The all-too-brief tenure of Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor is already causing some big feelings in the Doctor Who fandom. Not since Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor has the era of a new incumbent Time Lord been so short. And, as many have pointed out, the time between the announcement that Gatwa would take the role and his first episode is tragically longer than his actual tenure.
But, there’s more than just recent history strangeness afoot here. One of the oddest things about the end of the most recent era is how it oddly echoes a moment in which the show was put on hiatus from late 1986 to 1987. A time full of controversial changes to the show, the menace of the Rani, and a very, very short tenure for one actor known as the Doctor. Yes, in some ways, the end of the Gatwa era is not unlike Colin Baker’s 6th Doctor era, both onscreen and off.
