I don’t want to be overly negative about Tennant’s return or anything but I do have some thoughts.
Firstly I want to mention how I don’t like how the anniversary specials are becoming synonymous with “the popular doctor”. Obviously it made sense during the 50th anniversary special, as it was very much meant to be about all of the modern Who doctors so far, but in this case I seem to have more of an issue with it and I’ll go into that now.
The show, to me, doesn’t feel like it’s being written as a story for good storytelling’s sake but more as though it’s following the meta-narrative of viewership and writers in charge. Bringing Tennant back as a whole regeneration is very much a way of using nostalgia to bring back the declines in viewership through Jodie’s era and hoping they stick when Ncuti comes around. You can see just how hard they’re pushing nostalgia, going so far as regenerating 13’s clothes away to 10’s usual outfit since of course his reveal wouldn’t have been as impactful otherwise. Not even a remnant of her incarnation, like we’re used to seeing with the previous regenerations. We already know who it is, so we can skip all of that.
I worry that his character will revert back to exactly how it was, undoing the development of the last three regenerations. I worry that bringing old characters back could potentially harm their stories which came to a close with so much care. Everything 10 went through during that last season leading up to his death, with the master, with Wilf, it feels less important. You could say that it’s a cameo for the 60th and that doesn’t undo his story, or that it worked during the 50th, but it wasn’t a complete regeneration back then.
I don’t think nostalgia is inherently a bad thing and I’m excited to see Tennant take up his role again, but I’m not a fan of the No Way Home-ification of it all. All that being said, I hope it works out well and revives some of what was lost. I’m looking forward to it!
