As Doctor Who plots a return with the eponymous Time Lord seemingly taking on the form of a previous companion, Billie Piper is reacquainting herself with the secrets of the universe.
Following the Season 15 finale of the rebooted BBC One/Disney+ series, in which the Ncuti Gatwa‘s 15th Doctor regenerates to take the form of Piper’s Rose Tyler, the actress recently recalled how she came to return to the TARDIS.
“This is such a minefield, I have to really engage with how I answer this,” she said at Florida Supercon. “All I can say is, I was approached very last-minute, and I can’t talk about in what capacity, but I found it very emotional to film, and I think it’s a really great ending.”
Noting she had to keep the finale twist a secret, Piper explained, “I just found it quite moving, and it was really fun to film because it had such a sort of cloak-and-dagger feeling about getting it made. So, yeah, I have to lie a lot about anything to do with Doctor Who, it seems.”
Since her original run in the first two seasons from 2005 to 2006, Piper has reprised the role of Rose on several occasions, most recently being the 2013 episode ‘The Day of the Doctor’, as well as the podcast series Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures in 2017.
Following Piper’s return in the May finale of Season 15 (Season 2 under Disney’s leadership), Gatwa announced his exit from the show, explaining that the role was a “real pleasure and honor,” but the departure “felt like the right timing and the right energy, and it’s felt melancholic and bittersweet.”
“It was always the plan to do this amount of seasons, because it’s a role that demands a lot of you, physically and emotionally and mentally,” said Gatwa in a behind-the-scenes featurette. “The actors playing the Doctor are only actors playing the Foctor; unfortunately, we are mere mortals. I would love to have the energy and the youth to be able to do this full time for the rest of my life, but my knees are telling me it’s time.”
Doctor Who has not yet been renewed for Season 3 at Disney+ and BBC.
