Yesterday, the BBC unveiled a brand new look at the upcoming season of Doctor Who, and even though it’s only a minute long, it’s packed with a ton of new, delicious details to pore over. Let’s uncover them and delve into a bit of wild speculation, shall we?
The trailer opens with The Doctor bursting his way through the TARDIS doors, apologizing for being late—and in the brief shot of him you can juuust make out that he’s wearing yet another new variant on his look: a red velvet jacket with a clean white dress shirt. Between that and slightly wilder hair style, Twelve is starting to look awfully familiar to a certain past Doctor... can we expect a dashing line of capes in his wardrobe in the near future?
As we pull out to a wider shot of the TARDIS, we can see that the console room has gone through a very minor design update—specifically, the lower halves of the walls now have lit-up roundels in each hexagonal slot. TARDIS roundels are a hallmark of the classic series console room designs, but you might know them as “the round things” from their humorous little cameo in “The Day of the Doctor.”
Cut to Clara informing guest star Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark) that the Doctor “hasn’t got a plan yet—but he will have, and it’ll be spectacular.” We don’t know much about Williams’ character outside of the fact that she appears in two episodes, “The Girl Who Died” and “The Woman Who Lived,” and that she’s familiar with the Doctor—although allegedly she’s not playing a character that the audience will know. There appears to be some time-travel shenanigans between the two episodes, however, as the above Middle Ages-esque clothing and setting seems to jar with the Highwaywoman’s garb we’ve seen the character wearing.
In the same location, some new robotic villains stomp their way over to...
The Doctor, Clara and what appears to be a viking in the background. It’s very tough to make out, but you can just about see that Clara is wearing the orange-and-blue Sanctuary Base 6 spacesuit, first used by Tthe Tenth Doctor in “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit” all the way back in 2006, and reused myriad times in the show since. Must be comfy.
A huge serpentine creature attacks! As the Zygons are set to return this season, there was some speculation that this was modern Doctor Who’s take on the Skarasen creature from the Tom Baker story “Terror of the Zygons,” an alien cyborg creature that was behind the Loch Ness Monster myth, but notice the shields on the walls. This appears to be in the same episode as the above robots and vikings, rather than the Zygon episode, which is apparently set in modern times and features UNIT.
A mud-caked, seemingly human hand (or hands, rather) stretches out from the ground. Except, because this is Doctor Who, it’s got a great big eye in its palm and looks creepy as hell.
This startled-looking chap is actor Joivan Wade, who is returning as his character Rigsy from last year’s rather excellent episode “Flatline.”
Yes, the Zygons are back! They’re even bringing the dearly departed Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) with them in a two-part episode. The Comic-Con trailer had a shot of Zygon kidnapping a young child, so they’re up to no good following their seemingly peaceful reconciliation with UNIT back in “The Day of the Doctor.” If you squint hard enough, you can just about make out a UNIT soldier on the right, all in black.
Clara nonchalantly picks up a Stinger Missile and aims it at something off-screen. I’m not entirely sure where an English teacher gets themselves a Stinger missile at a moment’s notice, but I guess hanging around the Doctor leads to situations like this. A gift from UNIT, maybe?
Another shot of Maisie William’s character, this time looking a bit more glam—presumably this is a different episode than the Viking-era stuff we saw earlier. She seems to be in cahoots with this lion-esque alien, in disguise as some sort of fancy elite, judging by the clothes. Maybe he’s friends with the Cheetah People from the final story of classic Who, “Survival”? Doctor Who has had more than a fair share of feline-eqsue aliens in the past.
We saw this alien city in the Comic-Con trailer too, but there’s a twist now—you can just about make out (don’t forget to click the magnifying glass in the top left corner of each picture!) hundreds and thousands of Daleks flying out from it!
Here’s a slightly better shot of the city, where you can see the Daleks lifting off into the air. This could just be an alien world the Daleks are invading, but the domed architecture actually does match up with what we’ve previously seen on the Dalek’s home world of Skaro. Could we really be going back to the planet of the Daleks? A recent rumor claimed that one storyline this season would revolve around the Doctor going to Skaro and potentially attempting to murder Dalek creator Davros when he was a child.
Alien technology in what looks like a castle tower or a church. Is this from the episode with the vikings andr Robots too?
An aquatic-looking monster embraces a huge, oncoming wave. We’ll get a better look at this baddie later on in the trailer.
A distressed Clara pulls a knife on someone...
...and that someone is Missy! Yes, the Master is returning, fresh from her recent death in Season 8’s two-part finale “Dark Water/Death in Heaven,” in the first two episodes of the season.
The Doctor gets a dirty slap to the face from what looks like one of those creepy eye-palm creatures from earlier in the trailer.
As the Doctor intones that he saves people, Clara finds herself (and the TARDIS) surrounded by Daleks. There’s the black Dalek Sec from “Doomsday” and “Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks,” the Time War Dalek design from 2005’s “Dalek” and onwards, the red Dalek Supereme from “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End,” a classic silver-and-blue Dalek from “The Daleks,” and a grey-and-black Renegade Dalek from a trio of 1980’s stories: “Revelation of the Daleks,” “Remembrance of the Daleks” and “Resurrection of the Daleks.” Not invited? The controversial 2010 redesign of Skaro’s finest.
We’re then treated to a quick cut looking at some new monsters: First up, this hooded creature...
Then a ghoulish gentleman who looks like a ghost with no eyes...
And then this hooded man who is either an alien, or had a nasty encounter with a barbecue grill. We saw him briefly in the Comic-Con trailer as well, looking out over a lake on a rocky planet (maybe Skaro?).
The Middle Ages robots return, flanking a... cyborg viking? Are we getting real vikings versus robo-vikings?
We get a better look at that aquatic monster we saw from behind earlier. This may be what earlier reports called “The Fisher King,” a monster played by the 7’7”-tall actor Neil Fingleton.
A cardigan-clad woman runs towards a Police station... this may be our first glimpse at the returning Osgood.
The Doctor being a rock star. ‘Nuff said.
Missy lets out a great big cackle... to a Dalek. Has she been captured by them, or is she working with them? It wouldn’t be the first time Tthe Master has tried to work with the Daleks.
Wouldn’t be Doctor Who without a bit of corridor running, would it? The Doctor and Clara make a hasty retreat from a man who looks similarly afflicted to the ghostly, eyeless gent from earlier. It is a hapless bystander who’s been possessed, or even transformed into a similar entity?
The lion creature Maisie Williams was seen with also happens to be able to breath fire. Blimey.
The Doctor is nearly touched by the sinister hooded creature from earlier in the trailer and makes a swift exit out the nearest window. You can get a slightly better look at his new red jacket here. Very Third Doctor indeed!
Another shot of the Daleks—and this time there’s even more classic Daleks we can spot. First off on the left of the Dalek Supreme is the Special Weapons Daleks from “Remembrance of the Daleks” and then the black-domed classic Dalke on the right is an Emperor’s Guard from “Evil of the Daleks.”
The Dalek Supreme demands to know what is happening, and a sunglasses-wearing Doctor tells it “Same old, same old...”
An equally sunglasses-wearing Doctor in another episode, giving some peace signs to some UNIT soldiers, making this the Zygon episode, presumably. Certainly fond of the sunglasses this season, is our Doctor.
“... just The Doctor and Clara Oswald, in the TARDIS!” Our two heroes fly off into time and space, as the tagline “born to save the universe” blazes across the screen.
Want to know even more about the upcoming season of Doctor Who? Over on io9’s community blog Observation Deck, commenter BlueHinter has made a brilliant, spoiler-laden breakdown of everything we know so far.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One and BBC America on September 19th.