Set to the classic strains of Phil Collins’ 1985 hit “Take Me Home,” the latest Doctor Who trailer has us ready for a space-faring adventure like no other. The next season of the beloved sci-fi series is just around the corner, with a new episode arriving this weekend on Disney+ and the BBC iPlayer. The new season introduces Varada Sethu as the next companion to Ncuti Gatwa’s fifteenth Doctor, Belinda Chandra, a whip-smart nurse with a heart full of compassion. When Belinda is kidnapped by robots in the first episode of the season, she’ll end up going “the long way round” with the Doctor before she gets back home.
Ahead of the new season, I sat down with Gatwa and Sethu to discuss what we can expect from the action-packed new season. During our brief but delightful conversation, the duo explained their unique Doctor/Companion relationship and how it’s connected to the Doctor’s more vulnerable side. We also discussed what a planet named after each of them would be like and their favorite episodes from this season, including the Eurovision-inspired episode and a trip to Nigera in Episode 5, “The Story and the Engine.” You can read the transcript of our conversation below or watch it in the player above.
Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu Preview Their Unique Doctor/Companion Relationship

“The Doctor leans on Belinda for support, for companionship, in the truest sense of the word.”

Image via Disney+

COLLIDER: So you guys have a doctor/companion dynamic that we haven’t really seen, maybe ever, or if we have, it’s been a long time, in that Belinda doesn’t really necessarily want to be here, but she can’t exactly go home either. Can you talk about the complexities that that brings to your relationship?
NCUTI GATWA: The relationship that develops from that notion, I find to be so enriching of the relationship. Ultimately, what forms is like a really beautiful partnership and friendship that’s built off a real, deep understanding of each other, having a deep understanding of each other’s flaws and strengths, which is really beautiful. And I think this season, what I loved seeing, and loved seeing in the scripts, is how much the Doctor leans on Belinda for support, for companionship, in the truest sense of the word. It’s not sort of like dragging her along through time and space; they’re like, side-by-side friends, and that was really cool.
VARADA SETHU: I think she holds him accountable. She’s like a mirror to him. These are the things that make you beautiful and all-powerful and wonderful, but also, you need to sort these things out. This is not acceptable, and I want to go home. I think, you know, probably the nature of her job plays into it quite a lot. As a nurse, you have to be good at reading people. You have to come from a place of compassion with everything that you do but still be able to call someone out when they’re taking advantage of something. I think the Doctor, not coming from a bad place, he’s always got good intentions, has a habit of slipping on etiquette, every now and then.
GATWA: He spent a lot of time on his own. He’s an isolated creature and so his intentions are pure. But in terms of perhaps other people’s needs and boundaries, there’s like a looking over them that happens.
SETHU: But there’s just so much growth, I think, in the Doctor and in Belinda, and I think there’s a real growth and nurturing for each other. And there’s a true…there’s such a lovely bond that forms because they have to be a team. They have to work as a team to get her back home.
It sounds like she’s going to maybe teach him some bedside manners. Ncuti, one of the things that I love about your Doctor is that, even if it’s just for a moment, he allows himself to feel things that past doctors had a tendency to suppress. Can you talk about maintaining that softer side of such a weathered person?
GATWA: To me, it just, sort of makes sense. I mean, this is a being that has two hearts, and I think they feel very, very deeply. I think they have had…they’re a being that understands absolutely the light and dark that exists in this universe. And there’s been a lot of light, but] they’ve gone through a lot of darkness, as a genocide survivor and has lost many friends and potential lovers and, seen worlds crumble. I think there’s just such a weight of responsibility. I mean, you look at this character, what you’re seeing is, like you just said, someone that has isolated themselves, someone that has, they should cut off their fam— like cut off his granddaughter. There’s a lot going on there mentally. There’s a lot of pain and trauma following the Doctor. This is something that we know. I think with 15, he’s keen to also really soak up the joys of life, and the light of life, and the playfulness of life, but feels the darkness very heavily. I just felt like that was something that the Doctor can’t help but express.
SETHU: He’s very vulnerable; he’s a vulnerable doctor. He’s okay with showing his vulnerabilities, and I think that’s his strength as well.
‘Doctor Who’ Season 2 Takes the Doctor Somewhere He’s Never Been

“Episode five. I’m very excited for people to see.”

Image via Disney+/BBC

Absolutely. To jump into some fun ones without spoiling anything, there is a planet named after Belinda in the first episode. If you had a planet named after yourself, what would the vibe be like? What? What’s that planet like? What’s a Ncuti planet like? What’s a Varada planet like?
NCUTI: What’s a Varada planet like?
SETHU: Lots of animals. Lots of green. Good food. Just people that are united and that have respect for themselves and for each other and care about, you know, themselves and other people and things around them. Yeah, I think it would that, that would be the core of it. And then how that manifests in all the different ways, you know.
GATWA: I think mine’s…I’d love to have all those things. [Laughs] I think one side of the world is like a carnival. And then the other side of the world is a spa.
That sounds wonderful.
SETHU: Yes!
GATWA: I go from the rave to the spa, to the rave, back to the spa. Everything is there; everything you need is there.
That’s ideal! There are several very, very exciting episodes coming up. You guys get animated at some point. You’ve got a Eurovision-inspired episode. Is there an episode that you’re particularly proud of from this season that you’re excited for people to see?
GATWA: I’m so excited for…Is it five, Lagos?
SETHU: Yep!
GATWAY: Episode five. I’m very excited for people to see. The Doctor goes to Nigeria, which is somewhere the doctor has never been before. We had an incredible writer called Inua Ellams, who wrote that, who is this amazing poet and writer. You just get to learn a bit more about that particular Doctor’s vulnerability in a way that we haven’t seen before. There’s lots of amazing costumes in that one as well.
SETHU: Oh, I mean, you’ve mentioned the interstellar— I was going to say The Interstellar Song Contest. It’s just, it’s so spectacular and so much fun and fabulous, but it also has a very grounding…
GATWA: Under layer to it.
SETHU: Exactly, very, very grounding under layer. And it’s got very dark themes. It’s got some big moments and reveals, and it’s got everything. It’s got a bit of everything, that episode; I believe that’s my favorite episode.
Wonderful. Thank you both so much for sitting down and chatting with me today. I hope you have a great rest of your day.
SETHU: Thank you, you too!
GATWA: Thank you, you too. Lovely to see you again, Sam.
Doctor Who Season 2 premieres on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer on April 12.

Doctor Who

Release Date

December 25, 2023

Network

BBC

Directors

Douglas Camfield, David Maloney, Christopher Barry, Michael E. Briant, Barry Letts, Michael Ferguson, Richard Martin, Peter Moffatt, Pennant Roberts, Lennie Mayne, Chris Clough, Ron Jones, Paddy Russell, Paul Bernard, Michael Hayes, Timothy Combe, Morris Barry, Gerald Blake, Graeme Harper, Waris Hussein, Rodney Bennett, Mervyn Pinfield, Hugh David, John Gorrie

Franchise(s)

Doctor Who