director of Heartstopper is a man called Euros Lyn who is an old Doctor Who director. So I was able to phone him up and say, 'What’s Yasmin like?' He just said, 'Oh, cast her, cast her, cast her.' It’s a very lucky situation. I was writing a trans character, who’s a teenager, part of a London family, of mixed race, and that’s an unusual set of conditions for a character to meet. The list of people who would audition for that is not very long. Along came Yasmin, and we just closed the door after that, because there she was! She’s absolutely terrific, and she has more appearances to come, simply because I adore working with her."

Speaking of veteran Doctor Who directors, "The Star Beast" was helmed by Tank Girl filmmaker Rachel Talalay who, over the past decade, has established herself as one of the show's most important behind-the-scenes creatives.

"One of the episodes she directed with, called 'Heaven Sent,' has just been voted by fans the greatest Doctor Who episode in history, so she's so steeped in it," says Davies. "We had a whale of a time and the episode is epic, we’re absolutely delighted with it."

Tennant and Davies are much more tight-lipped about the second special episode, "Wild Blue Yonder," which premieres Dec. 2, though the latter teases that it is "a much more weird story. We're trying to keep it secret until transmission." Tennant is happier to discuss the third and final special, "The Giggle," which starts streaming Dec. 9 and costars Neil Patrick Harris as a villain called the Toymaker, originally played on the show by Michael Gough back in 1966.

"Oh, he’s good," says the actor of the How I Met Your Mother star. "I don’t quite know if he knew what to expect, but he dived in with such gusto and brio. I don’t want to give away too much about what might be required of the Toymaker, but you need a sort of all-round entertainer to play that part and a very good actor, so there aren’t a lot of people who could have ticked all the boxes required. We were really excited when Neil said 'Yes' and actually it’s impossible to imagine who else it might have been."

Davies confirms that "The Giggle" will also introduce Ncuti Gatwa, the actor who is playing the next version of the Doctor.

"Yes, in some shape or form you will be seeing a brand-new Doctor," says the executive producer. "You will have some questions answered, you will have more questions raised, leading into Christmas Day when Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor arrives properly (on the Doctor Who special holiday episode). But I can promise you some surprises, and some things that have been done in ways they’ve never been done in Doctor Who before, and an awful lot of fun."

While Davies is staying on as executive producer for Gatwa's first full season as the Doctor, which will premiere next year, Tennant will once again depart the TARDIS to make room for Gatwa, though maybe not forever. The actor did previously appear on the special 50th anniversary episode alongside Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor back in 2013. Has he told his agent to keep some time free ahead of the show's 70th anniversary in 2033?

"What age will I be then?" muses the actor. "Who knows if I will still be able to run up and down corridors. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t damage my knees this time out, so I wouldn’t want to tempt fate. But should my joints still be in working order, I will certainly consider any offers if they come through in ten years time."

The Doctor Who 60th anniversary special episodes will stream on Disney+. See exclusive images above and watch the trailer for the shows below.

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• Doctor Who 60th anniversary teaser features David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Ncuti Gatwa, Neil Patrick Harris

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