Anticipation couldn't be any higher for Doctor Who's upcoming 60th-anniversary celebrations, particularly with Russell T Davies - the writer who rebooted the franchise with Christopher Eccleston way back in 2005 - returning as showrunner. Throw in Neil Patrick Harris, the introduction of a new Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa, and some huge returns, and it's shaping up to be an epic year.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble. It appears as if they'll be part of their own standalone adventure involving Harris' villain, a character many are convinced is a reimagining of the Toymaker, a foe first faced by William Hartnell's Doctor.
In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (via SFFGazette.com), Davies commented on the huge number of theories surrounding the Tenth Doctor and Donna's involvement, and shared a few hints about what could lead to their returns.
"How the hell can the Doctor and Donna be reunited! You're sci-fi fans, you know the score, there are all sorts of possibilities ahead," the showrunner started. "Virgin Publishing once had a fine range of novels called The Missing Adventures - is that what this is? A mysteriously forgotten excursion for the TARDIS in between Planet of the Ood and The Sontaran Stratagem?"
"Or maybe it's a multiverse thing, they're all the rage these days. Maybe this is a Doctor and Donna from Universe 557, all set to collide with our own," he continued. "Then again, maybe, just maybe, this return is so impossible that it's actually an intricate illusion created by an old enemy of the Doctor's. Or maybe an old enemy of Donna's."
Donna, who had her memories wiped by the Doctor (to save her life), being the focus of this episode makes sense and if Tennant's Tenth iteration of the time-traveller is some sort of powerful illusion, it would go a long way towards explaining how all this is going to work. With that in mind, The Toymaker is clearly a far more powerful adversary than many of us first expected.
Time will tell (literally in The Doctor's case), but keep checking SFFGazette.com for the latest on Doctor Who as we have it!