Ncuti Gatwa’s first season as Doctor Who‘s leading man was oddly labeled “season 1” following the show’s move to Disney+, and the fact that the show has a long, rich history confused certain groups. There’s no denying that Gatwa’s era immediately looked unique, but that’s often true whenever a new actor is cast as the famous Time Lord. However, Disney’s decision to call Ncuti Gatwa’s first full Doctor Who outing “season 1” makes very little sense for a few different reasons.
Before Gatwa was cast, only two figures out of every actor to play the Doctor could have been said to make their debut in “season 1.” Now, there are three, and for a very ambiguous reason. The ending of the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials continued immediately into Gatwa’s first full appearance as the Doctor in the 2023 Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” However, Gatwa’s first run of episodes on Disney+ is under the banner of, “Doctor Who season 1.” Confusingly, the Doctor Who canon wasn’t reset, so the new numbering system doesn’t add up.
Doctor Who began in 1963, with the first episode featuring William Hartnell as the First Doctor before he quit and made way for Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor. This cycle of renewal continued for decades before Doctor Who was canceled by the BBC in 1989 after Doctor Who season 26 came to a close. Since then, Doctor has been revived, with the show being resurrected in 2005 with a new Doctor Who season 1. The modern era of Doctor Who is about to produce its fourteenth complete season, meaning Gatwa’s first set of episodes should be Doctor Who season 40 overall.
2005’s revival didn’t restart Doctor Who continuity. Instead, the show acknowledged the 16-year break by having many off-screen events take place within the Doctor Who timeline. As such, the show became accessible to new fans as well as those who enjoyed the classic era. Therefore, it made sense to call Christopher Eccleston’s first season as the Ninth Doctor “Doctor Who season 1″ instead of “Doctor Who season 27.” Taking the latter route would have alienated potential viewers who thought they needed to catch up on 26 seasons of television before they could enjoy the show, which wasn’t true.
While it’s technically true that Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season is the show’s fortieth overall, it would have made more sense to continue the numbering convention of the modern era. Doing so would mean calling Gatwa’s first run of episodes, “Doctor Who season 14,” rather than complicating matters by adding a third “Doctor Who season 1″ into the mix. Resetting the season count implies a Doctor Who canon reset – which isn’t representative of the situation.
What’s actually true is that Ncuti Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season is a direct continuation of the 60th-anniversary specials, which in turn took place immediately after 2021’s Doctor Who season 13, which starred Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. Therefore, logically, Gatwa’s first run of episodes should be Doctor Who season 14, as Doctor Who season 1 suggests something significant taking place from a canonical or administrative perspective.
Strangely, the last time Doctor Who was reset to “season 1” was when Russell T Davies brought the show back in 2005 for Eccleston’s lone season in the TARDIS. The need for a reshaping of the show was evident, with the harsh reality of Doctor Who‘s classic era being that many parts of it just hadn’t aged well. However, Doctor Who has been handled very well since its 2005 return, largely maintaining an impressive level of quality since Eccleston’s run.
While it could be argued that “The Church on Ruby Road” was a soft reboot ahead of Gatwa’s first season, Davies’ return to the showrunner’s chair has done anything but go back to square one from a continuity perspective. So, Davies has unwittingly guided Doctor Who through two versions of “Season 1,” despite the canon remaining part of a continuous thread between every episode in between.
In the UK, Doctor Who‘s country of origin, every era of Doctor Who is available to stream on the studio’s own service, the BBC iPlayer. However, international audiences will often need to trawl through various platforms to find the various eras of Doctor Who – including Disney+. Having said that, the first Doctor Who episode to hit Disney+ in the US was the first of David Tennant’s 60th-anniversary specials, “The Starbeast.” While every following episode will be on Disney+ too, the platform didn’t acquire the rights to the show’s extensive library of episodes.
As a result of the arrangement, this would have meant Gatwa’s first season appearing alone on Disney+ as “Doctor Who season 14.” For those unfamiliar with the show, this may have been off-putting, as starting a new show thirteen seasons in is rarely a good place to start. So, by branding Ncuti Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season as “season 1,” then fresh audiences may be more willing to give it a try.
“Doctor Who season 1″ paints an image of a brand-new beginning, with viewers not needing to know anything about the show before hitting “play” on the first episode. However, this simply isn’t the case with Ncuti Gatwa’s first season of Doctor Who. The show never took a long break as it did between Doctor Who‘s classic era and the 2005 revival. Additionally, Gatwa’s introduction as the Fifteenth Doctor in “The Giggle” even took place as part of a groundbreaking scene that connected him to David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor.
Doctor Who‘s bi-generation scene with Tennant and Gatwa is one of the biggest pieces of evidence that the show’s arrival on Disney+ doesn’t mark a new beginning for Doctor Who canon. Regardless, Disney has chosen to pursue a numbering convention that doesn’t align with common sense, and is, if anything, misleading. As a result, “Doctor Who season 1″ could refer to the beginning of William Hartnell’s reign as the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston’s introduction to the show, or Ncuti Gatwa’s first run of Doctor Who episodes.