Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Okay, this is a bit unusual. Usually, I would do a blog post announcing the departure of an actor who played the Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ separately from a blog post announcing the casting of a new actor about to play the Doctor. But here, I’m doing two things together. 😀

Assuming everyone has seen ‘The Reality War’, the final episode of Series 15 of ‘Doctor Who’, Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billie Piper. Meaning that Ncuti has left the TV series after having done two seasons as the Fifteenth Doctor with Billie Piper replacing him. 😐

I’ve covered my thoughts on Ncuti’s departure from the TV series and Billie coming in in my latest Quick Reactions video on ‘The Reality War’. Just to reiterate, I didn’t expect to see this happen in ‘The Reality War’ when I saw the episode at the cinema in Milton Keynes.

I’m still processing the fact that Ncuti has gone and Billie has taken over. From what I’ve gathered, this has been planned between Ncuti Gatwa and showrunner Russell T. Davies, and that Ncuti has wanted to move on to other things, including working in the theatre. 🙂

I’ve also heard the possibility that he left ‘Doctor Who’ to pursue opportunities in Los Angeles. How accurate that is or not, it’s clear that Ncuti is in high demand as an actor. It’s probably why he decided to leave ‘Doctor Who’ after doing the role for two seasons. 😐

I wish Ncuti well in his career, although I feel sad that his era wasn’t long enough as it could have been. Three seasons would have been very satisfying for me and I would have liked him to have faced the Daleks and Cybermen in the TV series. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

Hopefully, Ncuti can say “Yes” to doing the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ and hopefully he’ll get to reunite with Millie Gibson as Ruby Gibson and Verada Sethu as Belinda Chandra. Only time will tell. It may happen sooner than later like Jodie Whittaker.

As for Billie Piper taking over from Ncuti Gatwa in ‘Doctor Who’, well, I wouldn’t say I object to the idea. I’m sure Billie Piper would be very good as the Doctor. There may be people who will argue against that, but I’d be interested to see how she takes on the role.

Mind you, as I’ve queried in my Quick Reactions video on ‘The Reality War’, I’m not entirely sure if Billie Piper is going to end up as the Sixteenth Doctor at all. This is considering that the end credits just said ‘Introducing Billie Piper’ and not being credited as the Doctor. 😦

It will also depend on whether ‘Doctor Who’ returns to TV screens in 2027 or not, and whether the BBC will make a new season on its own without Disney‘s funding. It’d like to think ‘Doctor Who’ will return to TV screens in 2027 at some point, but it’s quite uncertain.

I’m assuming Russell T. Davies will still be running the show once we have new episodes featuring Billie Piper as the Doctor, presumably. I wonder if this will lead to Billie Piper reuniting with David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor at some point. It should be fascinating.

I also wonder if Russell T. Davies will continue bringing back Millie Gibson as Ruby and Verada Sethu as Belinda to meet Billie Piper as the Doctor. Will U.N.I.T. still be in the series? Will Billie Piper’s Doctor get to meet Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and everybody else?

I do wonder if there’ll be a point in Billie Piper’s era where she’ll team up with David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor in a two-part finale. What would Billie Piper’s first companion be like? Will it be a man or a woman joining Billie?

I can’t deny the amount of uncertainty regarding ‘Doctor Who’s future as a TV series and whether Billie Piper will end up being the Sixteenth Doctor or not. Personally, I hope she is the Sixteenth Doctor. Whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be very exciting and fascinating to see.

Let’s hope ‘Doctor Who’ will return to TV screens in 2027 as predicted.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂