A surprisingly new Doctor Who video has appeared during recent broadcasts on the BBC, teasing new details about the 60th-anniversary and a callback to an old theme song. The long-running British sci-fi series will air three episodes in late 2023 that will celebrate the show’s impressive milestone, with returning actor David Tennant set to lead the new stories. Tennant, who portrayed the Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2009, will play the mysterious Fourteenth Doctor and will reunite with Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble in the celebrations penned by returning showrunner Russell T Davies.
While dedicated fans have followed the filming of Ncuti Gatwa’s upcoming Doctor Who season, attention quickly returned to the upcoming anniversary special after a cryptic new video interrupted an ident on BBC1. Twitter fan account TARDIS Central managed to capture the full teaser. Check it out below:
The distorted footage provided a glimpse of the upcoming episodes that included Tennant, Tate, and the TARDIS. It also added hints of the season 4 variation of the show’s theme tune. Fan @argodotz64 also noted that the trailer contained hidden dialogue when reversed, with the Fourteenth Doctor, stating, “Cryptic, I hate that“, while Donna asks, “Why did this face come back?“
What Doctor Who’s Cryptic 60th-Anniversary Ident Interruption Could Mean For The Upcoming Special
This isn’t the first time mysterious Doctor Who teasers have appeared out of the blue. Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor each had their own sudden special teasers, with Smith’s Doctor even interrupting idents on BBC1 in 2013 to promote the then-upcoming 50th-anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor.” As such, there is precedence in the past for Doctor Who to tease upcoming major developments with these unique teasers, and showrunner Davies’ recent ominous teases for the beloved character Donna could be related to this new clip.
In this new Doctor Who teaser, not only did the clip feature the return of the season 4 theme but also the surprise appearance of a key season 4 item. A brief clip of the Tenth Doctor’s severed hand from the season 4 finale, “Journey’s End,” can be seen, showing the moment where previously stored away Regeneration energy within the limb was absorbed by Donna, leading to her briefly becoming the Doctor Donna Human/Time Lord hybrid. While the Doctor wiped Donna’s mind to prevent her human body from dying from the strain of the transformation, the teaser could suggest that some element of the change remained with Donna and could play into the upcoming story.
While Doctor Who fans may be shocked by the sudden teaser, it provides an opportunity to dissect every frame for potential clues for the upcoming special. With Tennant and Tate’s TARDIS team being a fan-favorite dynamic, there is an incredible amount of excitement surrounding their returns. As such, many fans are sure to be keeping a close eye on future broadcasts on BBC1 in case any more teasers for the upcoming stories make a surprise debut.
Source: @Tardis_Central/Twitter, @argodotz64/Twitter
