“Bridgerton” star attends “Doctor Who” Christmas special; new spin-off coming

SAN DIEGO – The British series “Doctor Who” has entertained generations of science fiction fans for 60 years and is bringing new joy to the world this holiday season.

At a presentation at Comic-Con on Friday, Russell T. Davies, the show's executive producer, previewed the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special (coming to Disney+ later this year) and announced a new Who spinoff.

Guest starring in the Christmas special is “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan, who plays Joy, a determined Brit who checks into a hotel, encounters an alien and whose life is changed by the time-traveling Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), who brings her a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte.

“She brought so much joy to the set. She is an absolute star,” Gatwa said of Coughlan.

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Davies also announced a new spin-off, “The War Between the Land and the Sea,” which will focus on the Doctor's allies in the military organization UNIT and the return of classic 1970s villains the Sea Devils. The five-part series will begin filming next month. It stars Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and features “Who” actors Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Alexander Devrient as Colonel Ibrahim. (Although Tovey and Mbatha-Raw have appeared on “Doctor Who” before, Davies said they will play new characters.)

“What happens when the Doctor is out of town?” says Davies of the new show, which has an ecological bent: The Sea Devils are a race of underwater creatures who go to war against humanity on the surface because of the damage humans have done to the oceans.

For the upcoming season of “Who,” Gatwa promised “a lot more fun, a lot more adventure.” Jonah-Hauer King joins the cast as a character connected to Ruby, while Varada Sethu (“Andor”) plays a “strong and wonderful” new character named Belindra Chandra, Davies said.

Gatwa looked back on his first season as the Doctor, calling it “absolutely incredible”, although he is still “desperate” to meet a Dalek.

He also talked about playing the role of a Doctor who tends to cry a lot. “The Doctor has experienced so much loss and joy, lived every experience to the fullest. I can't get over the fact that he has two hearts and feels everything so deeply,” said the actor. “It's nice to have a hero who feels and a man who isn't afraid to get in touch with his feelings.”

The main plot in Gatwa's first season revolved around the Doctor and his new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) searching for their biological mother. Davies kept the identity of Ruby's mother a secret, even from Gibson, as scripts arrived every two months, “but it made it more heartbreaking and easier to play,” Gibson said. Ruby definitely “grew” as the episodes went on: “She set out on a journey to find her mother, but instead she found herself and found out who the Doctor was.”

The Doctor Who fanbase has grown due to the recent partnership between BBC and Disney+, and Davies got a call from a famous Whovian: After the episode “Rogue,” in which Gatwa sings “I Just Can't Get You Outta My Head,” Kylie Minogue called Davies. “She was watching and was like, 'Oh my God, the Doctor is singing my song!' I thought she was busy being glamorous or something.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Comic-Con 2024: 'Bridgerton' star Nicola Coughlan visits 'Doctor Who'