The arrival of Doctor Who on Disney+ (everywhere but in the UK) is being designated as an entire new series by both D+ and the BBC, and not the 14th season of the revival that Russell T. Davies created in 2005. But with Davies back in the fold since the 60th anniversary specials, it feels like a continuation. However, this is definitely the start of a new era of that continuation, with Ncuti Gatwa playing The Doctor and Millie Gibson playing his new companion, Cherry Sunday; we were introduced to both of them during the 2023 Doctor Who Christmas special.
DOCTOR WHO SEASON 14: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: The episode picks up where the 2023 holiday special left off, with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) carefully entering the TARDIS and marveling at what’s inside. “Who are you?” she asks in wonder, to which The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) replies, with pride, “I’m The Doctor.”
The Gist: The Doctor doesn’t let just anyone inside the TARDIS, and of course Ruby has a whole lot of questions. The Doctor explains his reference to being adopted during their adventure with the goblins, and the fact that everyone on Gallifrey is gone, leaving him as the only Time Lord in the entire universe.
He shows Ruby the potential of the TARDIS when he takes her back to North America millions of years ago. She wonders about how she might affect the future if she interacts with the environment there, and he assures her it’s not a problem… until it is. So he decides to send them into the very distant future.
There, they find themselves on a space station, running from a disgusting monster with what looks like a million teeth. They go up a lift and find that they’re in a room with fetuses in chambers. The Doctor concludes that they’re somewhere where humans are being repopulated. But he and Ruby are about to be shocked when they reach the bridge and are confronted by … babies! Lots of babies, some of whom actually talk.
These “space babies” have been running the station since the crew left six years prior, with the only seemingly adult supervision being a computer voice named NAN-E. When The Doctor mentions the monster, the babies of course get upset, but they also mention exactly who that monster is: the bogeyman.
When NAN-E tells The Doctor to go to a particular sector, he and Ruby find out that there is an adult on the ship (Golda Rosheuvel), who was left behind when the crew left due to budget cuts. She’s overwhelmed and has no idea how to maintain the ship, but she does know she wants to get rid of that bogeyman that’s scaring everyone.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Doctor Who has been around for over 60 years now, so comparing the show to others seems somewhat pointless. With Russell T. Davies back running the show for the first time since 2010, it certainly has some of the whimsy of the revival’s earlier years.
Our Take: Doctor Who has never been a dark or super-scary show, but something about this new era, with Davies back in charge and Gatwa and Gibson driving the TARDIS, feels a little different. It could be because the show is now streaming on Disney+ everywhere but the UK, and Davies and crew have decided to aim the stories at the same audiences who have enjoyed shows like Percy Jackson And The Olympians and Renegade Nell.
What else explains the tweeness of the holiday special, with singing goblins and a preponderance of adorable babies, being followed up by an episode with even more adorable babies, some of whom actually talk? Sure, the presence of the toothy bogeyman in the episode offsets some of that adorableness, but it definitely feels like this season of Doctor Who is going to feel more like a cute version of Quantum Leap than, well, Doctor Who.
This is no fault of Gatwa and Gibson, though. The two of them have a palpable chemistry, and even though there is still a bit of a real-life age difference between them — as there always is between the Doctor and his/her companion — Gatwa brings a youthful energy to the Doctor that we haven’t seen in quite some time.
What we hope fuels a lot of the Fifteenth Doctor’s stories (yes, Fifteenth; David Tennant was the Fourteenth Doctor when he returned for the anniversary specials) is Ruby’s origin story and her family life with her mother Carla (Michelle Greenidge) and grandmother Cherry (Angela Wynter). Not only does it feed into The Doctor’s story about being adopted and trying to find his place in the universe, but it projected such a warm family feeling onto Ruby’s life that we want to revisit it as she and The Doctor traverse time and space.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Inside the TARDIS, we see a DNA scan of Ruby and something else that shows there’s something going on with her origin story that even The Doctor may not be able to reveal.
Sleeper Star: Somehow, the visual effects staff managed to show babies talking without them look creepy. Perhaps the folks who make those E-Trade ads should take notes.
Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing that stands out, but as a parent of a 9-year-old, watching all of those babies really hit us right in the feels.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Doctor Who may be taking a slightly different direction as it arrives on Disney+, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not as funny and witty as ever. And the chemistry between Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson does a lot to make up for any encroaching tweeness.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
