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!

The Future of Who

As I'm sure you are aware by now, Steven Moffat is leaving Doctor Who to be replaced by Chris Chibnall. I thought I would discuss what this means for the next few years of the show.

First off, there will be no series of Doctor Who in 2016. The only episode will be a Christmas special. This is of course sad news and means 2016 will see the least Doctor Who since before the show's revival in 2005. There are some good things about this though. For a start it's hard to deny that Series 9 did see a dip in the viewing figures, even if scheduling had large part to play in that. It will certainly do no harm to rest the show for a year on that side of things.

Steven Moffat

It will also mean that Doctor Who will go back to airing in the spring. This is where the show has worked best in the modern era but fell apart when Series 7 didn't start to air until the autumn. It should also be good for scheduling. Part of the problem of Autumn scheduling is that the show has to fit in alongside another BBC Saturday night show, Strictly Come Dancing. With the BBC losing the rights to The Voice, Doctor Who will likely be the main feature of Saturday nights on BBC1, which means the scheduling is likely to be more favourable.

The next thing for Doctor Who to do is introduce a new companion. It's still unclear at this point whether that will happen in the 2016 Christmas Special or the start of Series 10. If it isn't the 2016 Christmas special then we would have an episode of a solo Doctor or a one-time companion. Might I suggest it would be the perfect time for Moffat to bring back Captain Jack Harkness for an episode? There will still be some new Doctor Who content in 2016 in the form of new spin-off Class of course.

In the news of his resignation Steven Moffat suggests that the third series of Broadchurch, written by the incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall, will be the last. The crime drama starts filming in May so might just make it onto ITV by the end of 2016.

Broadchurch

In Spring 2017 a 12-episode series 10 will air, Moffat's last as showrunner. There's been no mention of a 2017 Christmas special as yet which is interesting. Chibnall is clearly stated as taking over from the start of series 11 in 2018 so it looks like Moffat will still be in charge for Christmas 2017. I suspect this is when we will see Peter Capaldi regenerate. He's likely to leave the show at the same time as Moffat, a la David Tennant, and would certainly have done the traditional three series tenure by then. It's plausible that we may even get more than one episode of Doctor Who over Christmas 2017, like we did with the The End of Time.

The Twelfth Doctor regenerates (from The Witches Familiar)

This would mean that when Chris Chibnall takes over in 2018, Series 11 will begin with a new Doctor. It's all speculation really but given the timings and what happened at the last handover this makes the most sense.

I'm intrigued by the sort of Doctor Who Chibnall will bring us. He's not written for the show since 2012's The Power of Three. It seems clear he is more character-driven that Steven Moffat so I would guess the next era will be closer to the RTD era than the Moffat one. So far I would say five of his six Doctor Who episodes are underwhelming (the other, The Power of Three, being certainly his best). It is a little worry that he hasn't yet written anything stunning for the show like Moffat had before his time as showrunner.

Chris Chibnall

It is worth remembering though that Chibnall was effectively the showrunner at Torchwood during it's first two series. I would say of his eight Torchwood episodes only one of them wasn't great and he wrote the excellent closing episodes of both the first two series and the opener to series two. Then there's Broadchurch which is fantastic, especially the first series. There's is certainly potential in Chibnall and I am cautiously optimistic about the show's future under him.

Series 10 Writers Speculation

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has teased little about Series 10 so far but this is one of the few things he has said:

"We're already moving [on Series 10]- we've had meetings today with two writers who've never written Doctor Who before. If I told you their names, your brain would explode." 

As to their identity, all he would say was that they are "brilliant, prominent and amazing". I love a chance to speculate on this sort of thing so here are a few possible names I could come up with.

Stephen Fry

Fry is better known as an actor and TV presenter but he is also a writer. He was supposed to have written an episode in the early days of the revived series, initially series 2 and then series 3. Details on what went wrong are fairly sketchy but it is though one major problem was the expense of the episode. BBC Wales are far more experienced now and may well be able to make that episode in their budget. Now that Fry has left Qi he potentially has more time to polish that script or write an entirely new one.

J.K. Rowling

Rowling is of course the famous author of the Harry Potter books. She was offered the chance to write an episode of Doctor Who way back in 2004 when the show's comeback was being planned. Back then she was still writing Harry Potter so turned it down. She's since had more experience with writing in different formats, having worked on a Harry Potter play and written the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She's probably more likely to write for Who now than she ever has been.

Joss Whedon

The creator of cult TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly has been very busy over the last few years making the Avenger's films. But he's definitely not working on the third and little is known about his current plans. Given that he has spent so much time writing for TV and has written a lot of science-fiction, it's perfectly plausible that he should write for Doctor Who.

Charlie Higson

Higson is a big fan of Doctor Who and has recently even written an ITV show aimed at a similar audience, Jekyll and Hyde. He's certainly connected with the show, having interviewed Peter Capaldi in a recent issue of the Radio Times. He has written comedy, fantasy and books for teenagers so has lots of potential for a Doctor Who episode.

Charlie Brooker

He is probably best known to many as the presenter of Screenwipe but Brooker is also a writer. He created the popular anthology show Black Mirror and the zombie-infested Big Brother drama Dead Set. He's also written crime comedy A Touch of Cloth. He's a Doctor Who fan and is likely to be on the production team's radar but given the adult nature of his works he might be more of an outsider than others on this list.

Sally Wainwright

Wainwright must be very popular with the BBC at the moment having written hit series Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley. Halifax has come to an end and Happy Valley Series 2 has passed the writing stage so it's possible a Doctor Who episode is next on her list. I can't find any evidence that she is a Doctor Who or sci-fi fan and science-fiction certainly seems to be out of her usual remit. However, she is a big writer and would be ideal for an episode focussing on a new companion as she often writes strong female roles.

Dominic Mitchell

I wouldn't say Mitchell is that prominent but he did write the excellent BBC3 zombie drama In the Flesh. It's certainly of a similar genre and it seems that Mitchell has written science-fiction for the stage. It's unlikely at this early point in his career but it would be great to Mitchell write for Who.

Anthony Horowitz

Creator of popular teenage hero Alex Rider, Horowitz has also written lots for the small screen with show's like Foyle's War and Poirot. He's written several Sherlock Holmes novels which is the sort of thing to do to get attention from Steven Moffat. He's due to have finished his latest novel by the time he would need to start writing a Doctor Who episode so it would certainly fit the schedules.

Noel Clarke

Clarke is of course known as playing Mickey Smith, Rose Tyler's boyfriend. He is also a writer and has written an episode of Torchwood as well as several feature films (Kidulthood and it's sequels, Fast Girls). He's certainly more familiar with the Doctor Who world than most and given that Series 9 saw Torchwood writer Catherine Treganna write for Doctor Who there's a prescient.

I will be quite pleased if at least one of these people end up writing for the show! Do let me know your thoughts on my speculations and if you have anyone else you think might be possible.