After four years of traveling in the TARDIS, Jodie Whittaker makes her final appearance as the Doctor in the feature-length Doctor Who special The Power Of The Doctor, which also celebrates the centenary of the BBC.
The episode sees the Doctor, along with her companions Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), responding to a distress call from an intergalactic bullet train, not knowing that their arrival on board will set in motion a chain of events that will lead to the demise of the Thirteenth Doctor in an epic battle featuring some of her most fearsome enemies: the Daleks, the Cybermen, and The Master (Sacha Dhawan).
Jodie recently joined the cast and crew of the show at a special preview screening of her swansong episode in London — and here's what she had to say about her final appearance and her successor, Ncuti Gatwa, the next Doctor...
What was it like to watch your final scenes on a big screen in front of an audience?
"This [episode] has encapsulated everything that has come out of Chris [Chibnall, the Doctor Who showrunner]'s brain and his love of Doctor Who, and he's brought us along with him on this. I was emotional because I just always am. And with Sacha being in the episode, I think The Master and the Doctor having that [moment] is so important, and for me and Mandip seeing it out side by side, just watching it with everybody and knowing — there were gasps early on, and I was like, 'you wait!'. I started crying really early on, because I knew what was about to happen!"
What will you miss most about being the Doctor?
"I already miss it, because it's been a year since I was on set! It's a really big deal to me that where people work is a happy space, and me and Mandip couldn't have asked for a happier space — we were around an extraordinary crew who made us laugh every day, who worked so hard in every department, and the cast, everybody that came on threw their heart and soul into it.
"But I think the main thing is, I got to hang out with Mandip every day, and I don't get to do that now, and it makes me really sad! It was such a joy, and you can't describe what it's like, knowing you're in the best time of your life — it's such a weird thing, and we knew it from the first week of filming. It's been the most special time, and I'm not even slightly embarrassed about crying about it, and I got to do it side-by-side with friends for life.
"But this family grows, and it will go on, and Ncuti [Gatwa, who has been cast as the new Doctor] will be extraordinary and he will bring an audience that we haven't reached. His performance will be so magical, that we get to sit back and enjoy it as the fans that we can be now."
What advice do you have for Ncuti?
"It's yours for the taking. There's no advice I can give — I'm certainly not giving that phenomenal actor any advice, he doesn't need it from me! It's yours to own, and you've earned it."
Did you take any mementoes from the set?
"When me and Mandip wrapped on the Tardis, we heard "that's a wrap on the Tardis", so we went all out! We were yanking stuff off — when the Tardis flies, there's a mini-Tardis that spins, that has a light inside, I snapped it off. But it wasn't a wrap on the Tardis, it was a wrap on us on the Tardis — they were going in for pick-ups! So we were like, 'uh...awkward! You're going to have to shoot around that...'
"But I've got my costume, Ray [Holman] the costume designer has given me other bits of the costume as well, and I've definitely got my sonic!
"I nicked quite a few things early on, random things. When we wrapped on a set, I'd be like, 'is anyone using that chair, I love that chair'! So I've got loads, I'm a right hoarder!"
What do you think is the secret of Doctor Who's success?
"I think it celebrates change, and it celebrates what's going on in the moment of the day that it's on, as well as taking all this wealth of information from before, or the future. It doesn't have the limitations that most shows have, you aren't restricted to where these characters can go, who these characters are, and the social norms that often happen in TV. And I think because of that, it always feels incredibly current, and it feels completely 'other' as well.
"So you're on this journey and you are watching these familiar characters, or brand-new characters, and they take everything that's gone before, and take you to destinations you didn't know that you didn't know about, or mirror something to yourself — it feels incredibly personal as well as incredibly epic.
"It's a really difficult thing to distill down in your head. Obviously, it's sci-fi, but it's also historical, it's also sometimes kitchen-sink, it's for children, it's for adults, it's for everyone, and I think we're celebrating the outsider and the insider — that's what makes it unique."
- The Doctor Who special "The Power Of The Doctor" airs on Sunday October 23 on BBC1 at 7.30pm. In the US, the special will air at 8 pm ET on BBC America on October 23.
