David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston to unite for Doctor Who audio specials

Screen OD staff

David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston and no fewer than five other former Doctors will unite for a new Doctor Who special in May 2023 for “a mammoth eight-part full-cast audio drama” to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the BBC science fiction show.

Doctor Who: Once and Future will be released monthly across 2023 and will feature Tennant and Eccleston as well as  Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann.

The synopsis for the series sets the scene for the drama:

“The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form – instead, the Doctor’s past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations…

“Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his ‘degeneration’. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely…”

Speaking of the exceptional line-up for this epic Doctor Who adventure, producer David Richardson said: “An astonishing array of talent has come aboard to be a part of this epic eight-hour anniversary story. It’s a huge Doctor Who party and a massive celebration that has been years in the making.”

The special series will be released in the same year that the show celebrates 60 years with three hour-long TV specials written by returning showrunner Russell T Davies. David Tennant will once again feature, on this occasion as the Fourteenth Doctor, alongside Catherine Tate who will be reprising her role as Donna Noble on the show.

The 60th celebrations will be the first to be part of the new deal between the BBC and Disney that will see Doctor Who streamed across the globe on Disney+ and will act as a forerunner to Ncuti Gatwa’s first episode as the Fifteenth Doctor around the festive season of 2023.

This week it was revealed that Millie Gibson will travel with Gatwa in the TARDIS as his companion Ruby Sunday.

More details of Doctor Who: Once and Future can be found on the Big Finish website.