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Top: Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in Season 1 in 2005, Bottom: Varada Sethu and Ncuti Gatwa in Season 15 in 2025

Mar 26, 2025 By Mark Redfern

The beloved British sci-fi show Doctor Who dates back to 1963, but after 16 years of being largely off the air, the modern incarnation of the show premiered 20 years ago today, on March 26, 2005 with the episode “Rose,” which introduced Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. The new season of the show premieres on April 12 and this week a new trailer for the season was shared. Watch that below.

The modern Doctor Who was launched by showrunner Russell T Davies, who returned as showrunner in 2023. It was immediately a big hit in the UK and reached further heights of popularity when David Tennant took over as the Tenth Doctor in the 2005 Christmas special, “The Christmas Invasion.” Tennant was followed by Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Peter Capaldi as the Twelve Doctor, Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, Tennant returning briefly as the Fourteenth Doctor, and Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor.

Gatwa returns in his second season, also the second season to air on Disney+, who currently co-produce the show with the BBC. It’s being billed as the second season, but is officially the 15th season of the show since its 2005 return. Varada Sethu costars as the new companion Belinda Chandra, with Millie Gibson also appearing as the last season’s companion Ruby Sunday. The new trailer is soundtracked by Phil Collins’ 1985 hit “Take Me Home.”

In recent months, there has been much online speculation and slew of unproven rumors about the future of the show on Disney+, Gatwa potentially leaving the show, and Davies also maybe moving on. Until anything is officially announced, the rest is just speculation and fonder for clickbait headlines. What we know for sure is that there is a new season coming April 12 and it looks “fantastic,” as the Ninth Doctor would exclaim.

For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is about a humanoid alien from the planet Gallifrey that travels through space and time in the TARDIS, which is disguised as a British blue police box. He’s often joined by a companion from Earth, usually a twenty-something woman (but not always). Despite a 16-year break between the seasons (as well as one TV movie in 1996 co-produced by the BBC and the U.S. TV network FOX), the show has maintained the same continuity since 1963.

Eccleston and Piper are returning as the Ninth Doctor and Rose in a series of audio dramas for Big Finnish, who have a long history of producing Doctor Who audio dramas featuring former actors from the show.

Read our 2009 interview with David Tennant on Doctor Who.

Read our 2008 interview with former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

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