Billie Piper, who played sidekick Rose to David Tennant's Doctor Who, is now returning in the titular role.
Billie Piper will play the next Doctor Who after a dramatic reveal at the end of the latest series.
The actress, 42, who previously played Rose Tyler, the sidekick to the ninth and 10th Doctors, played by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, will be making her return to the Tardis.
She replaces Ncuti Gatwa, 32, as The Doctor, with the character regenerating during the finale that aired in the UK on Saturday night.
Piper said: “It’s no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return to the Whoniverse as I have some of my best memories there, so to be given the opportunity to step back on that Tardis one more time was just something I couldn’t refuse.”
After the episode was broadcast, Billie Piper posted on Instagram “A rose is a rose is a rose !!!” with images from her previous time on the show playing The Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler.
Russell T. Davies, the Doctor Who showrunner, praised Gatwa and said: “What a Doctor! Thank you, Ncuti”!
“As his final words say, this has been an absolute joy, and the team in Cardiff and everyone who has worked on this show for the past few years, are so lucky to have been part of Ncuti’s great adventure as he shoots off to stratospheric new heights.”
On Piper’s new role, he added: “Billie once changed the whole of television, back in 2005, and now she’s done it again. It’s an honour and a hoot to welcome her back to the Tardis, but quite how and why and who is a story yet to be told.
“After 62 years, The Doctor’s adventures are only just beginning.”
Piper shot to fame in 1998 at the age of 15 with the release of her debut pop single Because We Want To. She had another number one single, Girlfriend, and her platinum selling debut album Honey to the B.
But she then moved into acting, later saying it was what she wanted to do most, and her breakthrough role came as the companion to Doctor Who in 2005.
Piper played Rose, a feisty shop assistant who developed a strong bond with the Time Lord and kissed him at one stage.
She later starred in the ITV series Secret Diary Of A Call Girl from 2007 to 2011, playing an escort in London. She made her directorial debut in 2019 with Rare Beasts, a dark comedy drama she also wrote and starred in.
Last year, she portrayed the Newsnight producer Sam McAlister in Netflix’s Scoop, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of Emily Maitlis’ momentous interview with the Duke of York. The performance earned her a nomination for Best Leading Actress at the 2025 Bafta TV Awards.
Doctor Who fans in the UK had mixed reactions to Saturday’s episode.
Retired teacher Steve Hatcher, 66, of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, who runs Whoovers – a Doctor Who fan club, told the PA news agency: “The question in the mind was, is it going to be a regeneration to a new Doctor, which it was, or is it just going to be a regeneration to black and an uncertain future?
“So I’m very relieved that they’ve found a new Doctor and she’s a brilliant actor and I’m sure that’ll be terrific, so Doctor Who continues, I would say, on the basis of that, it was a terrific episode.”
James Ashway, 27, from Bristol, who helps run the Doctor Who Appreciation Society’s magazine, said: “It was an episode which threw the kitchen sink in terms of returning characters, Jodie Whittaker and obviously now Billie Piper as well as the new Doctor.
“I’m a bit speechless to be honest, there’s quite a lot of stuff to take in, but I think it was an interesting episode which pivoted in the middle to tell two different stories, one wrapping up the end of that season and obviously telling Ncuti Gatwa’s regeneration as well, so very enjoyable.”
However, Brendan Noble, 57, of Middlesbrough, a former English teacher who runs the Sense Sphere YouTube channel said: “I think we’ve just had what I would have called EastEnders in space. I am absolutely shocked, irritated, frustrated, people are contacting me now in absolute shock and horror at what’s just happened.
“It’s lazy writing, hodgepodge of exposition, escapism, nonsense, [Russell T. Davies] was throwing every toy from the Doctor Who box at the telly, hoping that some of it would make sense in the way of entertaining you.”