My Review of Doctor Who Unleashed: 20 Years In Wales

Narrated by Steffan Powell

Directed by Jonathon Aiken

Billie Piper: "I would come back. What's funny is that I feel I've never left Doctor Who because there is this huge Doctor Who afterlife, which, obviously because people still really wanna talk about it."

Well, that speech certainly aged appropriately. However, a week later and this celebratory special later and we're still none the wiser. Is Billie Piper the 16th Doctor or not? If you were expecting answers to that question, you'll be sorely disappointed.

To be though, Doctor Who Unleashed: 20 Years In Wales was filmed before the airing of The Reality War. How much longer before we get an answer though? It might be a while. It's certainly gotten people talking though.

Anyways this special could be broken down into four parts as host Steffan Powell talked to various cast members, past and present as well as the threee show runners who've revived the show and reinvented it for modern audiences.

First of all was the humble beginnings of the show. For that you had both Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner going over the task they had in reviving the show. That was largely helped with Christopher Eccleston being cast as the 9th Doctor. Sadly, there's no contribution from Eccleston here himself. 

Then there's David Tennant and Billie Piper. The iconic team of the 10th Doctor and Rose Tyler. I loved seeing them together on camera and both were on great form here. Billie in particular giving us some cryptic hints about returning to the show.

Then there's the Steven Moffat era. The longest era from a showrunner and Moffat is a write who I'll always enjoy listening. There's great contributions from Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Pearl Mackie but again, sadly, nothing from either Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi.

As for the Chris Chibnall, time has been kind because I've found myself softening to it a lot. Chibnall gave some good insight here and the friendship between Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill is really sweet. I also loved how both Jodie and Mandip talked about the crew members as well. That really was lovely of them.

Circling back to the current era, there was a look at David Tennant playing the 14th Doctor for the 60th anniversary. We also got clips of Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu from the premiere of the recent series and a reminder of last week's shock regeneration to boot.

- Fans of Martha and Clara might be disappointed with the lack of mentions of them. 

- Blink got a lot of emphasis, more than I would've given it and I love that episode.

- Filming in Wales since 2004 has done a lot for the country's film industry.

- Steffan did put some focus on various crew members as well for this special.

- Spin-offs were mentioned in the broader context but it's almost like Class didn't exist, lol.

- It really does feel like we're in unknown waters in regards to the show's future at the moment.

Doctor Who Unleashed: 20 Years In Wales had a lot to cover in the space of 58 minutes. I think it did a mostly good job and while I wish we had gotten some more contributions from other cast members, I was happy to see everyone who appeared on here. 

Rating: 8 out of 10