‘Doctor Who’ Trailer Reveals First Look at David Tennant’s Doctor Regenerating to Ncuti Gatwa (VIDEO)
“It’s time.” But as much as we can’t wait to see Ncuti Gatwa‘s Fifteenth Doctor in action — the first full adventure is this year’s Christmas special — it’s going to be hard to watch another regeneration of a Doctor played by David Tennant. And the trailer released for the third Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, “The Giggle,” offers a look at just that moment.
The end of the second special, “Wild Blue Yonder,” teased the trouble to come. After quite the experience — including facing almost exact copies of themselves — The Doctor and Donna (Catherine Tate) returned to where they’d left her family only to find her grandfather, Wilf (Bernard Cribbins), waiting. (They’d actually been planning to go see him when she spilled coffee into the TARDIS console and things went sideways.)
“Hello, me old soldier!”
In memory of Bernard Cribbins ❤️❤️ #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/ZXb4BPMcUg
— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) December 2, 2023
“Now nothing is wrong, nothing in the whole wide world,” The Doctor delighted upon seeing Wilf, who wasn’t surprised his granddaughter had her memory back. In fact, he figured The Doctor would come back and save them. From? Wilf assured Donna her family was safe and “I told them to bunker down. ‘I’ll keep watch,’ I said, ‘you save yourselves.'” Then there was an explosion, and fighting broke out on the street. “It’s everything. They’re all going mad,” Wilf explained. “Listen, you gotta do something, Doctor. The whole world’s coming to an end.”
Now, the trailer for “The Giggle” focuses on the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) and The Doctor meeting again for “one final game.” It also features that aforementioned look at the Fourteenth Doctor’s regeneration to the Fifteenth and the latter in the TARDIS. Watch it above.
As for what leads to The Doctor’s regeneration this time, we’ll have to wait and see. The last time Tennant’s Doctor (the Tenth) regenerated, it was because he saved Wilf’s life (“The End of Time”). And while the 60th anniversary trailer, for all three specials, does show The Doctor telling Donna, “I don’t know if I can save your life this time,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that a sacrifice due to whatever’s going on there will lead to this regeneration. All we know is we’re not ready to, at any point in “The Giggle,” hear a Doctor of Tennant’s say, “I don’t want to go.”
Doctor Who, Saturday, December 9, Disney+