Ncuti Gatwa tells Consequence that after being cast as The Doctor of Doctor Who, he had no conversations with the Who team around how, exactly, he should approach his take on the iconic character. “[Showrunner Russell T. Davies] and the team, I guess, saw my audition and they were like, ‘Do that,'” he laughs via Zoom. “They were just like, ‘That’s what we want.'”
Playing The Doctor, though, is no small thing, as the millennia-old alien with two hearts and a time machine shaped like a Police Public Call Box is an institution in the UK, having been played by practically countless actors during the series’ 60-year history. Gatwa, an alumnus of Netflix’s Sex Education who also will be featured in the upcoming Masters of the Air, is officially the 15th Doctor, with his first stand-alone adventure, “The Church on Ruby Road,” debuting Christmas Day.
Every actor who plays The Doctor has had a unique spin on the role. So when Gatwa was preparing to take over the TARDIS, he says, “I looked to all the previous Doctors and I was like, who is The Doctor? What is the overriding thing? What’s the through line that they all have?”
His answer, ultimately: “It’s everything. They’re everything. They’re full of everything. The kaleidoscope of human emotion and more. There’s so much within them, and each of my predecessors have encapsulated that. So I was like, ‘I’ve just gotta try and encapsulate the feeling of everything, and offer that.’ And hopefully it will be my own take because I’m my own person. I’ve just got to try and do what they’re doing, but me.”
The process wasn’t an immediate one, but gradual, even as filming progressed. With filming on the first full season of the series (set to premiere Spring 2024 on Disney+) now complete, Gatwa is currently filming Season 2, and he says that “I now feel like The Doctor’s sunk from being in my chest to my gut. Season 1, I put the suit on, but it wasn’t perfectly tailored to my body. I was still kind of feeling it out a little bit, finding my feet, questioning: ‘Is this right for me? Is this not right?’ But now, I feel good. I’m having fun, and I feel like he’s fully entered my body now — which feels cool. It’s a nice progression.”
In “The Church on Ruby Road,” we see The Doctor experiment with a variety of sartorial choices, including a long leather duster and a stylish kilt. (Not at the same time.) If Gatwa had to pick his look from the Doctors that have come before, though, there’s no question: Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor.
“Jon Pertwee, I’m obsessed with. Oh my gosh, all his rings!” he exclaims. “I feel such a connection to that Doctor. I swear I saw a photo shoot of [Pertwee] topless and he had chains on, and I was like, that man represents me. I feel seen by him. All his beautiful jackets and the frilly shirts — he was such a dandy. He’s like The Doctor that Oscar Wilde created, and I loved that. I thank God for Jon Pertwee.”
Gatwa just recently saw “The Church on Ruby Road” for the first time with an audience, and says that while “I’ve been so nervous to watch any of them — I was raised by a Virgo, so I can be an absolute perfectionist — I loved it. It just felt so Christmassy and it felt so Russell [T. Davies] as well. It’s a deep cake with a lovely frosty icing, and full of human heart. Russell is such a great writer at channeling the human experience.”
In Davies’ first season as Doctor Who showrunner, all the way back in 2005, one question that came up was whether or not The Doctor dances (“dancing” maybe also being a metaphor for… other things). In “The Church on Ruby Road,” though, it’s made clear that in a very literal sense, oh, this Doctor does dance.
“I know when I read that in the script, I was like, ‘Let me check the cover. Is this a Doctor Who script I’m reading?'” he laughs, while reflecting on the kinds of instructions he received from the choreographer while filming. “On one take, he was like, ‘That was the Atlantic Ocean. For this take, I want the Indian Ocean.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t what that means, but I get it. I speak your language, Jack. I speak it.’ And so that’s how that scene came about,” he says with a laugh.
It proved to be an important moment for Gatwa, though, because as he says, “There are a lot of scenes that felt like my first proper scene as The Doctor — that was one of them. And it felt very much like I was being supported: I had the support of the dancers around me, the choreographer, our amazing director Mark Tonderai.”
Continues Gatwa, “It was just so much fun, and it also was like, ‘This Doctor dances. This Doctor is in the club, this Doctor has fun — and that’s me. Russell is writing for me. This feels very cool.”
Doctor Who‘s “The Church on Ruby Road” premieres Christmas Day on Disney+