Ncuti Gatwa is a sexy Doctor Who for the age of the Zoomer – the ABC will hate they missed out
The new Doctor Who is brilliant. The ABC’s top brass will be the ones in fear of extermination once its new chairman Kim Williams starts asking how they lost the rights to this sci-fi juggernaut.
Doctor Who is infamous for leaving terrified kiddies hiding behind the sofa.
But the ABC’s top brass will be the ones in fear of extermination on Sunday once new chairman Kim Williams starts asking how the national broadcaster lost the rights to the sci-fi juggernaut.
The Time Lord has had a multimillion-dollar makeover as a result of the BBC’s new deal with Disney+, and what a regeneration it is.
And, after a brilliant interlude of three specials with old Who favourites David Tennant and Catherine Tate, the new season shows what this new BBC-Disney marriage can really do.
Doctor Who was a show in much need of a reboot.
Jodie Whittaker, the first female Doctor, who took over in 2017 and left in 2022, was a great lead but the show during her era felt tired and cheap.
There wasn’t much the ABC Down Under could do when the BBC ditched it and other international partners for the Disney cash.
But Aunty executives – also facing the end of long-running and beloved crime drama Vera at the end of the year – will really be feeling the sting of rejection when they see the new series of Doctor Who is the hottest, sleekest, most inventive incarnation of the show yet.
Disney’s Doctor Who has a new TARDIS captain in Scottish-Rwandan Netflix superstar Ncuti Gatwa. Gone are bow ties and silly scarfs. This Doctor has a gym body and a leather jacket.
Gatwa’s Doctor is still the smartest person in the universe, and he still has the two biggest hearts in the cosmos.
But this is a supermodel, social media-friendly Time Lord for the Zoomer generation.
The First Doctor Who, grumpy old William Hartnell, would be spinning in his grave.
Former Coronation Street star Millie Gibson is also on-board as new companion Ruby Sunday.
She is gorgeous, electric, daring, and has a brilliant sense of comic timing. Gibson is the best sidekick Doctor Who has had in years.
The new time-travelling duo will burst on to the Disney streamer with a weird and wonderful double-bill opener for the ages.
The Doctor and Ruby open up with their first adventure, entitled “Space Babies”. It’s about, you guessed it, babies in space.
Of course these babies can talk, run a space station and are at great peril from a horrible Alien-like monster that would cause anyone to have an accident in their astronaut diaper.
In great Doctor Who tradition, Space Babies wouldn’t work in anything other than this weirdo of a show.
It’s totally mad but the babies are hilarious, Gatwa and Gibson give into the craziness and Bridgerton’s Golda Rosheuvel is a treat as a mysterious lone adult on the space station.
Our second instalment, “The Devil’s Chord” turns up both the bonkers-o-meter and the genuine frights. It has the Beatles, it has Cilla Black, it has singing and dancing.
But the real star of this production is Jinkx Monsoon, the breakout drag queen champion of RuPaul Paul’s Drag Race.
Monsoon’s villain can be best described as the horrific love child of Dame Edna and Stephen King’s It. This is the scariest Who monster in years.
The new Who of course isn’t perfect.
Disney viewers in the US clearly need Time Lords and regeneration and Gallifrey explained to them, but it’s all laid on a bit thick.
And, being the BBC in 2024, some of the woke messages in these episodes are less than subtle.
But this Doctor Who is so brash, bold, good-looking and charming that you forgive all that.
Gatwa and Gibson are at the helm of something special. The ABC may have lost out on this Doctor Who, but Aussie fans can be assured the future is bright.
