Series 10 Trailer Breakdown

At the end of The Return of Doctor Mysterio we got our first look at Series 10 of Doctor Who. I've taken some screenshots to give us a closer look at what's going on and speculate on what it might be telling us. You should be able to click on the image to see them a bit bigger

Bill says that she "serves chips". Obviously this doesn't tell us much but at least suggest Bill is from a fairly ordinary background like most recent companions. 

The Doctor is some sort of teacher or lecturer here. Maybe Bill is also a student and the chip serving is just a part-time job? That would explain how they end up meeting anyway. Is the Doctor undercover here a la School Reunion?

Nardole is still around. He doesn't appear too much in this trailer but he's certainly present. I would assume he will play a similar small role like in The Return of Doctor Mysterio and maybe doesn't leave the TARDIS in every episode.

An alien/ futuristic city. Looks pretty awesome but no idea what it actually is. 

This is one of many shots showing a historical episode. The Doctor and Bill are in historical dress for it. It's unclear exactly when/where it is but it looks maybe 18th or 19th century. 

A blue-skinned alien. Lots of shots from the trailer appear to be from this futuristic episode where the majority of the cast seem to be in some sort of spacesuit.

It's unclear where the Doctor and Bill are here. It looks to be some sort of vault or catacombs. It's enormous whatever it is.

This appears to be some sort of wooden alien. It looks a lot like the walking trees in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe but it would be odd for them to return.

Smiley robots. These look friendly but I suspect they may end up being rather nasty. Note that their eyes are exclamation marks in this image. 

Very hard to get a clear screenshot of this. There's a big war involving the daleks and someone is thrown against a wall. It looks like a Movellan from Destiny of the Daleks. I might be tempted to suggest that it's just their hair but there are definitely two character in this shot with that hair. Maybe the Movellans are back!

Here's a closer look at those spacesuits from the futuristic episode. It's interesting that no characters are ever shown wearing a helmet so it's not clear why they are all wearing spacesuits. Nardole is here, the only time he's shown outside of the TARDIS in the trailer other than a brief encounter with a dalek.

The Doctor saves a small boy in the historical episode. What on Earth is the Doctor wearing here? It looks like a steampunk spacesuit. Maybe it's a diving suit but why is he wearing it?

Ther Doctor's wearing shades again. There's loads of people in the TARDIS here, more than ten by the looks of it, and they look like they might be monks or something similar. Has the Doctor rescued them? 

The Doctor punches someone! Full on punches them in the face! That's not normal is it? The set and costumes look historical so it is probably from the same episode we've seen a fair bit of. 

The Series looks a lot of fun in my mind and that's bearing in mind it doesn't look like we've seen much of it here. A tiny bit from a contemporary opening episode, a historical 18th/19th century episode, a futuristic in spacesuits episode and dalek war episode.Those last two may be one and the same and it's not clear where the city and the robots fit in either. Still, that's a long way a full series of episodes so there's a lot more to see!

Doctor Who Unlocked: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

The episode is based on the idea of Superman's alter-ego of Clark Kent and indeed Superman images appear in the episode. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and permission for the images was given by Jerry Siegel's family. The creators are then namechecked straight after the credits with Mr. Brock saying that any questions "can be handled by Miss Shuster and Miss Sigel".

The episode is set in New York but most of the external New York street shots were actually filmed in Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria.

On the street you might be able to make out the name of the film being shown at the cinema- it's Mind of Evil, named after the Third Doctor story of that name. Also on the street is Joe's Pizzas which is where Peter Parker worked in Spider-Man 2.

The Doctor references the famous Spider-Man line "With great power comes great responsibility".

The Doctor mentions how he always has invasions at Christmas. This references the various Christmas Specials such as The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride where he has fought off Christmas Day invasions.

This episode follows on from The Husbands of River Song in various ways. Scratch in Husbands has similar physical characteristics and said "I represent the Shoal of the Winter Harmony" which is very similar to the company name Harmony Shoal.

Nardole returns, now with a full body again. In The Husbands of River Song his head was attached to Hydroflax but mention is made that the Doctor reassembled him.

Nardole tells Grant and Lucy about River Song and a night that lasted 24 years- he is referencing the end of The Husbands of River Song where the Doctor takes River to the Singing Towers of Darillium. He also mentions that River died in a library a long time ago. This happened in Forest of the Dead but was a long time ago for the Doctor.

The UNIT soldiers dealing with Harmony Shoal mention Osgood, the British UNIT scientist.

The episode title The Return of Doctor Mysterio is explained in the episode from what Grant calls the Doctor. In Mexico the show is known as 'Doctor Misterio' which Peter Capaldi discovered during the 2014 world tour, much to his delight. Writer Steven Moffat recalled that delight and used in for the episode.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Times Squared

The Brigadier has a much needed holiday after his recent adventures so he takes fiancee Sally and nephew Owain to visit New York. Upon arrival they quickly become embroiled in an alien plot- the Great Intelligence is back and Yeti are in the New York Subway. 

This certainly made for an interesting change to the series. Previously we've had what are essentially UNIT stories but with the Brigadier technically off-duty here and in the USA it has a rather different style. He's well out of his comfort zone and I like that. Sally has a bigger role here than in previous books as she is properly involved with the adventure. 

I did have a lot of issues with this though. Essentially it's The Web of Fear but in New York. The author has changed a few things to make it a little more interesting, notably stripping some of the Yeti of their fur and adding lots of essentially rabid rats. The plot itself is different but it's still the Great Intelligence doing the same sort of evil stuff again. 

I also felt that the book could have been shorter considering how little plot there is. There seems to be a lot of long descriptions of lots of rats approaching people which gets a bit samey after a while. Then there's the problem that this has to fit with the Great Intelligence's ever more complicated continuity- and the author even throws a time-traveling Professor Travers into the mix too. It feels like half the book is dedicated to explaining how it fits in with Doctor Who and The Forgotten Son and I still feel a bit confused. 

That said, I enjoyed plenty of bits of this book. There's an interesting character in Kramer and I'm tempted to seek out the book she originally appeared in. The rats are a really good idea and certainly creepy, it's just a shame they are overused. Owain gets a much bigger part then he's had for a while and the author really plays around with his connection to the Great Intelligence. He's great here and I am intrigued to see how he will play out in future books. 

It's not the best Lethbridge-Stewart book by any stretch but I still enjoyed it. The idea of the Brigadier in New York is as awesome as it sounds!