Jodie Whittaker, who played the Thirteenth Doctor, has spoken about how much she loved filming Doctor Who and how that adoration has stuck with her.

Jodie was the Doctor from 2018’s The Woman Who Fell to Earth to The Power of the Doctor in 2022, and she found its immersivity has resulted in a real love for the franchise. She says:

“I love Doctor Who more than I can ever describe. Our seasons were longer than any other job I’ve ever done and I moved to Wales to film it, so it wasn’t just the job; it was the people; it was the life.”

It’s due to this love that Jodie returned as the Doctor for Ncuti Gatwa’s last episode, The Reality War, which was apparently shot while Whittaker was otherwise shooting Frauds, a show with The Doctor’s Wife star, Suranne Jones.

Jodie explains:

“Suranne and the production team on Frauds didn’t know I was going to shoot it as it was under a complete pseudonym. They knew it was a pick-up [i.e. extra scenes shot after the main filming has concluded] on something. Of course, it wasn’t a pick-up, it was a brand new day. It had a whole level of secrecy, because Doctor Who has to have its pool so tight. Wonderfully for me, Frauds released me to film it, I got to get there, and no one leaked it.”

It’s probable that this was a pick-up, though Whittaker might not have known it, given that she wasn’t present for the rest of that episode.

Her time on Doctor Who might be divisive, but it’s lovely to hear she departed the series with such a deep love of it.