We Should All Be Excited for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Debut

Ncuti Gatwa is going to be the refreshing Doctor the show needs to bounce back from the calamity Chibnall era.

Sunday 8 May saw the, frankly anti-climactic, announcement that Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa will be the 14th Doctor (the newest incarnation of goodness knows how many!) in the beloved and highly respected sci-fi classic. It was casually dropped in the news like you were reading the weather and “yeah, by the way the new doctor has been announced”. I sort of wished there was more of a build-up especially that the actor is quite well known like how they announced Peter Capaldi. Well, I can’t be too picky.

Doctor Who has become a key pop culture icon and arguably the entertainment representative of the UK along with the likes of the Harry Potter franchise.

Gatwa has some big shoes to fill. Having said that, unfortunately the last Doctor didn’t surpass many fans expectations including myself. In spite of this, I do want to scream this from the rooftops, this was not entirely Whittakers fault! Her performance in episodes such as in her first episode “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” and the two-parter “Spyfall” was extremely promising and showed amazing potential…

It was mostly down to the writing.

The talents of the cast, including Whittaker and the newest incarnation of The Master Sacha Dhawan have seemed to be completely wasted on vapid and unexciting storylines with the climaxes falling flat and not going anywhere with the current series “Flux” being a prime example. Don’t even get me started on that giant spider episode!

This has cemented Chibnall’s Doctor Who tenure to be frustratingly disappointing and dulled the spark of a once quirky and playfully unique TV series.

However, last year a beam of light came shining through with Russell T. Davies announcing he would return as showrunner. Davies created sensationally memorable episodes- The episode “Journey’s End” immediately comes to mind. All he needed was a Doctor shaped partner to reignite his Doctor Who journey with a bang.

Gatwa ticks all the boxes. He is young, the first original black incarnation of the Doctor, the first LGBTQ+ Doctor and is quite well known around the globe with his performance in Sex Education. These points have hyped up the Doctor Who fandom and readied them for change.

It is a very bittersweet feeling for Whittaker, I never really saw the Doctor in her, and it’s definitely not because she’s the first female doctor. It’s far from that. I couldn’t picture the charisma and playfulness the doctor always has, it always felt very forced.Nonetheless, I am open to the regeneration episode later this year and hopefully that episode can change my mind.

With Ncuti, we’ve seen the sass, charisma and serious scenes from him and I can see those Doctor-like traits in him. Hopefully, his first episode will breathe new life into this new phase for Doctor Who and do the new Who era justice. Don’t let us down 14!