‘Doctor Who’ Trailer: The British Series Gets 60th Anniversary Specials on Disney+ This November

“Doctor Who” is looking back at its past. The long-running British sci-fi touchstone is celebrating its 60th anniversary with three new specials that bring back important figures from the show’s run, while making a big move outside the UK to Disney+. Now, the streamer has shared the full trailer for the 60th anniversary specials, ahead of their November premiere.

First premiering in 1963, BBC’s “Doctor Who” follows the titular Doctor, a mysterious adventurer from an alien Time Lord species who travels through the galaxy and time in his Police Box-disguised Tardis machine. Originally played by William Hartnell, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate into new forms upon death, and the character was portrayed by six other actors before the original run ended in 1989. After a 1996 TV film starring Paul McGann as the Doctor, the show was properly revived in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the lead. The series has run continuously since with five actors playing the character; the most recent and first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, concluded her run in a series of October 2022 special episodes.

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For the 60th anniversary specials, “Doctor Who” is bringing back David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor after Eccleston’s one-season run and is the longest-running revival Doctor, playing the character from 2005 to 2010. In the specials, Tennant is actually playing the Fourteenth Doctor who happens to look and act exactly like the Tenth for mysterious reasons. Also back for the specials is Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, one of the Tenth Doctor’s most popular companions. The two will square off against new villain the Toymaker, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Additional cast members include Yasmin Finney, Miriam Margolyes, Ruth Madeley, Jacqueline King, Karl Collins, and Jemma Redgrave.

The two are additionally joined by Russell T. Davies, who showran the series’ first revival seasons and left in 2010, coinciding with Tennant’s original departure. Davies will return to write all three specials, and stay on when the show’s fourteenth series premieres in 2024, with “Sex Education” star Ncuti Gatwa, the first Black star of the series, in the lead role. The specials will be the first “Doctor Who” episodes to premiere outside the UK and Ireland on Disney+, which acquired the global rights to the series in a massive deal announced last October.

“Doctor Who” is produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios. Along with Davies, the series is executive-produced by Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter. Rachel Talalay, Tom Kingsley, and Chanya Button direct the specials. BBC Studios handles global distribution for the series.

The first special, “The Star Beast,” will premiere on Disney+ November 25. The remaining specials will premiere on consecutive Saturdays, with “Wild Blue Yonder” arriving December 2 and “The Giggle” wrapping up the storyline on December 9. Watch the full trailer for the specials below.

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