Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor in Doctor Who. (BBC/Doctor Who)
The new season of Doctor Who is set to hit our screens in just a few days’ time (and space), and the first reviews are full of praise for Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa’s debut season in charge of the Tardis.
With details circulating on everything from plot points for season two, the Doctor’s sexuality under Gatwa and showrunner Russell T Davies, Jinkx Monsoon’s villainous role and even a possible spin-off, early reviews for the season – which currently sits at 100 per cent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes – are in.
Here’s what’s being said.
The AV Club
“The Doctor and Ruby Sunday do what the Doc and his companions have always done best: travel across time and space, embarking on zany adventures all the way from Regency England to the cold and clinical Baby Farms (exactly what they sound like) of the future.
“Which means, yes, you can expect the dynamic duo to don costume after costume as they come face-to-face with the likes of the bogeyman and The Beatles, not to mention the Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), a musical villain who just so happens to be part of a pantheon of playful and terrifyingly powerful gods.”
Radio Times
“The show’s new status quo – the Doctor as the ultimate outsider, their origins and true home a mystery even to them – is undeniably compelling and Gatwa grabs the opportunities it presents with both hands, gifting us a charismatic, empathetic, very funny, very sad hero.
“[Monsoon] is impossible to look away from. It’s almost difficult to hate them because it’s clear how much [they] relished bringing such a camp, theatrical and, in the best way, completely ridiculous villain to mainstream TV.”
Variety
“This adventure is only the beginning of the Doctor and Ruby’s quests across the universe. The duo encounters The Beatles and the Bogeyman in just the first couple of episodes. Boasting fearlessness and curiosity, Ruby quickly becomes the Time Lord’s ideal travel companion. In turn, he welcomes her with sparkling compassion and a desire to help her understand who she is.”
Collider
“[Russell T] Davies has created a story that is everything you want from Doctor Who. The Doctor and Ruby are giggling and making jokes as often as they are running for their lives and going toe-to-toe with terrifying foes. There’s an inherent silliness and whimsy in Davies’ writing that makes it easy to pick up, but his best work is also laced with a deep well of love and loss. Each story will have fans laughing one moment and reaching for the box of Kleenex in the next.”
The Guardian
“Gatwa establishes himself as a cracking Doctor immediately. What an obviously perfect piece of casting he is: commandingly hench in his colourful costumes and naturally able to express the dazzling extremes the Doctor has to embody. He glowers, and the end of the world descends. A nanosecond later, he grins and we’re having the most fun in the universe.”
The first two episodes of the new season will be available simultaneously on BBC iPlayer from midnight on Saturday 11 May and at 7pm (Eastern Standard in the US) the evening before on Disney+, and will air on BBC1 from 6.20pm the same day.