WHAT THE DOCTOR WHO 60TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL TELLS FANS ABOUT THE 15TH DOCTOR

When Doctor Who debuts its first season on Disney+, fans will join a new Doctor and companion in the TARDIS. The 60th Anniversary Specials, along with the Christmas Special, "The Church On Ruby Road," introduced Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor. Everyone's favorite Time Lord works best with a bit of mystery, and there's still plenty viewers don't know about the newest incarnation. Still, there are plenty of hints and clues about what this version of the Doctor is like.

While it's always bittersweet to lose a version of the Doctor via regeneration, what keeps viewers tuning in is the discovery of who the Time Lord becomes next. Arguably, the most important elements of the character are immutable. Whoever emerges from the glow of regeneration is still the Doctor and they save people. The Doctor is clever, knowledgeable and possesses a sense of wonder that anyone else who lives forever would eventually lose. Similarly, the character is kind and compassionate, though the Doctor's bedside manner changes with each iteration. But even with that into account, what did the Christmas and 60th Anniversary specials reveal about the Fifteenth Doctor?

The Doctor Is Billions of Years Old, but He's Young Again

In the "Time Crash" Doctor Who special for Children In Need, the Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison. Like Matt Smith, Davison was the youngest actor to play the Doctor at the time he was cast. In a touching and meta moment, Ten tells him that in "the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young." While the Doctor has only gotten older, the Fifteenth Doctor presents like a young man, and Gatwa's real-life youthful energy shines through in his performance.

In "The Church on Ruby Road," the first time audiences see the Doctor, he's dancing. He's not rushing around trying to save the planet or send some surly aliens packing. He's simply having fun by himself, something Doctor Who fans haven't seen in the show's history. While the Doctor and Ruby will likely take on a whole new set of problems once Season 1 gets underway, for now, the Doctor is enjoying his life and not burdened by the weight of the eons of his past adventures, problems and, most importantly, failures.

Although this Doctor isn't childish, there's also no point in being a grown-up if one can't be a little childish sometimes. When he came face-to-face with the Fourteenth Doctor, he was the voice of reason. Fifteen encouraged his predecessor to slow down, take some time and heal with his friend Donna and her family. Similarly, when he encountered Ruby, he was unlike past Doctors. He wasn't trying to show off for her, nor did he entice her to join him in the TARDIS. Rather, he let her come to him driven by her curiosity and sense of adventure.

The Fifteenth Doctor Isn't as Burdened by Past Mistakes

In the modern era of Doctor Who, guilt has been a primary motivating factor for the character. At first, it was survivor's guilt over the Time War and the Doctor's belief that he destroyed both the Daleks and the Time Lords. Later, it was guilt over sticking Gallifrey into a pocket dimension, saving their lives but trapping them in a kind of sci-fi purgatory. For the Thirteenth Doctor, the destruction of Gallifrey at the hands of the Master (whom she thought she had rehabilitated) drove her. This was followed by the horrific events of "Flux," which led to the destruction of a significant part of the universe in fear of her.

From what little fans have seen of the Fifteenth Doctor, he's no longer driven by guilt. Perhaps he's come to terms with the weight of his past. He's not so much running away from it or denying it, but rather accepting what happened. The Doctor is looking forward and doing his best to continue his mission to help people in need. Still, Fifteen has a lightness about him that's not artifice like with with Eleven or Nine, and he lacks the sullen intensity of Ten and Twelve. He definitely seems less desperate for connection than Thirteen or Fourteen.

Of course, audiences were merely introduced to the Fifteenth Doctor in the 60th Anniversary Specials. What lies beneath the well-dressed surface is what Season 1 will reveal as it goes on. Yet, it does feel as if Fifteen is markedly different from past Doctors like Nine was, and not because of something so human as Ncuti Gatwa being the first actor of color to take on the role. One big question that should be on fans' minds is how much time passed for the Doctor from when he left Fourteen and Donna to when he met Ruby.

The Doctor Was Always Queer, But Is Now Openly Acknowledged

A similarity Doctor Who and Star Trek share is that their stories were always vehicles for contemporaneously progressive storytelling via science fiction allegory. This is even more true for the modern series, and not just because Russell T Davies is a gay man himself. In 2005's Season 1, Rose still used the word "gay" as a playful insult, but that story ended with Jack Harkness kissing the Doctor square on the lips. Later, with Martha in the Manhattan of the past, the Tenth Doctor joked that she and Andrew Garfield's Frank could both "kiss him later."

The Doctor has been in love in the past, usually showing attraction to the opposite human gender. However, as a two-hearted alien, any attraction the Doctor has for a human being makes him or her, essentially, pansexual. The Thirteenth Doctor is the first to introduce a strong queer subtext through her unspoken affection for Yasmin Khan. It's a clever progression into a more fluid romantic identity for the Doctor. While Thirteen was the first same-sex romance, Yaz was not the first human woman the Doctor was attracted to.

In "The Church on Ruby Road," Fifteen alluded to a romantic fling with Harry Houdini. Twelve famously said that Time Lords had long moved past humanity's obsession with categorizing love along the lines of gender identity. This is retroactively proven by the love/hate relationship the Master has had with the Doctor throughout the years. However, it wasn't until the Master regenerated into Missy that the romantic subtext became "text." It's not that "the Doctor is gay now," but rather an open acknowledgment the Doctor's attraction is not limited by human categorizations. It also provides a chance for historically underrepresented fan demographics to see their experiences reflected in the series' hero.

The Biggest Mystery Around the Fifteenth Doctor Is What 'Bi-Generation' Is

Things like the way the Doctor presents age, gender or romantic identity really just amount to character flair. The biggest question fans should be asking is how bi-generation actually works. Davies has offered up his own theories, but he's cleverly not defining it in the series until he has to. It's possible that when Fourteen's time is up, he will regenerate into someone new. Yet, what seems more narratively logical and neat is that, upon regenerating, Fourteen will disappear and emerge on the helipad as Fifteen during the events of the "The Giggle."

This would explain the change in the Doctor's demeanor. Like he told Fourteen at the end of that special, they're doing their "rehab out of order." Fifteen emerged at a point in the Doctor's past as the beneficiary of the rest, reflection and acceptance that Fourteen had yet to do. It's why Fifteen was able to comfort Fourteen as he did and guide him towards making the decision to stay with Donna. A decision that Fifteen already knew he made because he'd lived it.

There are still plenty of things fans have left to discover about the Fifteenth Doctor that weren't introduced in the 60th Anniversary Specials. However, what those stories revealed about the character shows that this Doctor is different in rather unique ways from the ones fans have seen before. How this changes the character and his approach to traveling the galaxy and saving people remains to be seen. But that will be the fun part of watching this new Doctor Who.

Doctor Who debuts Season 1 on Disney+ on Friday, May 10, 2024, with two episodes.

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