Series Eleven of Doctor Who is just round the corner. We’ve got a new Doctor in the form of Jodie Whittaker, a new TARDIS team in the form of Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill, and a new showrunner in the form of Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall.
The big thing about this series that I’m focusing on isn’t that we’ve got a female Doctor, it isn’t that we have a new TARDIS interior, and it isn’t the fact that the new sonic screwdriver looks slightly phallic ; it’s the fact that we, the audience, are going into this series almost completely blind.
Bar a few leaked scenes of Jodie Whittaker stumbling around a train in Capaldi’s clothes and the teaser trailer released at comic con, we’ve seen barely anything released that could tease at this series. All sorts of rumours are flying about, like how The Sontarans could be returning, or that Jodie apparently acquires a pet cat, or that Tosin Cole turns out to be The Master (okay, maybe I made that one up). This has created a huge excitement for the series. Suddenly, everybody is talking about Doctor Who again.
Series Ten for me was brilliant and also physically painful to watch. Steven Moffat’s finale, World Enough And Time and The Doctor Falls, could have for me been my favourite episodes of New Who, but unfortunately one thing ruined them for me: Spoilers. Now these spoilers weren’t leaked by a fan or a single bad egg at the BBC, they were officially released by the BBC Worldwide marketing department.
John Simm’s surprise return at the end of Series Ten could have been so much more exciting if they hadn’t even teased that he would return. His performance was incredible, and I personally believe he should have been given a Bafta for it, but it’s clear to see that we saw through The Master’s disguise as Razor. If the BBC hadn’t revealed that John Simm’s Master would be back, then this part of their awesome finale would have been a total shock and surprise and possibly one of the most memorable moments of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who. Instead, we all saw it coming.
So why is everyone complaining that we don’t know anything about the series? Isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t it a good thing that we are going into this series not knowing anything? We should be excited that this classic show is once again shrouded in mystery. It is so exciting to see that instead of being bombarded with trailers and teasers we are instead going into this series completely blind. The rails are off, anything could happen!
I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce Jodie Whittaker as The Thirteenth Doctor. Instead of giving everything away we are instead given a complete silence, meaning that we won’t know what this new Doctor will be like until the day we sit down to watch her, which is a genius way to draw in an audience. Finally, Doctor Who has become a subject of a Watercooler Moment for the first time in a long long while. Kids are excited about it again! I don’t think the fans have had a sense of mystery like this since that funny old man walked out of the fog in 1963. So let’s get on our striped shirts, our braces, and our long coats in celebration of a whole new era of Doctor Who on our screens at the end of the month.
As River Song always said “Spoilers!”
