'Doctor Who' Sets Premiere Dates For 60th Anniversary Specials
'Doctor Who' Sets Premiere Dates For 60th Anniversary Specials
The specials start exactly in a month, after months of waiting for a date
One year ago today, the BBC and Disney+ announced their partnership to bring the future of science fiction juggernaut Doctor Who to the streamer, becoming the new exclusive international home starting with this year’s 60th anniversary specials while staying on the BBC solely in the UK and Ireland. Now, after much anticipation, they have announced when those specials will arrive.
Instead of climaxing closest to the anniversary, the festivities will kick off on November 25 with the first special “The Star Beast”. Mea culpa on my belief they would stick to the anniversary date so strictly. Indeed, it seems they wouldn’t schedule it for a Thursday. But this also marks the show’s return to Saturdays after the Chris Chibnall-showrun Thirteenth Doctor era was spent on Sundays. In addition, this means the behind-the-scenes BBC Three companion series Doctor Who Unleashed will premiere that night. The next special, “Wild Blue Yonder”, releases the following Saturday, December 2, and the third special “The Giggle”, releases on December 9. This also brings these specials closer to the first Christmas special since 2017, as they always air on Christmas Day, which is now 16 days separated from the anniversary specials, instead of 30.
There were certainly some quirks to these announcements. Certainly not caveats, but oddities. The BBC announcement, the company most pertinent to giving Doctor Who timeslots, did not announce such in their own release. The American trades didn’t mention any either. So there’s a possibility that simulcast on Disney+ in the manner I’ve previously discussed is still possible and they just haven’t announced it yet.
But speaking of Disney+, they released a trailer for these specials. It is a healthy mix of the initial and September 23 official trailers already released, but with new elements, including Neil Patrick Harris’s Toymaker remarking that the returning Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, is recognizing him. Despite never meeting, at least onscreen, a focal point of the specials is the Tenth Doctor’s placed memory wipe and Time Lord mind suppression from 2008’s “Journey’s End” is starting to wear off. They also add “The Longest Sci-Fi Series In The Universe Has Landed” and “Disney+ Is The Home of New Doctor Who” in segmented cards.
Biggest of all, this is the first time that Disney+ has directly acknowledged the 60th anniversary specials in the entire year since the deal was announced. Every tweet about the show since the announcement has been about Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, with only the 2023 reference in the original tweet not necessarily being about them, because their first adventure together is the Christmas special.
Who is starring in these specials along with Harris and Tate is David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, handling the unfinished business. Harris is only expected for “The Giggle”, just as Yasmin Finney as Donna’s daughter Rose Temple-Noble, Miriam Margolyes as the voice of the Meep and Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham, as well as the returning Jacqueline King as Donna’s mother Sylvia Noble, Bernard Cribbins as Donna’s grandfather Wilfred Mott and Karl Collins as her husband Shaun Temple, are expected for at least “The Star Beast”, but there is so little known about “Wild Blue Yonder” that only the UNIT scenes (including the returning Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart) have been parsed in its favor thus far as in terms other confirmed appearing characters.
Doctor Who is produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios. Russell T. Davies returns as showrunner, having left when Tennant did after shepherding the revivals first four series, and also serves as a writer and executive producer. Additional executive producers include Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter through the respective studios. The three 60th anniversary specials are written by Davies and directed by Rachel Talalay, Tom Kingsley, and Chanya Button, respectively. BBC Studios handles global distribution. Gatwa’s first series has also been confirmed for a 2024 premiere, so hopefully no strike-related delays from the long-reported spring window.
Source: Doctor Who