‘Doctor Who’ Sets Season Premiere Date — With Two New Episodes (PHOTOS)
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Get ready for plenty more Doctor Who! The sci-fi series is back this spring, and you’ll want to take note of how the new season will premiere.
The first full season with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion, Ruby Sunday, will premiere on Disney+ in the U.S. and internationally (except the UK) on Friday, May 10 at 7/6c, with two all-new episodes. Following the premiere, one episode will be released at that time each week. In the UK, the season begins on Saturday, May 11 at 12:00 a.m. GMT on BBC iPlayer and BBC One later that day. Disney+ has also released a new image of Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor with Gibson’s Ruby (above) and poster (below). A new trailer from Disney+ will debut on March 22.
The new season follows the Doctor and Ruby Sunday through infinite adventures across time and space in the TARDIS. From the Regency era in England to war-torn futures, the duo champion the forces of good while encountering incredible friends and dangerous foes. Guest stars include Aneurin Barnard (Roger ap Gwilliam), Anita Dobson (Mrs. Flood), Yasmin Finney (Rose Noble), Michelle Greenidge (Carla), Jonathan Groff, Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Genesis Lynea, Jemma Redgrave (Kate Lethbridge-Stewart), Lenny Rush (Morris), Indira Varma (the Duchess), and Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday).
“At last, it’s my great delight to unleash a whole new season of the Doctor and Ruby’s adventures together,” showrunner, executive producer and writer Russell T Davies said. “Monsters! Chases! Villains! Mysteries! And a terrifying secret that’s been spanning time and space for decades. Don’t miss a second!”
BBC/Disney+
Gatwa’s Doctor was introduced in the third 60th anniversary special, via bigeneration (previously a myth), with David Tennant‘s Fourteenth Doctor staying on Earth with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and her family (including her daughter Rose). The Doctor then met Ruby in the Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” which introduced quite the mystery about her origins. She was left at a church as a baby, and when we meet her in the present day, her DNA is used to try to track down her parents—only for there to be no trace of them. During the course of the episode, the Doctor travels back to that night at the church and sees her mother walking away.
The mystery surrounding Ruby is “part of what the Doctor finds intriguing,” Gatwa told TV Insider. It “piques his curiosity.” The question of the identity of Ruby’s mother is “ongoing throughout the series,” Gibson added.
While the DNA test had been “her last hope in her eyes,” according to Gibson, “then obviously, when she meets the Doctor, he opens a whole new world to her where it’s like, ‘Okay, maybe he can help me find her.’”
With Dobson returning as Mrs. Flood, that means we’re likely to get some answers about Ruby’s mysterious neighbor, who encouraged her to enter the TARDIS. Then, to cap off the Christmas special, after the Doctor and Ruby took off in the TARDIS, she asked, “Never seen a TARDIS before?”
Doctor Who is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC. Joining Davies as executive producers are Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter. The new season features episodes directed by Ben Chessell, Jamie Donoughue, Julie Anne Robinson, and Dylan Holmes Williams.
Doctor Who, New Season Premiere (two episodes), Friday, May 10, 7/6c, Disney+
