SUMMARY
- Ncuti Gatwa shines as the Fifteenth Doctor, blending charisma and charm in a fresh take.
- The Fifteenth Doctor, however, is proving very error-prone in Doctor Who season 14.
- This approach risks changing the fundamentals of the Doctor’s character.
Ncuti Gatwa is a revelation as the Fifteenth Doctor in Doctor Who season 14, capturing charisma, charm, and a magnetic appeal inside an endlessly energetic performance, but the Fifteenth Doctor himself is far from the hero he used to be. The Doctor may have regenerated their way through 17 onscreen bodies, but each permutation of Doctor Who‘s titular Time Lord shares the same DNA. All regenerations of the Doctor are heroic, brilliant, unpredictable geniuses. Some Doctors become almost godlike in their wisdom and excellence, whereas others hide their true glory beneath the veneer of a clownish traveler.
Those same qualities can be found within Ncuti Gatwa’s performance when he leads Doctor Who season 14’s cast as the effervescent Fifteenth Doctor. As with past actors, Gatwa balances the Doctor’s unshakable core traits with new flourishes of his own, creating a persona that is simultaneously familiar and fresh. Having said that, Doctor Who season 14 portrays the Doctor in such a way that, in an incredibly rare turn of events, Fifteen actually looks like a bad hero.
The Fifteenth Doctor Is Bad At Being A Hero In Doctor Who Season 14
The Doctor Isn’t Having His Best Season
The Fifteenth Doctor’s TARDIS tenure may have only just started, but his track record of saving the day is already somewhat patchy in season 14. Gatwa’s Doctor began strongly, helping his predecessor to banish the Toymaker, then fending off a crew of pesky goblins in 2023’s Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” Since Doctor Who season 14 began, however, the Doctor’s day-saving antics have proven much less reliable.
“Space Babies” was a modest success for Fifteen, who ultimately succeeded in rescuing the abandoned tots, but the Doctor surprisingly struggled against the space station’s sentient snot. When he first encountered the Bogeyman, the Fifteenth Doctor ran away – a reaction that took even the Time Lord himself by surprise. Doctor Who later attributed Fifteenth’s flight response to the Bogeyman’s scream being programmed to a specific pitch designed for inciting terror, but such basic trickery shouldn’t catch out a Time Lord who has routinely faced down the greatest evils the universe has to offer – and won.
“The Devil’s Chord” gave the Doctor an even bigger headache. Once again, Fifteen ran from his enemy – intentionally, on this occasion – after realizing Maestro was connected to the Toymaker. Upon finding his courage, the Doctor then botched the forbidden chord needed to expel Maestro from the universe by hitting a “bum note,” and required help from Paul McCartney and John Lennon to finish the job. It should also be noted that if Maestro hadn’t been frightened off by Ruby Sunday’s inner power, they likely would have killed the Doctor’s companion.
The Doctor’s heroism continued crumbling in Steven Moffat’s “Boom,” which began with Fifteen carelessly stepping onto a landmine, putting the entire planet of Kastarion 3 under threat. That error alone was poor enough for one episode, but Fifteen’s day got worse when Ruby Sunday effectively died. Doctors have been forced to watch companions get killed before, but never this early into a partnership. In a small win, Kastarion 3 was saved from warfare when the AI of John Francis Vater disassembled the Villengard network perpetuating the conflict. Vitally, however, this consequence was entirely unintended. The Doctor asked the AI to locate information hidden in the network and simply lucked out when Vater took it upon himself to save the day.
Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, “73 Yards,” is Fifteen’s most embarrassing display yet. Despite stepping on a landmine only one episode prior, the Doctor’s feet are once again his undoing when he treads on and breaks a fairy circle. The magic makes the Doctor disappear in a puff of embarrassment, and the abandoned Ruby is left to pick up the pieces. Whether by magic or Ruby’s own inner power, the companion is able to travel back in time and prevent Fifteen’s fateful, foolish footfall. The Time Lord returns blissfully unaware of the calamity he narrowly avoided.
Ncuti Gatwa Is Still Great To Watch As Doctor Who’s Fifteenth Doctor
Ncuti Gatwa Hasn’t Put A Foot Wrong
Whatever lies behind the Fifteenth Doctor’s crisis of competence in Doctor Who season 14, Ncuti Gatwa is holding up his end of the bargain marvelously. The incoming actor was given the unenviable job of sparring with the beloved David Tennant in his debut scene thanks to Doctor Who‘s bi-generation twist, but effortlessly held his own against the franchise icon. After being left to his own devices, Gatwa has perfectly understood the assignment of depicting a modern, very different take on the Doctor while remaining anchored to the character’s history – a tough balance for even the most experienced actor.
Ncuti Gatwa is also capturing the key qualities every Doctor requires: the heroic attitude, the overflowing confidence, the aura of being in control of any given situation. Gatwa ticks all of these boxes as ably as his predecessors, but the big difference in Doctor Who season 14 is that his self-belief isn’t being justified. Fifteen can act as confident and heroic as he likes, but when he keeps treading on trouble, running away, and relying more on luck than judgment to save the day, his attitude no longer matches reality.
Doctor Who Needs To Fix The Fifteenth Doctor – And Fast
The Fifteenth Doctor’s Failures Are Not Sustainable
A less perfect, infallible Doctor is not inherently bad for Doctor Who‘s future. Watching Fifteen make misjudgments, get lucky, and run away in fear makes the previously distant Time Lord much more relatable, while seeing the Doctor visibly out of his depth in a post-Toymaker landscape raises the stakes for Doctor Who season 14 and beyond. One could argue that Doctor Who had become boring after years of the main character only ever being one monologue away from fixing everything. Dampening the Doctor’s omnipotence creates a more equal dynamic with his companions too, redressing the balance after years of TARDIS passengers taking a backseat.
After his immediate instinct to run from both the Bogeyman and Maestro, it becomes difficult to claim Fifteen is fulfilling the ” never cowardly ” credo.
There comes a point, however, when the Doctor’s very nature is called into question, and Doctor Who season 14 is perilously close to that cliff edge. A role model to many, the Doctor must always be reliable and impressive – two descriptors that apply to Fifteen only in short bursts. Moffat’s adage that the Doctor “makes people better” only works if Doctor Who‘s lead character is placed upon some sort of pedestal. Fifteen is making Ruby better, but only because he’s forcing her to do the heavy lifting when it comes to saving the world.
Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor famously laid out his philosophy as “never cruel or cowardly” – a quote that dates back to Doctor Who‘s classic era and has underpinned the character throughout that entire expanse of time. Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor certainly hasn’t been cruel – deliberately scaring the Space Babies aside – but after his immediate instinct to run from both the Bogeyman and Maestro, it becomes difficult to claim Fifteen is fulfilling the “never cowardly” credo. Even if the Bogeyman instance is excused because of the limp “exact pitch designed to make you scared” explanation, Fifteen looked prepared to give up before even putting up a fight against Maestro.
Has Bi-Generation Made The Doctor Less Powerful?
Is Bi-Generation To Blame For The Fifteenth Doctor’s Struggles?
A canon explanation may account for the Fifteenth Doctor being less useful than usual in Doctor Who season 14. Considering a traditional handover between actors too dull, David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor split into two entities: himself and Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary ending failed to specify whether bi-generation is the Doctor doubling themselves or halving themselves, but Fifteen hinted towards the latter in “The Devil’s Chord” when he confirmed the process “literally tore my soul in half.”
If the Doctor’s soul was torn in half by bi-generation, it’s plausible that Fourteen and Fifteen are now two isolated pieces of Doctor Who‘s main protagonist. The two Doctors are, therefore, quite literally half the Time Lords they used to be, which would explain why Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor appears to have lost his edge.
