Doctor Who has a long and rich history that spans over sixty years – here’s everything you need to know before season 14 hits Disney Plus.
In the six decades since the show first launched on the BBC, Doctor Who has become one of the leading sci-fi properties ever made. And with its upcoming transition to Disney Plus in the rest of the world, the show can expect to attract a brand new audience who might not be familiar with the extensive background of the show. If you’re part of that group, or if it’s just been a while since you’ve tuned in, it’s time for a refresher on everything that audiences will be expected to know going into Season 14 (or Season 40, counting the classics!). Here’s everything you need to know before jumping into the new episodes!
What Is Doctor Who About?
Doctor Who follows the adventures of an enigmatic alien named the Doctor, who travels through space and time in his aptly-disguised spaceship on a never-ending quest to save the universe from the countless villains and monsters that stand in his way. As a Time Lord, the Doctor has the unique ability to regenerate his body and change his appearance in order to escape death, conveniently allowing a new cast and crew to take over the show every few years! From battling the Daleks on the planet Skaro to protecting the human race from Cybermen and Weeping Angels, the Doctor’s adventures have taken him everywhere – and caused more than a few shocking twists over the years.
What Happened Last Season?
Doctor Who’s thirteenth season took a completely different route than the rest of the show, ditching the episodic format for a more interconnected series of stories collectively known as The Flux. The episodes saw the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), alongside her friends Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), fight against a mysterious group called The Division and prevent the universe’s destruction at the hands of a devastating cosmic storm. But despite a series of small victories against the Sontarans, the Daleks, and the Weeping Angels, the Doctor was ultimately unable to save the day and The Flux destroyed half of the known universe.
After a couple of special episodes, the Doctor finally came face-to-face with their old nemesis the Master (another Time Lord from their home planet Gallifrey), who attempted to swap their bodies and assume the Doctor’s identity. With the help of a few surprise cameos from former Doctors, the Master was eventually taken down – but not before mortally wounding the Doctor and forcing her to regenerate into her next identity on a scenic clifftop. But the surprises still weren’t over, as the face that emerged from the flames was an unexpectedly familiar one: David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor back in 2005-2010.
Is David Tennant Back in Season 14?
Much to the fans’ surprise and amazement, David Tennant returned as the face of the Fourteenth Doctor for three special episodes in 2023 to commemorate the show’s sixtieth anniversary. ‘The Star Beast’ also saw the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, an old friend of Tennant’s Tenth Doctor. Throughout ‘Deep Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’, they helped save the world from an impending alien invasion, fought shape-shifting aliens in space, and played a high-stakes game with the Toymaker before the Fourteenth Doctor finally said his goodbyes and received the happy ending that fans had been needing for over a decade. But when it was time for him to regenerate, Doctor Who revealed its final surprise.
Instead of watching the Doctor burst into flames and emerge transformed, like every other regeneration in the show’s history, fans were shocked when the Doctor seemingly split in half and two versions of the Doctor existed at the same time: Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and the new Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa (of Barbie and Sex Education). While the show still has some explaining to do about the logistics, it seems like both Tennant’s and Gatwa’s Doctors will coexist in some form in the future. When the time comes for the Fourteenth Doctor to die, he’ll seemingly be sucked back in time to the moment of the bigeneration and emerge as the Fifteenth Doctor – meaning Gatwa’s Doctor is technically from the future!
What You Need To Know Is Happening Next
Doctor Who’s upcoming Season 14 will be the first to feature Ncuti Gatwa’s new Fifteenth Doctor, and judging by the promotional materials that have been released so far, it’s going to be a soft reboot to serve as an accessible ‘jumping-on point’ for new audiences. Millie Gibson also joins the cast as Ruby Sunday, introduced in the recent Christmas Special as the Doctor’s latest companion on his travels. The new series also sees the return of Russell T. Davies as writer and showrunner, the man behind most of David Tennant’s episodes in the late ‘00s. Not many details have been released about the content of Season 14’s stories, but what we do know is that the Doctor’s adventures will take him back to both the Regency Era and 1960s Britain where he’ll meet the Beatles – setting the stage for one of Doctor Who’s most exciting seasons yet.
Season 14 of Doctor Who will be available to stream from May 11, 2024 and on BBC iPlayer in the UK & Ireland and on May 10, 2024 on Disney Plus where available. The first two episodes will drop on these streaming platforms at midnight, followed by new episodes every week.
