‘An audible gasp’: Doctor Who fanatics stunned through Billie Piper go back

Nearly twenty years since she first seemed on Doctor Who, Billie Piper made a impressive go back to the display on Saturday evening, in the newest season’s finale, The Reality War. After simply two sequence, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerated right into a grinning Piper, who greeted audience with a “oh Hello!” within the episode’s ultimate scene.

The 42-year-old is absolute best recognized to Doctor Who fanatics for taking part in the Doctor’s spouse Rose Tyler for 2 seasons when the display was once reintroduced to TV monitors in 2005 after a 16-year ruin.

Her go back got here as a real surprise to fanatics, a lot of whom have been inspired that the BBC had controlled to keep away from leaks. But it has additionally left them with questions – will Piper play the Doctor within the display’s subsequent sequence? And will there be a subsequent sequence in any respect?

In February the BBC denied experiences the display confronted the awl – however mentioned any choice wouldn’t be made till the newest sequence were broadcast. Its commentary identified part of the 26 episodes agreed with Disney+ nonetheless had now not aired. Twenty-one out of the ones 26 have now aired, leaving a five-episode derivative starring Russell Tovey, the trailer for which aired after Saturday’s finale.

TV critic and Doctor Who fan Scott Bryan, 35, mentioned the reintroduction of Piper to the display got here at a pivotal time for Doctor Who, amid hypothesis about its long term. “I think it felt a bit like, towards the end of the episode, a pitch to Disney to say: ‘Hi, please renew us, we’ve got Billie Piper’.”

“Of course we’ve not had any confirmation about whether the Disney deal will be renewed, but also when or if these episodes will be aired. Nothing has been confirmed regarding filming. It’s a moment in TV that has raised more questions than answers, but that’s how Doctor Who works.”

Concerns were raised about falling viewing figures, that have struggled to rally since Russell T Davies’ go back in 2023. Two episodes throughout this sequence, which aired in May, were given lower than 3 million audience – the bottom for the reason that fashionable technology started airing in 2005.

The coordinator of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, Tony Jordan, 66, from Staffordshire, mentioned he was once involved in regards to the display’s long term. “Obviously if it had been a stellar success then they would have recommissioned it already,” he mentioned.

“It is a concern that it is not going straight back into production but, to be fair, there have been times since it came back in 2005 where you’ve had a year-long break.”

Whether Piper will play her outdated personality Rose, the Doctor or some other personality may be unclear. The credit, which confirmed Gatwa and Jodie Whittaker as “the Doctor” didn’t do the similar for Piper.

Christopher Eccleston, who starred along her because the Doctor, informed an tournament in the USA in 2021 he subsidized the theory of his former assistant taking at the function.

He mentioned: “I was saying to somebody today in the green room that Russell T Davies is coming back, right, and who’s going to be his Doctor? I think it should be Billie Piper actually. Catherine Tate’s great but, I think there’s your Doctor.”

Dan McLaughlin, 30, who was once looking at the finale with fellow fanatics at a cinema in Manchester when Piper seemed mentioned: “There was an audible gasp when she came on, definitely. There was maybe about two or three cheers, and someone behind me swore.”

Bryan mentioned: “It was a real surprise. I think Billie Piper is fantastic, she was one of the reasons why the 2005 series landed so well and led to 20 years of a hugely successful show and a reboot. But a surprise nonetheless.”

He added: “I’m intrigued by what they decide to do with her, and the fact that there’s mysteries around the fact that we don’t know whether she’s playing the Doctor, it’s a bit open ended.”

McLaughlin mentioned he felt “deflated” through Piper’s look because it indicated a loss of new concepts at the back of the display.

He mentioned: “Billie Piper’s amazing and Rose was a wonderful character, but you want something new now, you want to be excited. I loved [David] Tennant in the 60th anniversary special, but bringing back characters loses its novelty if you just keep on bringing the old ones back all the time. It’s lacking in original ideas.”