Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who Audition Scene Invented a Brand New Monster

The BBC being a public service broadcaster, it goes above and beyond. In addition to being the home of Doctor Who the TV show, it’s also home to a mountain of behind-the-scenes Doctor Who stuff. Stuff including the episode scripts, many of which are available for fans to peruse online via the BBC Writers script library.

Hot off Russell T Davies’ laptop and now in the library are the episode scripts for the three 60^th anniversary specials “The Star Beast”, “Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Giggle”, plus 2023 Christmas Special “The Church on Ruby Road”. Read RTD’s stage directions, phonetic spellings of The Toymaker’s outrageous accents and some chilling descriptions of the No-Things from the edge of the universe, at your leisure.

In addition to the main 2023 episodes are a couple of bonus treats in the form of the Skaro-set Comic Relief sketch about the creation of the Daleks, and the sides used to audition the 15^th Doctor.

That much-told story about how the show’s producers had come this close to casting somebody else when Ncuti Gatwa came in and blew all their socks off? This is the scene he was performing, and it’s a brilliant showcase for the new Doctor’s ability to switch between whimsy and menace.

Read the lot here, and meet a brand new monster invented by RTD: the Spikes.

Who are the Spikes? “Spiky thoughts, brought to life” the Doctor explains. “You know when you get angry? Or mad? Or you suddenly have an idea? Or maybe you fall in love, spiking.”

In the audition scene, the Doctor and modern-day human Robin are chased into a trap by monsters the Spikes, led by a man with a gun known as the Spikemaster. With 100 seconds to escape and only a computer to tap away at, will they do it?

No spoilers here. Read on to find out.