I had hardly finished posting the last casting news when more casting news hit the streets. I’m basically a month behind on the news of David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s return, and Yasmin Finney’s debut in Doctor Who, but since Tennant’s rumored return was a hot topic a few months ago, I figured I go ahead and add my 2¢ anyway.

For the most part, my feelings are the same as they were before we knew Ncuti Gatwa would be the new Doctor: I’ll be excited to see Tennant back for the 60th anniversary, but I don’t want him for more. RTD has been very cagey about the whole thing, as he is wont to do, so I don’t believe we’ve had any solid indications of whether Gatwa will actually be portraying the Whittaker Doctor’s immediate successor (rumors to the contrary are rife). Although I will be extremely disappointed if he’s not, I will wait to see what RTD has up his sleeve with Tennant and Tate before making any final judgements.

The fact that they’ve also announced Finney, a Black trans woman who shot to popularity for her role as Elle in the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s webcomic Heartstopper, and told us her character’s name is Rose, means that (a) RTD is committed to continuing the trend toward more inclusive casting (which I applaud heartily) and (b) he’s totally trolling us. I am over-the-moon excited to see Finney in Doctor Who, and utterly suspicious about how her character will fit into the overall Whoniverse, because there’s no way we’re going to have any real idea until the show actually airs.

So what are my wishlist items for an episode including Tennant, Tate, and Finney? First off, I hope Tennant is still some version of his own Doctor, and Tate is some version of Donna. I would love to see a retcon fix for the horrific on-screen ending Donna had, being completely robbed of agency as she was. If it needs to be some alternate-universe version of the two of them (another of the current fan hypotheses fed by master-troll RTD himself), with Finney as the alt version of Billie Piper’s character, so be it, but I’m kind of hoping for some timey-wimey shenanigans.

More than anything, though, I am counting on RTD to give Finney a strong role where she can really shine. I was so disappointed back in 2015 when the first openly trans actor (Bethany Black) to be in Doctor Who was given a role as a “grunt.” Having a trans actress portray someone who was viewed by others in the culture as a thing rather than as a person did no one any favors, and I desperately want better for Finney. RTD’s cachet in the industry has increased enough since he left the show in 2010, and overall social discourse has shifted enough since “Sleep No More,” that it shouldn’t be an issue at this stage, but one can never tell until the finished product hits the screen.

While I’m really looking forward to what this anniversary special and the upcoming Doctor will have to offer us, I don’t want to gloss over the fabulosity that Whittaker’s swan song is sure to be. At some point after I got hooked on the modern show and then binged as much of the Classic show as I could get my hands on, it dawned on me that Classic actors could come back to the screen. That’s when one of my biggest wishlist items materialized, and we are getting that in the next episode: Ace’s return!

For my money, then, the biggest casting news is not Tennant, Tate, or Finney (actually, it’s Gatwa, but I’m talking about outside of the next Doctor) but Sophie Aldred (and Janet Fielding as Tegan, another of my top-tier Classic Companions). It’s so nice to have something to be excited about for a while. I just hope it can tide me over until the next special.