1,383 words, 7 minutes read time.
Last year, Russell T Davis said that nothing was planned to mark the twentieth anniversary of the return of Doctor Who to our screens in March 2005. In the end, perhaps inspired by the possibility that that era is about to come to an end, maybe also to drum up a bit more interest in his desperate gamble of bringing back Billie Piper to the show, perhaps as the Doctor, perhaps not, he decided to throw together this hastily arranged extended version of the regular behind-the-scenes show Unleashed, three months after the anniversary has passed.
Exactly how hasty, can be gauged by the dating of the interview with Davies early in this special, 25th April, while the just-completed disaster of the confusingly named ‘Season 2’ was still airing. We also got an obviously tacked-on interview with Billie at the end, separate from the main interview she gave alongside David Tennant. In this second interview, without saying anything specific, it was clear that Billie knew she was about to return, though she was, and probably still is, about as much in the know about how, why and in what capacity as we, and Davies, are.
Eternally annoying Unleashed presenter Steffan Powell did refer to last week’s ‘shock’ regeneration, when Bilie’s head appeared superimposed on Ncuti Gatwa’s body, but, again, there was nothing specific said.
How could there be? The big Disney investment is almost certainly over, so it’s down to the BBC if they want to run with Davies’ latest half-baked idea, either with or without another streamer. There is almost certainly no script either. One rumour is that Steven Moffatt is hard at work on one, perhaps to air as early as Christmas this year. But, given the funding question, that seems unlikely.
For what it was, the documentary itself was OK. We got some nice location filming shots, particularly of Eccleston and Piper at work on the first season back in 2004. It was heavy on the whole Wales angle, as the title suggests, about how Doctor Who has put it on the map as far as TV and film production goes.
I particularly enjoyed the interviews with the owner of the real-world record shop where Blink, Moffatt’s masterpiece, was filmed, and the couple who are the custodians of the Lighthouse where one of the Jodie Whittaker episodes was filmed, Fugitive of the Judoon, I think. That was less of a masterpiece, but still a nice setting, and Wales has proven to be a great, scenic home for the show over the past two decades.
As far as major participants were concerned, we got the three showrunners, RTD, Moffatt and Chibnall who’ve now dominated the show throughout the modern show’s twenty-year existence. Of the era’s Doctors we have Gatwa, Whittaker and Tennant; and on the companions front we had Varada Sethru, (Belinda in the latest series), Karen Gillan (Amy) and her on screen husband and fellow Eleventh Doctor sidekick Arthur Darvill (Rory), both appearing via an iPad, Pearl Mackie who played Bill Potts in Capaldi’s last season, Mandip Gill who played Yaz as part of Jodie’s ‘Fam,’ and as I’ve indicated, more Billie Piper than originally planned, the first and possibly the last face to appear in Modern Who.
But more significant is who wasn’t there. Given his righteous ‘Sack Russell T Davis…’ diatribe of three years ago, Chris Eccleston’s non-appearance was a given. We know that Peter Capaldi had wanted, and deserved, a fourth season, but didn’t get it because Moffatt was leaving and his replacement, Chris Chibnall, had made the casting of a woman Doctor a precondition for taking the job. But he’s always remained positive about the show publicly, so I’m surprised he didn’t contribute a short, pre-recorded section. That he didn’t is perhaps an indication that his departure was more bitter than we know. Maybe he wasn’t even asked.
In fact, Capaldi’s three seasons got a mere two of the fifty-nine minutes here. Even more surprisingly, there wasn’t even a single mention of Jenna Coleman’s Clara, let alone an appearance from Jenna herself. This is bizarre, given that she was a two-Doctor companion, firstly in the later period of Matt Smith’s run as the Doctor, including in the iconic fiftieth anniversary Day of the Doctor special, the high-point of the modern show as far as public interest goes, as well as in Capaldi’s first two seasons.
The Eleventh Doctor himself, Matt Smith, who was the most popular Doctor globally, not Tennant, contrary to the official narrative, was also absent. Yes, he’s a big star nowadays. For him, Doctor Who was the launchpad to the sort of career Ncuti Gatwa almost certainly hoped for when his time in the Tardis was over, though that’s now unlikely. Matt cited the pressures of work for his non-appearance. But, if he’d wanted to, I’m sure he could have found five minutes to knock out something positive on his iPad or phone, as did his Co-star Gillan (for whom the show was also a stepping stone to greater things). It’d be interesting to know his reasons for not finding that time.
Another person who failed to appear was Millie Gibson, Ncuti’s companion in his first and for parts of his second season. I touch on the Millie saga more in my review of that second season finale, The Reality War.’ We don’t know, and perhaps never will know, the full story of her departure. But we do know that she was intended to be Gatwa’s companion for both seasons, and that she left early during filming, necessitating her replacement with Varada’s Belinda for most of what turned out to be Gatwa’s premature swansong season, and substantial rewrites, returning only for likely contractually obliged last-minute reshoots earlier this year.
The documentary was less than an hour long, and we could cite others who were absent, such as Freema Agyeman’s ‘Martha’, John Sims, the best of the modern Master’s, Michelle Gomez (‘Missy’), and Alex Kingston (‘River Song’).
John Barrowman, whose ‘Captain Jack’ was an important aspect of the show’s success early on, as well as that of the more adult spin-off Torchwood, has now become something of a persona non grata on British television because of some well-documented, though arguably, by the standards of the BBC rather harmless backstage sexual high-jinks, so it was never likely that he would appear.
So, given the limited time available, it’s perhaps a mistake to read too much into who wasn’t there.
But, the sheer number of significant figures who didn’t feature, including three of the six modern Doctors, four out of seven if we count Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, make it hardly wild speculation to suggest that the production has not always been as full of fun and happy Welsh frolics as this ‘celebration’ suggested.
Still, it’s enjoyable enough for what it is. And there is something rather poignant about seeing Eccleston at work early in the production of the first season of the modern era, with the knowledge that his decision to quit was made during that very first block of filming.
Anthony C Green, June 2025
PS In the day or so since this aired, the press is full of speculation that Tennant will return yet again, alongside Piper, for another ‘special’. Reading between the lines of this Unleashed, I suspect this is true, and perhaps it will be sooner than expected. It could make some sense if the BBC can find the money. As much as I dislike the idea of another Tennant return (and Tennant in general, to be honest), it could tie up a few loose ends, like undoing the ‘bigeneration’ mess, to explain Billie’s appearance at the end of The Reality War, and to bring to a final close the whole misguided Tenth Doctor/Rose romantic thread. But it should only happen as a means of drawing a final line under this era, leaving the road clear for a new Doctor under a new production team at some point in the future. If it’s merely an exercise designed for the BBC to keep the show on the road at any cost, with RTD still in post, and with plans for a series featuring Piper as the Doctor to follow, it will be a counter-productive waste of time.
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