Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Premiere Dates Have Been Revealed, But Now I Have A Question About Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor

A little over a year ago, Doctor Who fans watched as Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor shockingly regenerated into David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor, the first time the title Time Lord was ever shown reverting to one of their earlier faces. Still, this explained why Tennant was returning for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary episodes, and today, it was finally revealed when these three episodes will finally premiere. However, this new information now has me asking a question concerning Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, namely if his first full episode will break with tradition that’s been established since the show was revived in 2005.

When Will Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Episodes Air?

First things first, it was announced today that Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary celebration will kick off with the premiere of “The Star Beast” on Saturday, November 25. That will be followed by “Wild Blue Yonder” on December 2, and then “The Giggle” will round out this arc on December 9. It’s also important to remember that while Doctor Who will continue to BBC One in the United Kingdom and Ireland, fans in the United States and other territories will need a Disney+ subscription to watch these episodes and future seasons.

It’s curious that “The Star Beast” premieres on November 25 rather than November 23, the day that Doctor Who premiered back in 1963, especially considering that the 50th anniversary, a.k.a. “The Day of the Doctor,” dropped on that day. Still, I imagine that the powers-that-be felt that it would be better to debut the episode on a Saturday, when more viewers both young and old would be able to tune in, rather than on a Thursday. But this in turn has me wondering if a similar plan will be followed for Ncuti Gatwa’s first full Doctor Who episode.

What This Could Mean For Ncuti Gatwa’s First Full Doctor Who Episode

David Tennant may be the star of Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary episodes, but by the time this arc is over, he’ll have departed this mortal coil and made way for the Fifteenth Doctor. Frankly, given how much he’s been teased in the previews for the 60th anniversary, including the trailer that premiered in late September, I wonder if he’ll have a bigger role to play beyond simply showing up in the final minutes of “The Giggle.” Whatever ends up happening, it’s already been officially stated that Ncuti Gatwa’s first full Doctor Who episode will air sometime during the “festive season.”

This would suggest that rather than the episode premiering on New Year’s Day, which had become the norm during the Thirteenth Doctor era, we’ll instead get it on Christmas Day, with Christmas specials having been a Doctor Who tradition from 2005’s “The Christmas Invasion” to 2017’s “Twice Upon a Time.” Only, what if that’s not quite the case? The vague “festive season” description combined with the Saturday drops for the 60th anniversary episodes have me wondering if this particular episode will also premiere on a Saturday, specifically either December 16 or December 23.

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I’m more inclined towards the latter date since that’s only a two-day difference, and ultimately this is a minor discussion point in the grand scheme of things. After all, following that initial premiere, few will care when the episode originally aired, and there’s nothing to stop anyone from enjoying Gatwa’s first full Doctor Who episode on Christmas Day either as a rewatch or for the first time. Still, considering how important Christmas/New Year’s Day has been to Doctor Who for close to two decades now, it would be interesting to hit a point where a special episode won’t arrive on either of those days.

In any case, we now have a month to go until David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor outings, and whenever the Fifteenth Doctor does take center stage, afterwards, we can look forward to his first season, i.e. Season 14, unfolding sometime in 2024. Meanwhile, our 2023 TV schedule can be perused if you’re curious about what other programming is left for this year.