Becoming The Doctor

How do you become The Doctor? As Ncuti Gatwa embarked on his first full series of Doctor Who, BBC Archives looked at how he and other actors have approached the role, and all that comes with being The Doctor.

Following David Tennant’s celebrated Doctor could be daunting for any actor. In 2010 as David was leaving Doctor Who for the first time, he reflected on the decisions he’d made to create the Tenth Doctor. Meanwhile, his successor, Matt Smith, was contemplating how he would use his time to develop his own Doctor’s character.

Matt Smith took the time between casting and filming to explore the character of the Eleventh Doctor. Here he explains how he drew inspiration from Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor ... and Albert Einstein.

Eccentricity was something Sylvester McCoy was able to bring to the role as demonstrated in this interview from 1987. But he also explains how his previous work as an actor and performer will help him to combine being himself with elements of the previous incarnations of The Doctor.

While almost every actor brings an element of themselves to The Doctor, Jon Pertwee found this idea quite daunting. In this interview with Terry Wogan he explains how finding the right costume helped him to find his character of The Doctor.

Peter Davison was the first actor to play The Doctor who had watched Doctor Who as a child, but he wouldn't be the last. Having been a childhood fan of the series, David Tennant was very aware of the responsibility he carried taking on the part of The Doctor. But, as he reflects here, he didn’t want to make the Tenth Doctor ‘self consciously quirky’, instead he wanted to be 'truthful and believable'.

In 2013 Peter Capaldi was revealed as the next actor to play The Doctor during a special Saturday night programme on BBC One. He spoke to Zoe Ball about preparing to audition for a role he’d played as a child.

Though she was the first woman to play the role, Jodie Whittaker didn’t feel that her gender consciously influenced how she portrayed The Doctor, as she explains to Dan Walker in this interview.

So, how would Ncuti Gatwa approach becoming The Doctor? He gave some hints to Lizo Mzimba in December 2023 of how being an alien resonated with him, and the joy he felt playing The Doctor.