Doctor Who releasing Rose; The Prequel this week

\'Doctor Who\' will release \'Rose: The Prequel\' as a treat for fans this week.

Former showrunner Russell T Davies has revealed plans to air a special piece of promotional material before Thursday\'s (26.03.20) simulcast of \'Rose\', which was the original 2005 \'pilot\' for the rebooted version of the sci-fi show.

Taking to Instagram, he wrote: "ROSE livestream and tweet-a-long, THURSDAY 26 MARCH at 7pm GMT. Come and have fun!

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"Before that, Thursday daytime, time TBC, we\'ll release ROSE: THE PREQUEL on the BBC\'s Doctor Who website - it\'s a lost piece of history from the 50th anniversary year, 2013. Never seen before!"

The 56-year-old screenwriter will be watching \'Rose\' - which starred Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as the titular Rose Tyler - with fans, but he admitted he isn\'t quite sure how global fans will tune in.

He continued: "ROSE is available in the UK on BBC iPlayer and Netflix; worldwide, check your own resources (don\'t ask me, I have no clue!).

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"If you can\'t find a copy, close your eyes at 7pm GMT and feel my psychic link. Yeah.

"I\'ll be tweeting along, twitter handle to be named on Thursday! Plus more surprise to come. Oh what a lockdown this is! #TripofaLifetime (sic)"

Meanwhile, Christopher previously heaped praise on Billie\'s performances during their time together, and insisted she should have taken over the TARDIS.

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He said: "If Billie Piper ever wants to play the Doctor I\'ll [be her companion]. Who wouldn\'t? I think that\'s what they should have done... Rose should have moved up to become the Doctor ... but it was just too early."

He also insisted bosses should have cast a woman as the titular Time Lord much earlier than 2017, when Jodie Whittaker made her first appearance in the role.

He added: "It\'s ridiculous we weren\'t thinking of a female Doctor at that time. In 2004, in me they picked yet another white skinny male to be the Doctor.

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"If somebody had said in 2004 it should have been a woman, there\'d have been outrage. But only 14 years later it\'s acceptable. I think it\'s time for white middle-aged males to step aside."