Doctor Who fans are living for Ncuti Gatwa’s performance after Christmas special

The verdict for Ncuti Gatwa’s rendition of the Doctor is in and the Whoniverse will never be the same.

The Rwandan-Scottish actor, best known for his roles in Sex Education and Barbie, absolutely ate up his performance as the time-travelling extraterrestrial according to Doctor Who fans who were going wild on social media.

While the 15th Doctor first debuted as part of a shocking bi-generation twist in the 9 December Doctor Who special, The Giggle, Gatwa had the chance to flex his Time Lord muscles during the Christmas Day special, The Church on Ruby Road.

The episode received critical acclaim for its spectacular mixture of exhilaratingly wonderous storytelling and tearful emotional scenes, all wrapped together by Gatwa’s captivating on-screen presence, which social media agreed was all kinds of iconic.

“Well, Ncuti Gatwa may have been born to play The Doctor,” one ecstatic fan wrote. “He is killing this part. I love everything about Doctor Who, and The Church on Ruby Road was gloriously magic, funny, creepy, camp, bonkers and Christmassy.”

Another wrote: “Ncuti Gatwa is so f**king engaging, like I couldn’t take my eyes off him for a second, we are SO blessed omg.”

While everything about Gatwa’s performance spelt iconic with a capital I, fans couldn’t get enough of the 15th Doctor’s and companion Ruby Rose’s – Millie Gibson – musical number towards the Goblin King.

“Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson were so iconic for this,” one user wrote, while another said: “Oh my god I was smiling the whole time… iconic.”

BBC releases Doctor Who series teaser

The hype for Gatwa’s return was immediately underway after BBC released a 37-second teaser for the latest series of Doctor Who.

The tenacious time-traveling teaser was choc-full of exciting tidbits from the Doctor’s adventures with Ruby, including a jam session at Abbey Road Studios, a sizzling snap of Jinx Monsoon in her role as the Doctor’s newest antagonist, and some scary-looking alien creatures set to face off against Gatwa and friends.

As the 15th Doctor put it: “No job, no boss, just fun. Classic.”

Fans went wild for the snippets of the Doctor’s latest foray into time and space, with one writing: “Let’s gooo, Ncuti I love you!”

“I’m actually shaking and crying I can’t believe we are going to see the Beatles in Doctor Who,” another fan exclaimed.

“No but you don’t understand how hyped I am for this???” another wrote. “The outfits, the vibes, the characters, the chemistry. It looks SO good.”

Broadcaster Scott Bryan also shared further details about the upcoming season, which will reportedly feature returnees such as Yasmin Finney and Bonnie Langford as respective characters Rose Noble and Mel Bush.

Jonathan Groff is also set to appear in a mysterious key role, while Indira Varma will appear as the Duchess and Lenny Rush as Morris.

The next series of Doctor Who is set to return on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ for the rest of the world in May 2024.