The BBC has confirmed that Yasmin Finney will be playing Rose Noble, daughter of Donna and Shaun Temple in the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.
But didn’t we know this already? Well, yes, unofficially. The BBC only confirmed this yesterday (30th August 2023), to celebrate Finney’s birthday. Nonetheless, fans on location during filming overheard various interactions that implied Yasmin was playing Donna’s daughter, so we’ve all just assumed that to be so. And, uh, indeed it is.
Aunty Beeb further teased:
“So the question is, what happens when Rose meets one of her mum’s oldest friends?
“It is a mystery for now, but what we do know is that just like her mother, Rose stumbles across something alien – and from that point her seemingly ordinary family is never quite the same…”
Interesting that it’s actually Rose that draws the Doctor back into Donna’s life. Perhaps the web of destiny is pulling them all together once more.
The 60th anniversary celebrations will consist of three special episodes, The Star Beast (i.e. Beep the Meep, which we presume is what Rose stumbles upon), Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle. They star David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, while Neil Patrick Harris will also appear as a chief antagonist.
Obviously, the name “Rose” is important to both Doctor Who as a whole and to the Doctor, so we look forward to see if there are any Bad Wolf-esque machinations taking place or whether the character just heard her mum talking about memories of a blonde girl named Rose and took to the name (as Finney has confirmed the character is trans, so presumably chose her own name).