EXCLUSIVE: Ncuti Gatwa TalksThe New Season of ‘Doctor Who’

The new iteration of the hit Sci-fi series, Doctor Who, is set to premiere on Disney+ on April 12. To celebrate the momentous occassion, BeautifulBallad had the opportunity to chat with the Doctor himself, Ncuti Gatwa, about the upcoming season.

On the new bond between the Doctor and his companion, Belinda: “This season we’re trying to get back to Earth, which is a deviation from the usual direction trying to get out into space and tackle things. But Belinda has absolutely no interest and is not charmed at all by the Doctor. The Doctor lives a very dangerous life. It’s great. We love the Doctor. He’s also very dangerous. And Belinda really, we have to take stock of that. And it takes a little longer for the bond to form, but it’s just as deep as any that there’s been. The payoff is that they really value each other and they value each other’s value systems. She challenges him and calls him out.”

On qualities he and Varada Sethu posses as actors that make working together easier: “What Varada brings out of the text, it’s so brilliant. The text is very specific and it’s tough and it’s complex. We’re speaking a lot of sci-fi language, a lot of words that don’t exist. And Varada is able to take that language and make it so authentic and so naturally hers that I’m like, ‘Wow, the way you interpret text is just incredible.’ Also, screen presence on 100. There’s authenticity. There’s truth, as cliche as this is to say, truth is what I think you want to try and communicate when you’re acting. And I’ve just always gotten that in tenfold from her. She’s a very, very good actor. I don’t know how to make that more poetic, but a very good actor and you want to work with someone very good. So generous. The chemistry was just there from the offset. There’s so much to bounce off that you’re able to create something.”

On whether he feels settled into the role of the Doctor during this next go around: “It was definitely a joy coming back to the second season and being able to explore the character further. Having him feel more settled in my skin. Just the natural process of having done a season and coming back for the next one. There was more comfortability, there was more areas I wanted to explore. And there was obviously going to be new challenges for the character. He was going to grow in different ways because it was new people in his life.

On leaing on Sethu during this new season: “These two roles in this show, they really have to lean on each other equally as actors playing these roles. But then also narratively, they’re really leaning on each other this season because they both have the challenge of trying to get back home and the Doctor doesn’t know why he can’t, so they’re equally as confused. They equally have to lean on each other. So that was a nice on-off screen thing that was happening because I was still getting used to the madness of it all as well. And so it was really nice to have someone as grounded and as generous as Sethu to be able to go through that journey with, because it’s quite a journey.”

On being a part of a story that inspires hope: “Great. It feels really great to be doing something artistically that does that. It’s quite rare to have a show that does that. The real message behind each episode is hope and upliftment and to have two leads as well, I guess two heroes that are attuned to nonviolence is quite rare and beautiful. I’m sure that encourages learning and compassion and curiosity.

On a favorite episide of the series: “Blink. Let’s say either Blink or I guess this is my religious upbringing, but I really loved when he faced the devil, that time and the devil took over the Ood and brainwashed the Ood. That episode I found so brilliant because I feel like it was this start of incorporating fantasy or like it was like a slight deviation from sci-fi. It felt like the first episode I watched in that season that was less sci-fi-y and more mystical.”

On loss being a big theme for this upcoming season: “Certainly. Loss is a big theme of the Doctor. He faces that a lot. He’s lost a lot of companions. He’s a survivor of a genocide. We’ve always known the Doctor to be quite emotionally distant at times and it’s because he’s suffered a lot of loss and there’s been a lot of trauma there. That’s definitely a theme throughout this season.”

On a favorite look from the new season: “The Doctor’s outfit when he goes back to Lagos and his hair, he’s got cornrows, he had an Afro. That was really cool because it felt that was a very Black-centric episode and that came out in the fashion and so that was really cool, really nice to explore each genre through the fashion.”

The new season, or series, of Doctor Who will premiere on April 12 on BBC and Disney+.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity