60 years of Doctor Who history

2023: Doctor Who reborn into the Whoniverse

With Chibnall moving on, Doctor Who was once again in need of a new showrunner and Doctor. This time, they solved the problem by going backward. The 'new' showrunner was, in fact, previous showrunner Russell T. Davies. And though he announced Ncuti Gatwa as the next Doctor (the first Black man to take on the role), Jodie Whittaker's Doctor actually regenerated into... David Tennant?

2023 marks the show's 60th anniversary, and there are a lot of things to celebrate. Christopher Eccleston reprised his role in a series of audiodramas. Davies announced the start of a Doctor Who extended multiverse, called the "Whoniverse." Perhaps most importantly, three anniversary specials were filmed, to be released weekly, starting November 25, 2023.

The anniversary specials feature David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, once again meeting up with former companion Donna Noble. After these specials and the 2023 Christmas special, the show will officially begin "Season 1," suggesting another soft reboot.

The future seems bright for Doctor Who, though the sheer expansion being promised seems hard to imagine. As the show celebrates 60 years since audiences first saw that blue telephone box, it's a good time for fans to look back at just how far the series has come—and how many villains, planets, and time periods there are still to come.

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