Doctor Who: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson Were Surprised by the Musical Numbers

The new Doctor Who stars react to their recent singing and dancing.

By Jenna Anderson

Doctor Who's new era has officially begun, with Ncuti Gatwa stepping into the role of the Fifteenth Doctor in last weekend's two-episode premiere. The new episodes already included some interesting elements, including a huge musical influence in "The Devil's Chord," a 1960s-set episode where Fifteen and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) meet The Beatles and help save music from Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon). While speaking to ComicBook about the new season of Doctor Who, Gatwa and Gibson shared that they definitely weren't prepared for the musical elements.

"I could have never foresaw when I was cast as The Doctor that we'd be singing and dancing to the Goblin King," Gatwa revealed.

"Totally," Gibson echoed. "People were like, 'Oh, that will be fine. We'll be in a cozy little audio room with a cup of tea, a mic, auto tune. All the greatest surroundings.' But no, we did it live. They were like, 'Right. So we're gonna do a take now and you're gonna sing it properly.' And we're like, 'What?' So yeah, that was pretty insane. I'm just glad we can hold a tune because I don't know what they would have done. It wasn't included in the audition briefs, so I don't know what they would have done."

Why Does Doctor Who Have Musical Numbers?

As returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies also told ComicBook, the musical numbers of the new season were a natural progression for the show itself.

"I was heading in that direction anyway," Davies explained. "I've got to say, in audition, we never asked [Ncuti] to sing. We never checked that out. And had he not been able to sing or dance, we would have found a way around that. I said, 'Look at the man.' I mean, no wonder we didn't ask. 'Of course he can sing and dance, he can do anything.' I never doubted that for a second. It's just something I want to do because I always want Doctor Who to feel every emotion, and for it to resonate with the viewers at home in every single way, and want to be the most memorable show you'll watch on television that week. And part of that is music. I mean, imagine not having a great soundtrack on Doctor Who, it would just be slightly less a show. So I worked with for many years on Doctor Who and almost every other job I've ever had, with Murray [Gold], because I think he's so magnificent and he's so in tune with me and he writes such good tunes. Other people might write beds of atmospheric, incidental music, he writes tunes. He's been heading towards writing songs in Doctor Who for a long time, in fact. He's independently gone and written his own songs, when David Tennant first became The Doctor. In 'The Christmas Invasion', and the happy ending of that episode, there's a great big song playing that Murray just went and wrote it over the soundtrack. That was the soundtrack. So he's always loved it. So maybe I'm just slow to follow, but I think it's just pushing the show into a bigger sensory experience, in every sense.'

What Is Doctor Who's New Season About?

From Disney+ and the BBC, this season of Doctor Who follows the Doctor and Ruby Sunday nthrough infinite adventures across time and space in the TARDIS. From the Regency era in England to war-torn futures, the duo champion the forces of good while encountering incredible friends and dangerous foes.

Guest stars on the new season of Doctor Who will include Aneurin Barnard, Anita Dobson, Yasmin Finney, Michelle Greenidge, Jonathan Groff, Bonnie Langford, Genesis Lynea, Jemma Redgrave, Lenny Rush, Indira Varma and Angela Wynter. Doctor Who is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC. Under the creative vision of Davies, the additional executive producers include Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter. The new season features episodes directed by Ben Chessell, Jamie Donoughue, Julie Anne Robinson and Dylan Holmes Williams.

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Doctor Who will return with new episodes on Fridays at 7pm ET on Disney+, followed by a debut on BBC iPlayer at 12am GMT on Saturdays, and a broadcast premiere on BBC One later that day. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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