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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Emma Loffhagen

Doctor Who: full list of actors as David Tennant returns ahead of Ncuti Gatwa

Over a year ago Jodie Whittaker made her final outing as the trailblazing first female Doctor.

In a 90-minute star-studded special episode of Doctor Who, Whittaker’s reign as the thirteenth Doctor came to an end.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor saw a surprise twist when Whittaker regenerated not into her recently announced successor, Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa – as we all expected – but into the returning Time Lord, David Tennant.

Fans still got their first glimpse of Gatwa, however, when he appeared briefly in a trailer at the end of the programme, saying: “Someone tell me what the hell is going on here?”.

Over the last year we’ve got a clearer picture of what’s going down: David Tennant is returning to play the Doctor for three special stand alone 60th anniversary episodes, the first of which will air this weekend. Then Gatwa will become the 15th Doctor in the brand new series, which is set to air on Christmas Day.

So who has played Doctor Who before?

The first season of Doctor Who was originally broadcast on the BBC on November 23, 1963.

Since then, there will have been 14 people playing Doctor Who – once Gatwa officially takes on the role.

In order of appearance, here are all the actors who have played the iconic Time Lord over the decades:

  1. William Hartnell 1963 – 1966
  2. Patrick Troughton 1966 – 1969
  3. John Pertwee 1970 – 1974
  4. Tom Baker 1974 – 1981
  5. Peter Davidson 1981 – 1984
  6. Colin Baker 1984 – 1986
  7. Sylvester McCoy 1987 – 1989
  8. Paul McGann 1996
  9. Christopher Eccleston 2005
  10. David Tennant 2005 – 2010
  11. Matt Smith 2010 – 2013
  12. Peter Capaldi 2013 – 2017
  13. Jodie Whittaker 2017 – 2022

There have also been a few extra “unofficial” Doctors throughout the years.

John Hurt played a version known as The War Doctor in a series of 2013 specials while Jo Martin played a previously unknown version of The Doctor in series 12, who was known as the Fugitive Doctor.

Peter Cushing also played the part in two films produced in the 1960s: Dr. Who And The Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD.

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