Doctor Who is going nowhere

Ever since Ncuti Gatwa announced his departure from Doctor Who after only two seasons, fans (myself included) have speculated about the beloved series' uncertain future in partnership with Disney+.

Kate Phillips, the BBC’s new chief content officer, has appeared at the Edinburgh TV Festival and aimed to quell concerns and speculation about the franchise’s future:

“Rest assured, Doctor Who is going nowhere. Disney has been a great partnership – and it continues with The War Between The Land And The Sea next year – but going forward, with or without Disney, Doctor Who will still be on the BBC … The TARDIS is going nowhere.”

Longtime fans (myself included) have been here before, back in the eighties. Let's hope it's not another sixteen years before a new series.

What are your thoughts on the future of Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: The Reality War

The second season of Doctor Who on Disney+ has been somewhat overshadowed by speculation surrounding the series’ future, a decades-spanning tabloid trope since the classic era.

Rumours of Disney stepping away from the deal, regeneration, series cancellation, or hiatus haven’t detracted from my enjoyment. And the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) are plastic fantastic as Barbie dolls. Don’t forget Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), Mattel!

Does The Reality War stick the landing, unlike Empire of Death, or is the Doctor’s fate sealed with a headache-inducing hot mess of Russell T Davies' making?

Alas, it's the latter as Davies indulgently uses the Disney intellectual property (IP) playbook like a child in a candy store. The special runs the gamut from Avengers: Endgame to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It was all too much.

We last saw the Doctor falling to his death in Wish World. He's rescued by Anita Benn (Stephanie de Whalley) from Joy to the World. Anita became an instant fan-favourite and possible future companion. Working at the Time Hotel and channelling the Time Variance Authority (TVA) from Loki, she's 6 months pregnant with the hotel manager's baby, and this ties into a theme of Time Lord reproduction or lack thereof, as revealed by the Rani (Archie Panjabi) as Poppy becomes the Doctor's surrogate child. A pivot too far, as Susan Foreman (Carol Ann Ford) is all but forgotten and Belinda is put in a box.

I couldn't keep track of all the twisted-up threads. Davies is at his best when using restraint, as seen in 73 Yards.

Ultimately, Omega was another classic villain to fall foul of Scooby Doo voodoo! Like Sutekh, he was a giant CGI monstrosity and a boring boss battle with zero stakes, dispatched using a reject prop from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Snacking on the Rani, he's more Rancor monster from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi than the vengeful creator of the Time Lords. What was far more interesting was the dynamic between the Doctor and his companions, Belinda and Ruby.

Here, the series shone brightest.

Whilst the bombastic battle at Avengers Tower, I mean UNIT HQ, was derivative and filled with far too many cameos, it was the mind games between Ruby and Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), her fake ex-boyfriend from Think Tank, that piqued my interest as giant skeletons attacked! Here was a former TARDIS companion with PTSD confronting her abuser.

Jodie Whittaker reprises the role of the Thirteenth Doctor on television for the first time since The Power of the Doctor. Her cameo, aboard the TARDIS, was a surprise, but a welcome one, subverting the expectation that David Tennant would return for the finale as the Fourteenth Doctor.

The chemistry between Gatwa and Whittaker sparkled, and I was a little misty-eyed. Davies has embraced former series showrunner Chris Chibnall's divisive Timeless Child with aplomb.

A time traveller for the TikTok generation.

As much as I’ve enjoyed this second season, I wanted to spend more time (pun intended) with the Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda and Ruby aboard the TARDIS. That’s good, even if it feels far too brief over two seasons. However, after an emotional goodbye with Belinda and Poppy (I teared up), Ruby was completely ignored back at UNIT HQ, the Fifteenth Doctor regenerates into Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) or is it?

Bad Wolf?

When the Disney+ partnership was announced in 2022, beginning with the 60th anniversary specials spearheaded by a returning series showrunner, I was excited about the future of my all-time favourite television series. Fast forward to 2025, and it’s trapped in an infinite loop of nostalgia.

The revival has come full circle from small beginnings in Rose. If the series is to continue in partnership with Disney+, it's time for a change and not a moment too soon.

Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched The Reality War? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Millie Gibson teases return of Omega

Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) teased the return of Omega in the Doctor Who season two finale, The Reality War, in an interview with the Radio Times: "He's terrifying… I think people are going to be really shocked."

Omega, a founder of the Time Lord society corrupted by anti-matter and his ego, first appeared in the 10th anniversary special The Three Doctors, which featured William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton reprising their roles as the First and Second Doctors alongside Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. He was originally played by Stephen Thorne, and his disembodied voice is heard in Wish World. The dialogue was taken directly from a Big Finish audio drama, Gallifrey: Intervention Earth, recorded before Thorne died in 2019.

Gibson goes on to say: "I think Archie is just such a cool Rani – she kind of worships Omega. I think it's a really cool two-villain dynamic. The more the better! This is why it's the biggest battle for the Doctor – there are two of his biggest villains that he has to defeat."

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Are you looking forward to Omega's return in The Reality War? Who do you think should play him, Brian Blessed? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: Wish World

We're in the endgame now with the first part of the season two finale. I was right about the Rani all along. Is it a case of be careful what you wish for?

The Story & the Engine explored the theme of storytelling through the lens of the Doctor.

Wish World takes this to the nth degree in an episode of Jackanory narrated by Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), Ruby Sunday's (Millie Gibson) Think Tank-leading ex-boyfriend from Lucky Day, seen through a cathode-ray tube (CRT), in a callback to the Dan Dare retrofuturism of The Robot Revolution. It's worth noting that both Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and Ruby's ex-boyfriends are self-absorbed narcissists.

For generations of fans (myself included), Doctor Who was teatime family viewing watched on a CRT TV. I’m in danger of falling down a nostalgic rabbit hole littered with fossilised bones and ghosts of the past.

62 years later, Doctor Who continues to draw inspiration from eclectic popular culture sources. This second season on Disney+, the intertextual references to Disney-owned franchises have included Aliens, Avengers, Loki and Star Wars.

Wish World is Russell T Davies' spellbinding tribute to Wandavision, replete with knowing nods to Flash Gordon and Masters of the Universe. An imperious Rani (Archie Panjabi) channelling Agatha Harkness (Davies is a fan of the Marvel Comics witch) in a Grimm fairytale, steals the infant God of Wishes from his parents, before flying a space scooter back to Castle Grayskull in a sight to behold.

The Doctor, under the alias of John Smith, and Belinda are a married couple with a daughter, Poppy from Space Babies, in an alternate right-wing reality of Conrad’s creation where men work and women stay at home. A horrifying vision of conformity and ableism. I've alluded to the latter in The Well. Doubt undermines this cosy conservative world, and it all comes crashing down like the masquerade ball in Labyrinth when Ruby turns up at the front door of their home.

Former companion, Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford), lives on the same street as the Doctor and Belinda. The Rani, as first played by Kate O'Mara, pretended to be Mel during the Seventh Doctor's (Sylvester McCoy) story, Time and the Rani.

Sethu continues to be a standout. It's chilling to watch Belinda storm out of her Tim Burton-inspired suburban home and run, screaming, into the woods.

Season one’s big bad reveal of Sutekh fell flat. This time, the Rani searches for Omega in the Underverse, first mentioned in The Giggle, and we hear his disembodied voice. A tragic villain, Omega was stranded in an anti-matter universe after becoming the first Time Lord and sought revenge against his fellow Time Lords in The Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity. The Seventh Doctor used the Hand of Omega, known as the Omega device by the Daleks, to destroy the Dalek homeworld, Skaro, in Remembrance of the Daleks.

Omega is a curious choice as Davies has gone to great pains to avoid classic villains in this Disney era. However, it has far-reaching implications for the series' future.

With the return of Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), the Rani and Omega, is The Reality War a feature-length multi-Doctor story to end the status quo and to close the 20th anniversary of the revival?

Oh, boy!

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched Wish World? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Preview the two Ranis in Doctor Who

Following the revelation that Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) is the renegade Time Lord, the Rani. The BBC has released a preview for Wish World featuring the two Ranis. Whovians see what you did there, Russell T Davies.



On joining Doctor Who as the Rani following a bi-generation, Archie Panjabi says: "It seems there’s been quite a bit of speculation about the Rani’s return... and who can blame you? Kate O’Mara’s portrayal was brilliant, ruthless and unforgettable. Now, under Russell T Davies, she’s back - and I’ll ask... what in the Whoniverse will we bring to her? Let’s just say, you might not be ready!"

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched the preview of Wish World? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest

Eurovision is an annual music extravaganza, spawning pop royalty ABBA and Celine Dion.

One of my earliest memories of watching the Eurovision song contest was the year Bucks Fizz won in 1981. This coincided with a visit to family friends and the first time I ever experienced a toastie from a Breville sandwich toaster (my parents soon owned one, which was perfect for Doctor Who teatime viewing).

As I've written previously, a life-changing childhood trauma overshadowed my early life, so songs like Bucks Fizz's The Land of Make Believe became an inspirational anthem in the darkest days of rehabilitation.

So, in a timey-wimey twist worthy of the metaverse (no, not that one), The Interstellar Song Contest preceded this year's Eurovision grand final on BBC One. Is it a season two hit or miss?

With cameos from popular presenters Rylan Clark (a self-confessed Whovian) and Graham Norton, as themselves, it's a hit from start to finish. The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) take one last detour aboard the TARDIS before returning to Earth on 24th May, 2025. This time, materialising on a space station, the Harmony Arena, hosting an interstellar song contest 900 years later.

The event is hijacked, and trillions of lives are put in peril. The Doctor, Rylan, the contestants, and the audience are blasted into space where they freeze. An unconscious Doctor has a vision of his first companion, granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and this sparks him back to life. This is a monumental moment for the Whoniverse, and I got goosebumps at the implication. Susan was last seen in The Five Doctors.

There’s a playful homage to Disney Pixar’s WALL-E as the Doctor, marooned in space, propels himself back to the Harmony Arena using a confetti cannon! Things twist from cosmic camp to horrifying dark melodrama as the Doctor is triggered by the trauma of Gallifrey's destruction and the demise of the Time Lords, and mistakenly thinks Belinda is dead. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) infamously failed to save Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) from the Cybermen in Earthshock.

Once down the dark path...

As seen in Dalek twenty years ago, the Doctor becomes the torturer and electrocutes Kid (Freddie Fox) in a scene evoking the Emperor using Force lightning to kill Luke Skywalker before Darth Vader stops him in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. This time, it's another vision of Susan that halts the Doctor from being seduced by the dark side. Belinda, very much alive, is struck by the Doctor's anger and, again, challenges him to be more open with her.

Rylan, the contestants and audience are revived by the duo of Mike Gabbastone (Kadiff Kirwan) and Gary Gabbastone (Charlie Condou) to the victorious sounds of Bucks Fizz's winning song, Making Your Mind Up. I was overcome with misty-eyed joy.

Norton, a staple of Eurovision, appears as an interactive hologram and harbinger of doom. He explains the Earth was destroyed on 24th May, 2025. The Doctor and Belinda board the TARDIS only to be greeted by the apocalyptic sound of the cloister bells.

It was the Rani all along.

During a mid-credits scene, a staple of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Mrs Flood's (Anita Dobson) true identity is finally revealed. She is the Rani, first played by Kate O'Mara, a renegade Time Lord, and undergoes her own bi-generation, introducing a second Rani (Archie Panjabi). In doing so, the Doctor's isolation as the last of his kind has ended.

Does this tease that we may see the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in the two-part finale? If this is the last season of Doctor Who for a while, we're getting our Avengers: Endgame.

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched The Interstellar Song Contest? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who season two finale simulcast

In a move that will please many Doctor Who fans (myself included), the season two finale will be broadcast simultaneously on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ in a primetime slot, and in over 450 cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 31st May.

Titled The Reality War, fans across the globe will be able to all watch together as the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) faces one of his most terrifying and monumental battles to date in an extra-special-length episode.

Russell T Davies, series showrunner, says: "The Doctor is doomed, Belinda is lost, Ruby is trapped, UNIT is powerless, the Unholy Trinity rule supreme and the Underverse is rising. And now we can all experience this devastating climax together, all at the same time, with a unique worldwide premiere. I can promise shocks, scares and revelations off the scale. Come and have fun!"

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Are you watching Doctor Who season two? What are your thoughts? Will you be booking tickets for the two-part finale on the big screen? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: The Story & the Engine

Season one of Doctor Who on Disney+ was wibbly-wobbly, whereas season two continues with top timey-wimey tales from the TARDIS.

The Story & the Engine thoughtfully explores the Fifteenth Doctor’s (Ncuti Gatwa) lived experience and the power of myth. Star Wars creator George Lucas was a student of Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces), so this is my jam.

A Finetime is had by all as long as they're white.

This Nigerian-set episode is a world where the Doctor is accepted and celebrated in stark contrast to the racism of Dot and Bubble and Lux.

In a spectacular surprise cameo, Jo Martin reprises her fan-favourite role as the Fugitive Doctor, introduced during Jodie Whittaker's divisive era, as returning series showrunner Russell T Davies continues to lean into the 20th anniversary of the series’ revival to celebrate all things Doctor Who despite an uncertain future.

Seeing previous incarnations of the beloved Time Lord hit hard. Beginning with Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, the montage continues with Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, Matt Smith, Tom Baker, Paul McGann, William Hartnell, Peter Davison and Colin Baker. Also, I'm acutely aware that watching Doctor Who with my octogenarian dad won't last forever. I'm a fan because he introduced me to the series when Tom Baker took over from Jon Pertwee...

Whilst it's a companion-lite story set primarily in a barber shop, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) effortlessly earned her place aboard the TARDIS in The Robot Revolution, there's a flashback to a fleeting meeting between Belinda and Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) during a life-saving hospital shift.

The ongoing dynamic between Belinda and the Doctor is a refreshing change in the modern era. She still wants to get home and sees through the Doctor's disguise, but is empathetic and lets him visit an old friend, Omo (Sule Rimi).

The spooky child who points Belinda towards Omo's barber shop is Captain Poppy from Space Babies!

Make mine meta.

There's a fun reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and Loki. During lockdown, the Loki spin-off series on Disney+ was widely regarded as Marvel's take on Doctor Who.

Yes, I'm still rooting for Mrs Flood to be revealed as the Rani. Talking of classic villains absent from the Whoniverse, again, the Doctor namechecked them. Will we see Cybermen, Ice Warriors and Daleks in the two-part season finale?

The Story & the Engine is a poignant story about stories, eloquently riffing on the Eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith) quote: "We're all stories, in the end... just make it a good one, eh?"

Amen.

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched The Story & the Engine? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: Lucky Day

Lucky Day sees the return of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who departed from the TARDIS in the season one finale Empire of Death.

As with 73 Yards, Gibson excels in a standalone Doctor-lite episode. This time exploring TARDIS companion life post the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa). What seemingly starts as a life-affirming exploration of Whovian fandom, as seen in Lux, is brutally subverted and takes a darker Torchwood twist.

The revelation that popular podcaster and Ruby's romantic interest, Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), was the leader of the far-right Think Tank gave me real-world chills.

An earlier iteration of Think Tank was featured in the Fourth Doctor’s (Tom Baker) first full story, Robot. The organisation clashed with UNIT, led by Kate Stewart's (Jemma Redgrave) father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). The titular robot was a tragic figure in a retelling of King Kong. The Denys Fisher action figure stood sentry, alongside the Six Million Dollar Man and a Cyberman, by my bedside in a children's hospital (circa 1977) in the wake of a life-changing injury that culminated in a permanent disability and societal prejudice as a member of an unseen underclass. Therefore, this episode deeply resonated with me.

Irredeemable human monsters are always scarier than a creature of the week. And through this lens, Lucky Day cleverly confronts the Doctor’s callousness, too. Something is very wrong, and that discordant tone was established by Belinda Chandra’s (Varada Sethu) demand to get home in The Robot Revolution.

Talking of Belinda, Conrad knew about her. Will we see him again as a companion of Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) or the Rani, as I remain steadfastly sure is her true identity!

Lucky Day is another stellar season two story and teases the upcoming UNIT spin-off series, The War Between The Land And The Sea. Is Ruby going to play a pivotal role alongside Kate? If not, give her her own series.

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched Lucky Day? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: The Well

The Well, a chilling sequel to Midnight, is a masterclass in tension, drawing parallels with one of my all-time favourite classic serials, Earthshock. Like that seminal story featuring the shock return of the Cybermen after almost a decade, The Well has a squad of ill-fated troopers on a mission into darkness, and there is no happy ending.

Returning Doctor Who series showrunner Russell T Davies has brutal form; look no further than Years and Years. The Well is the antithesis of Space Babies.

There are homages to another sequel, Aliens. A famous quote from Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is used, and the troopers’ weapons are inspired by the iconic M41-A Pulse Rifle used by the Colonial Marines. Apt, as The Well dropped on Alien Day.

Rose Ayling-Ellis MBE takes centre stage as Aliss (a play on Lewis Carroll's Alice), and her performance is profoundly moving. Her repeated plea, not to stand behind her, works on myriad levels. Personally, I was reminded of family and friends who are deaf or have hearing loss and their fight to be heard and accepted by mainstream society (something I can empathise with as a disabled person with a brain injury). Also, a teenage memory of a deaf student signing to her tutor how much she loved my artwork during an A-level Fine Art class brought me to tears. I’ve been critical of too many tears in season one of Doctor Who, but here we are. These tears are earned.

Shaya Costallion's (Caoilfhionn Dunne) selfless sacrifice reminded me of Commander Shepard in the original Mass Effect trilogy and Ripley's death in Alien 3. But it was all for nothing, and the enigmatic threat, first faced by the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), escaped.

The rich dynamic between Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) defines the second season in a way that season one squandered with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Sethu, appearing in Doctor Who and Star Wars on Disney+ in the same week, is the new first lady of sci-fi!

What has happened to the Earth, and why do I have a bad feeling about Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson)? Since her introduction in The Church on Ruby Road, I'm convinced she's the Rani, a renegade Time Lord first played by Kate O'Mara! The Rani had a penchant for dressing up as previous companions, and Mrs Flood has borrowed clothes from Clara Oswald and Romana Mk I's wardrobes.

Doctor Who season two continues to deliver some of the best episodes since the revival in 2005. The Well is one of the all-time greats since the BBC's beloved sci-fi series began in 1963.

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched The Well? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: Lux

After The Robot Revolution, Doctor Who goes meta in a Silly Symphony filled with creepy animated magic that plays as a sequel to The Devil's Chord.

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) promises to take Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) home, but they find themselves in 1950s America during an era of racial segregation. They become hostages of Mr Ring-a-Ding (voiced with glee by Alan Cumming) inside an abandoned picture house and transformed into cartoon characters who need the help of Whovians to escape a trap set by Mr Ring-a-Ding AKA the titular Lux, one of the same pantheon of gods as the Toymaker, Maestro and Sutekh.

Like many fans, I amusingly likened the two-part season one finale to Scooby-Doo, and there are overt references to the beloved franchise. Returning series showrunner Russell T Davies doesn't miss a trick in the driving seat of his mystery machine as he leans into the negative narratives surrounding the long-running sci-fi series.

In a timey-wimey twist of perfect synchronicity, there’s a reference to Somewhere in Time. Last week, I stumbled across the cult classic time travel romance starring Christopher Reeve (Superman: The Movie) and Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) on Prime Video. A rewatch of Battlestar Galactica on Pluto TV had rekindled a childhood crush on Ms Seymour that culminated in a tale from the TARDIS. Who knew?

Sometimes, silence is golden.

Lux is an ambitious adventure that is one of the best episodes since the revival began twenty years ago. If there are any flies in the technicolour ointment, it's the seemingly rapid resolution of the conflict between Belinda and the Doctor and the use of Murray Gold's music (love the Easter eggs), which feels misplaced during scenes such as those in the all-night café.

Let there be light.

Minor misgivings aside, the fourth wall breaking exploration of Whovians as a found family had me misty-eyed. Tears are a recurring motif. Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) is a harbinger of doom with her warning the show ends on 24th May!

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched Lux? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution

Doctor Who and Star Wars are back on television, and Varada Sethu is starring in both sci-fi franchises on Disney+.

Given an unconfirmed third season of Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa’s second season at the helm of the TARDIS has been preceded by months of speculation regarding the series' cancellation or hiatus. As it's the 20th anniversary of the revival, returning series showrunner Russell T Davies will surely have some big surprises in store for Whovians (myself included).

The Robot Revolution delivers a much stronger opening episode than season one’s divisive Space Babies, introducing us to a new companion, Belinda Chandra, played brilliantly by Varada Sethu, with a refreshingly different dynamic challenging the Doctor in a way that recalls Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), a classic companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.

The Doctor is searching for Belinda in a London hospital where she works as a nurse. However, he's too late, red robots rock up to her home and take her away to their homeworld to resolve a conflict overseen by artificial intelligence (AI) - a theme explored in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Introduced in The Church on Ruby Road, Anita Dobson reprises the enigmatic role of Mrs Flood as Belinda's nosey neighbour. Who is she? An ally, an enemy or someone or something else?

The retrofuturism of Missbelindachandraville pays homage to Forbidden Planet, Dan Dare, and Cloud City from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Once the big bad is defeated with the help of Scoot, a cute cleaning robot, Belinda resists the Fifteenth Doctor's clarion call for a timey-wimey adventure aboard the TARDIS, insisting the Time Lord get her home immediately! However, the TARDIS seemingly malfunctions, and that's where the fun begins.

It is a season opener that balances adventure, character development, social commentary and intriguing mystery (why does the Doctor tell Belinda about her familial connection to Mundy Flynn in Boom?) in a way that bodes well for the season ahead, regardless of the series' future. That being said, please have fewer tears from the Doctor!

New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Saturday on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Have you watched The Robot Revolution? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Get her home with Doctor Who season two

Doctor Who returns in one week and fans (myself included) can pre-order the season two Blu-ray set.

Read the official synopsis:

"The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) meets Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-travelling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wider terrors than ever before."

Joining Gatwa, Sethu, and Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) for the second season are Rose Ayling-Ellis, Anita Dobson, Christopher Chung, Michelle Greenidge, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruth Madeley, Jemma Redgrave, Susan Twist, Bonnie Langford, Rylan Clark and Alan Cumming as the voice of Mr Ring-a-Ding.

This release includes all 8 episodes and the holiday special Joy to the World:

The Robot Revolution: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Peter Hoar
Lux: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Amanda Brotchie
The Well: Written by Russell T Davies & Sharma Angel Walfall, directed by Amanda Brotchie
Lucky Day: Written by Pete McTighe, directed by Peter Hoar
The Story & the Engine: Written by Inua Ellams, directed by Makalla McPherson
The Interstellar Song Contest: Written by Juno Dawson, directed by Ben A. Williams
Wish World: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai
The Reality War: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai

Season two is available for pre-order from Amazon (affiliate link).

Doctor Who's second season premieres on 12th April on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.

Are you looking forward to season two of Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who gets animated in season two

20 years ago, Doctor Who returned to Saturday teatime television on this day.

Russell T Davies rebooted the BBC's beloved Time Lord for generations of fans (myself included) and returned as showrunner for the 60th anniversary and beyond. I wrote about the poignant timing of Rose in March 2005, which was published in the letters pages of Starburst magazine.

The BBC and Disney+ have dropped a second official season two trailer and episode titles.



Read the official synopsis:

"The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) meets Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-travelling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wider terrors than ever before."

Joining Gatwa, Sethu, and Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) for the second season are Rose Ayling-Ellis, Anita Dobson, Christopher Chung, Michelle Greenidge, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruth Madeley, Jemma Redgrave, Susan Twist, Bonnie Langford, Rylan Clark and Alan Cumming as the voice of Mr Ring-a-Ding.

Russell T Davies, showrunner says: “Excitement mounts as the new season gets closer, and there's nothing a Doctor Who fan loves more than facts! So here’s a whole bunch of them, with titles and writers, everything you need to get ready for transmission!”

The Robot Revolution: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Peter Hoar
Lux: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Amanda Brotchie
The Well: Written by Russell T Davies & Sharma Angel Walfall, directed by Amanda Brotchie
Lucky Day: Written by Pete McTighe, directed by Peter Hoar
The Story & the Engine: Written by Inua Ellams, directed by Makalla McPherson
The Interstellar Song Contest: Written by Juno Dawson, directed by Ben A. Williams
Wish World: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai
The Reality War: Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai

The War Between The Land And The Sea — a new five-part spin-off series starring Jemma Redgrave and written by showrunner Russell T Davies and Pete McTighe — is on the way from the BBC and Disney+.

Doctor Who's second season premieres on 12th April on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.

Are you looking forward to season two of Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who season two teases chaos

The BBC and Disney+ have dropped an official season two trailer for Doctor Who.



Read the official synopsis:

"The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) meets Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-travelling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wider terrors than ever before."

Joining Gatwa, Sethu, and Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) for the second season are Rose Ayling-Ellis, Anita Dobson, Christopher Chung, Michelle Greenidge, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruth Madeley, Jemma Redgrave, Susan Twist, Bonnie Langford, Rylan Clark and Alan Cumming as the voice of Mr Ring-a-Ding.

Doctor Who's second season premieres on 12th April on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.

Are you looking forward to season two of Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who returns this April

An updated teaser trailer for season two of Doctor Who was shadow-dropped during coverage of the Six Nations and it included when the new series starts.

The teaser trailer teases the return of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and the introduction of a new TARDIS companion for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu). Sethu first appeared as Mundy Flynn in season one's Boom!

Doctor Who returns on 12th April on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.

Are you looking forward to season two of Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who teaser trailer for 2025

A teaser trailer for Doctor Who season two dropped following Joy to the World on Christmas Day. The holiday special saw the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) aid Joy (Nicola Coughlan) in an emotionally resonant Steven Moffat-penned seasonal story.



Read the official synopsis:

"There are forces beyond this universe... It's all a game to them!"

The teaser trailer teases the return of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and the introduction of a new TARDIS companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu). Sethu first appeared as Mundy Flynn in season one's Boom!

Doctor Who returns in 2025 on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland.

Have you watched the teaser trailer? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who season two wraps

Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies posted on Instagram that filming of season two has wrapped for broadcast in 2025. Little is known about the next season beyond Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson reprising the roles of Doctor Who and Ruby Sunday respectively.

Joining the TARDIS crew will be Varada Sethu. She made her surprise series debut in Boom!

Sethu, no stranger to sci-fi after appearing in Star Wars spin-off series Andor on Disney+, says: "I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is such an honour to be a part of the Whoniverse, and I'm so grateful to the whole Doctor Who family - because that is what they are - for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel so at home. I couldn't ask for a better team than Ncuti and Millie to be on this adventure with, this is SO much fun!"

Season one is halfway through, and 73 Yards showcased Gibson's acting ability in one of the best-ever episodes in the long-running BBC sci-fi series history.

New episodes of Doctor Who stream every Friday on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland and every Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Season one is available for pre-order (affiliate link).

Are you watching Doctor Who season one? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who: Boom

After a divisive season one double bill, Boom sees the return of writer and former series showrunner Steven Moffat to Doctor Who. He has also written the upcoming holiday special, Joy to the World. Moffat's tenure as showrunner remains my favourite since 2005. He gave us the Weeping Angels and Soufflé Girl (Jenna Coleman). Sorry, not sorry.

Boom marks the sci-fi series' first use of ILM's StageCraft (originally developed for the Star Wars live-action spin-off series The Mandalorian on Disney+).

Nick Smith, our US-based veteran Whovian, finds himself in a minefield without help from former TARDIS companion Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter). If you know, you know.

Guest post by Nick Smith

Fourth Doctor Tom Baker once stated that it was a pity so many of his stories had to end with an explosion. There had to be better ways to resolve a conflict than with wholesale destruction. From a dramatic storytelling point of view, big bangs are understandable; they are loud and spectacular and offer some closure amidst the debris. But the drama doesn’t just come from the booms. It comes from the lead-up as well – the inexorably ticking countdown, the sweat on the brow of the damned, the inevitability of death on a battlefield.

Writer and former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat takes a short, tense scene from a Tom Baker story – Genesis of the Daleks – and develops it to create a dangerous new environment inhabited by likeable characters, placing them in a seemingly fatal situation.

One of those characters is the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), who steps on a landmine.

This isn’t his first wrong-footed rodeo; see Genesis for tips on avoiding getting blown up. But this time around, the mine is smart and deadly automaton ambulances roam the cratered landscape, looking for patients to kill with kindness.

At first blush, this is a stripped-down story focusing on two people, the Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Moffat’s simple premise has a vivid, believable backstory that reflects our own war-torn world and our struggles with faith. Like the majority of top-flight sci-fi, it examines social concerns in a way that doesn’t leave us feeling bombarded.

The audience is so used to virtual backgrounds by now that the artifice of StageCraft’s digitally painted sky is forgivable. Ultimately, it’s Ruby’s reaction to this strange new world that sells it, just like the First Doctor’s (William Hartnell) companions helped to convince us that they were on prehistoric earth during their initial adventure.

It would be in keeping with Doctor Who’s spirit of innovation to show us more unusual planets, applying the same imagination to the set design that we see in the writing. Terrain could be upside down or sideways, and not in constant proportion to the humanoid characters.

The casting is generally excellent, with Gatwa, Gibson and Joe Anderson as wounded warrior priest John Francis Vater. The only miscast actress is Caoilinn Springall, who plays John’s daughter Splice Alison Vater. The part is obviously written for a younger actress; as played by Caoilinn, Splice is as dumb as a bag of hammers, with no concept of holograms, landmines or the skirmish going on around her, despite being raised in a warzone.

This is a minor flaw in a taut and exciting episode of Doctor Who that shows that not all pyrotechnics have to be literal. Boom is packed with emotional and narrative surprises that are more explosive than a mindless bang. In the minefield of contemporary dramas that feel the need to spell everything out to the audience, this layered tale is a step in the right direction for the new Doctor.

Moffat has a penchant for surprise introductions of future TARDIS companions. Jenna Coleman debuted in Asylum of the Daleks, and Varada Sethu does the same here. Sethu plays Mundy Flynn, an Anglican marine. So, seeing how that plays out in season two will be interesting.

New episodes of Doctor Who stream every Friday on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland and every Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Season one is available for pre-order (affiliate link).

Have you watched Boom? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Nick Smith's new audiobook, Undead on Arrival, is available from Amazon (affiliate link).