Yahoo News Doctor Who's Ncuti Gatwa praises "father figure" David Tennant
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has praised David Tennant, describing his former co-star as a "father figure".
The pair appeared together in 'The Giggle' episode, which saw the Fourteenth (David) and Fifteenth (Ncuti) iterations of the Time Lord fight side-by-side after "bigenerating", a break from the series tradition of regeneration.
Though their time together on the show was brief after each version of the Doctor went their separate ways, Ncuti revealed to Variety that David's influence on set was integral to his new role.
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"[He has been a] guiding therapist father figure. [He advised me on] the things to read, and the things not to read," Ncuti explained in the interview, which was conducted alongside showrunner Russell T Davies.
With the new series set to premiere next month, Ncuti recently teased that the BBC show will tackle the subject of race, explaining: "[It's] the first time the Doctor's been Black for this long, [so the topic of] race does make an appearance.
"We have to address those elements of the character now, because Earth unfortunately is still quite a funny little place… Russell has such a knack of being able to bring in these elements of our humanity through this sci-fi lens in a really interesting way."
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Gatwa, who starred in Sex Education, also spoke about the backlash to his casting, saying: "The hate? It is kind of fascinating to me, because there's so much energy they're putting into it. You are so angry over something so inconsequential that you can't be an interesting person.
"Another thing is that we do see a shift happening in casting, in positions of power and in the status quo. I mean, not a fast shift. Things could tip over the other way a little bit quicker, but you see people kind of malfunctioning because things are changing."
Doctor Who will return for its 14th series on May 11 at midnight, airing on BBC One in the UK and Disney+ elsewhere. Classic episodes of Doctor Who are available on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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