Doctor Who star Billie Piper recently shared her one condition for returning as fan-favorite companion Rose Tyler.
Piper revealed the one thing that could convince her to take part in a hypothetical Rose-centric spinoff during an interview with Buzzfeed. "If it was shot in London -- sorry that’s a really loveless answer!" she said. "There’s a running theme here, I don't want to work much. [If the spinoff] was like four episodes all shot in London, then yeah, I'd be like a rat-up-a-drainpipe for that." Piper first appeared as Rose in the aptly-named premiere episode of the Doctor Who revival's first season, "Rose." She exited the iconic sci-fi series at the end of Season 2, although she later guest-starred in several episodes of Season 4, as well as two specials.
In the same interview, Piper named the ending of Doctor Who Season 4 finale, "Journey's End," as the moment from the series she'd most like to change. Specifically, the actor objected to Rose choosing to live out her days in a parallel universe with a half-human duplicate of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, rather than the genuine article. "It’s not a criticism of [showrunner] Russell T Davies, because he is the master, but I struggled with that. Mainly because the second Doctor is less good than the real one!" Piper said.
David Tennant's Doctor Who Comeback
While there's no indication that Piper is returning to the Doctor's TARDIS anytime soon, Tennant is officially locked in to headline the show's next season. Tennant's reintroduction to the franchise caught fans off guard, as the BBC previously announced Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa as outgoing series lead Jodie Whittaker's replacement. Davies has since cleared up the confusion surrounding Tennant and Gatwa's respective positions within the overarching chronology of Doctors, confirming that Tennant is indeed portraying the Fourteenth Doctor, with Gatwa playing the Fifteenth Doctor, instead.
Tennant recently opened up about his Doctor Who comeback, admitting he had concerns it wouldn't live up to his original Time Lord tenure. "It was like being handed a very lovely present," he said. "It was joyous, it was great fun. It was a very happy, joyous time 15 years ago. And returning to that could've been... well, who knows? It might've felt awkward, it might've felt difficult, I might not have been able to run as fast."
Doctor Who is set to return for a three-episode arc in November 2023 on BBC and BBC America.
Source: Buzzfeed