SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “DOCTOR WHO” FINALE
Ncuti Gatwa’s time as The Doctor is done. This weekend’s season finale of what is his second season as the character saw the actor regenerating at the end into a familiar face – actress Billie Piper.
Piper played Rose Tyler in the first few seasons of the revival and has returned to the part in brief appearances since. The Rose character, however, is off in an alternate dimension living a domestic life with an aging version of David Tennant’s No. 10 Doctor.
Interestingly the credits for the episode, which will traditionally say “Introducing ‘Insert Actor Name’ as The Doctor” when a regeneration happens, didn’t do that this time – only saying ‘Introducing Billie Piper’.
The BBC has also not confirmed that Piper will be the next Doctor, saying only fans will have to wait a bit longer to find out what her return means for the series. Piper has also isssued a statement:
“It’s no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return to the Whoniverse as I have some of my best memories there, so to be given the opportunity to step back on that Tardis one more time was just something I couldn’t refuse, but who, how, why and when, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
While rumors have been swirling about Gatwa’s potential departure for a while now, rumors of a regeneration into Piper are only quite recent – quite a few had suggested that a scene of Gatwa regenerating had been shot but the episode was to end midway through.
Not recent however has been concern over the show’s ratings which are down from last season. The show was originally given a two-season order at Disney+ and the BBC and, including next year’s “The War Between the Land and the Sea” mini-series, that order has been fulfilled with no renewal talk beyond that.
Check out the regeneration sequence below:
