Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson on travelling the universe as best friends in Doctor Who

Ncuti Gatwa opens up about becoming the blue box time traveller and the magic of the long-running sci-fi show.

Ncuti Gatwa as Doctor Who and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday in the new season of Doctor Who.

When Ncuti Gatwa was announced as the Fifteenth Doctor in the science-fiction series Doctor Who, he was on the set of Barbie playing one of the Kens. Ryan Gosling donned a T-shirt with Gatwa as the Doctor and declared it to be the coolest show in the world. It blew up the internet. There is speculation in the Whoniverse that Gosling may guest star in the series.

When he auditioned for the role of the runaway Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, producer Russell T. Davies was mesmerised, describing the Rwandan born and Scottish raised actor as “absolutely magic” and knew immediately he had found the next manifestation of the iconic time travelling adventurer in a blue Police Box.

When Gatwa and his co-star Millie Gibson appear via Zoom for an interview with Review, he immediately emanates the extraordinary charisma that Davies identified. He is magnetic. Gatwa says he was both nervous and excited about taking on such a legendary television character freighted with so much history.

“When my agent called to tell me I had the role, I didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds,” Gatwa, 31, says. “My mouth was just open. I was like, what sort of concept is that you’ve just thrown into my head? I had to think about this most huge concept to get my head around it. It was a lot.

“I knew it was like a scary road. I knew that I was eventually going to step onto that road, but I’m just going to look at it for a little bit first. It was like, wow, I’m about to undertake something huge. It’s a no-brainer that I’m going to do it, but just give me a little moment to just map it out in my head first. So, it felt like that.”

Gatwa as Eric Effiong in Sex Education.

Gatwa, best known for Sex Education (2019-23), starred as the new Doctor in the 2023 Christmas special – “The Church on Ruby Road” – ahead of the eight-episode series screening this week. He made a triumphant entry as the Doctor with bravado and confidence, utterly owning the role and making it his own, with energy, heart, joy, vulnerability and mystery.

“I looked to all the other Doctors and they were all unmistakably themselves as well as the character,” he explains. “Russell’s writing was, I think, the key. The character is just so well written that I could very much lean into his writing. He didn’t have many conversations with me as to what he wanted, he just kind of let me go with it. So, I guess we both trusted each other.”

David Tennant, who portrayed the Tenth Doctor (2005-10), made a surprise return as the Fourteenth Doctor in 2022, taking the key to the TARDIS from Jodie Whittaker (2018-22). He starred in the 60th anniversary specials and Gatwa appeared in the third special – “The Giggle” – when the Fourteenth Doctor “bi-generated” into the Fifteenth Doctor. Confused? Well, the two split in half, rather than one replacing the other, allowing both to exist concurrently.

David Tennant (centre) was the Tenth Doctor – and the Fourteenth.

The Fifteenth Doctor’s first words, as he separated from the Fourteenth, taking his shirt but not his pants, was: “No way”. Gatwa says filming those first scenes in character, without pants, was both a daunting and exhilarating experience. Tennant had been “my Doctor”, he says and, as a teenager, he watched Tennant navigate the TARDIS, and later admired him as an actor.

“I just couldn’t believe the moment was quite happening because David is one of the actors that inspired me to get into acting,” he recalls. “My drama teacher gave me a copy of his Hamlet and said, ‘If you want to be in drama school, watch this, this is an actor’.

“And then for David to be the Doctor that I am bi-generating from, it was just so full circle that I was like, ‘What is going on?’ He was the Doctor that I grew up with. So it felt very, very surreal to hand the baton on to me. He is the ultimate Doctor. He is a great mentor to have.”

In the first episodes of the new series previewed by Review – “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord” – Gatwa and Gibson, who portrays Ruby Sunday, form a terrific partnership as Time Lord and travelling companion, a cornerstone of the series since it flickered into television in black and white in November 1963. There is a depth to their relationship which hints at a story yet to fully evolve. Indeed, there are clues for discerning Whovians in the new episodes.

“It’s a completely new dynamic that no one’s ever seen before, which is just so fresh and beautiful and such a lovely friendship to connect with – completely platonic,” Gibson, 19, says. “We recently started describing them as twin flames, which I think is so beautiful. They are two lost souls that have been abandoned and just want to find their home, and they find their home in each other and the journeys they go on.”

The Doctor and Ruby travel millions of years into the past and long into the future, where they encounter a bizarre spaceship housing a baby farm run by babies, and a terrifying Bogeyman. They meet The Beatles at Abbey Road and discover that something is not quite right as the Maestro makes trouble. Along the way there is the usual mix of terror and humour, suspense and drama, profound and lighter moments, as they work together and use their wits to battle evil.

“There’s no other show like it,” Gibson enthuses. “Two best friends travelling the universe. Like, what’s not to love about that? And what’s also great about the show is, even though it has been around for 60-plus years, there’s still nothing like Doctor Who.”

During the interview, Gatwa and Gibson add to each other’s answers, laugh and make jokes. They are clearly having fun on and off set. Taking on roles in such a storied television series comes with huge expectations from fans and critics comparing them to their predecessors. But they both seem unfazed by the pressure.

Gatwa and Giibson had fun on the set as the new Doctor Who and sidekick Ruby Sunday.

When I ask about conversations they may have had with former Doctors and companions, they respond on cue: “What happens in Doctor Who group chats, stays in Doctor Who group chats.” They both laugh. Gatwa and Gibson say they could not have been more welcomed into the Doctor Who family.

“They were giving me lots of advice as to how to handle the pressures of the world,” Gatwa says. “Because obviously it is intense and there is only the Doctor and the companion. They spoke to us a lot about leaning on each other and just cancelling the pressures of it all. Because it is such a joyful job that you don’t want the pressures to overcome that. And so, hopefully, I’ve managed to take their advice and enjoy it.”

Gibson had a regular role on popular soap opera Coronation Street from 2019 to 2022. She decided to leave the series and on her last day of filming received a phone call asking if she would like to audition for the role of Ruby. “I’m like, is this sky blue?” Gibson says. Her parents, though, cautioned whether it was wise to leave a steady job on Coronation Street. But Gibson never had any doubt about taking the new role.

Doctor Who continues to modernise, breaking barriers on gender, sexuality and race with its casting, and has become a thoroughly modern and international show with humanity, ironically, still at its core. While it is faithful to the classic era (1963-89) – and there is a neat introduction to the Doctor’s backstory in the new series – it continues to evolve. Ncuti is an all-singing, all-dancing Doctor with – another first – no fixed costume.

“It regenerates with its audience,” Gatwa says. “It’s a show that people have watched with their grandparents and it has been passed down to them. But it’s rare to have a hero that doesn’t fight like a typical hero. They use their brain to get out of situations, lead with compassion and fight for the underdog. It just warms our hearts. It’s just got something magical about it that we love.”

The new series of Doctor Who streams on Disney+ from May 11