While Christopher Eccleston, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker all have their fair share fans, we'd argue that David Tennant remains the most popular actor to have travelled in the TARDIS during this era of Doctor Who. With that in mind, it's really not a shocker that there's so much excitement for his return in next year's 60th-anniversary special.
Tennant has been spotted as the Tenth Doctor on set, as has Catherine Tate as companion Donna Noble. Longtime viewers of the show will be aware that there's a good reason they shouldn't be together, prompting fans to wonder whether this might be a previously unseen flashback.
What we do know is that Tennant's Doctor will square off with Neil Patrick Harris' mysterious villain. However, the actor was quick to warn fans at this weekend's Fan Expo Boston (via SFFGazette.com) that those set photos "aren't even close to the whole story" of what's happening, saying he and Tate actually filmed on a closed set with "many other people."
During a previous interview with Doctor Who Magazine, returning showrunner Russell T. Davies teased fans with the endless possibilities of what could happen in the special, suggesting that there's a very good reason for the Tenth Doctor's return.
"A mysteriously forgotten excursion for the TARDIS in between 'Planet of the Ood' and 'Sontaran Stratagem'?" Davies pondered. "Or maybe a multiverse thing, they're all the rage these days. Maybe this is the Doctor and Donna from Universe 557, all set to collide with our own. 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. Nerys!"
He'd add, "Of course, I wouldn't give that away in the pages of DWM, would I? But then again. This magazine is the first place I ever revealed the name of Billie Piper's Rose (in issue 340). So read carefully. There are truths in here."
Of course, Tennant and Tate return to the Doctor Who franchise just as Ncuti Gatwa gets set to take over from Whittaker as the Fourteenth Doctor. Whether he will factor into this special obviously remains to be seen.