Doctor Who (2023)

Our Review

The Disney era handed Russell T Davies the biggest budget in the show’s history and Ncuti Gatwa the keys to the TARDIS, and the result is the most confident Doctor Who has looked in a decade. After three 60th anniversary specials gave David Tennant a victory lap, The Church on Ruby Road properly introduced Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor on Christmas 2023: a flashier, flirtier, more emotionally open Doctor with Millie Gibson’s found family orphan Ruby Sunday alongside. The production upgrade is immediate, with cinematography and score that finally match the ambition the scripts always had.

The 2024 season is the stronger of the two. Boom is a taut single location war episode, 73 Yards is a horror tinged folk story that doubles as the best companion episode in years, and Rogue delivered a regency romance that fandom still quotes. The 2025 season, with Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra running from a far future hunt, is rockier: the Doctor Who universe building gets baroque, and the two part finale leans hard on franchise mythology right as the behind the scenes future went uncertain. Gatwa’s regeneration into a surprise returning face in The Reality War ended his run on a genuine jolt.

Sixteen episodes plus the anniversary specials is a short golden age, but the hit rate is high: even the weakest hours are visually rich and performed with total commitment, and Gatwa proved a magnificent Doctor who deserved more time. The show has since gone on hiatus with the BBC planning a fresh start, which makes this era a complete, watchable chunk on its own terms. For newcomers it is an accessible entry point; for old fans it is the shiniest the show has ever looked, and 73 Yards alone justifies the subscription month.