The cast and showrunners of Doctor Who attended San Diego Comic-Con 2018 after the recent release of the series trailer and companion announcements.
This year’s San Diego Comic-Con marks a significant point in Doctor Who history. Not only has the first trailer dropped for series 11, which will feature Jodie Whittaker’s debut as the Doctor, but we have also gained insight into the show’s fresh new direction.
New showrunner Chris Chibnall (previously the showrunner of Broadchurch) has been incredibly secretive about his vision, a clear change of style from Steven Moffat’s oft-criticised habit of spoiling too much of what’s to come. This new approach is clear in the trailer that was released today, which reveals frustratingly little.
Over the top of some beautiful camera shots of beaches, alien planets, and 1950’s America, the Thirteenth Doctor speaks in her Northern accent:
All of this is new to me. New faces, new worlds, new times. So if I asked really, really nicely, would you be my new best friends?
This trailer, which can be watched below, along with the rest of the promotional material released today, paints a new picture of Chibnall’s Doctor Who that we haven’t seen before. The colours are vibrant and retro, contrasting with the gritty drama of RTD’s reign, and the increasingly darker themes of Moffat’s era.
During the Comic Con panel, Chibnall emphasised that, “this year is the perfect jumping on point for that person in your life who has never watched Doctor Who. There is no barrier to entry this year… It’s a great moment to bring everybody on board. It’s a big inclusive mainstream accessible series of ten really varied, exciting standalone stories. So you won’t see very much from the past, though there will be things here and there.”
Given the massive history behind the show, jumping on points such as these are useful for new viewers to catch on without being weighed down by assumed knowledge. With a change in showrunner and Doctor, we are often able to start afresh with new explanations of Time Lords, the TARDIS, regeneration, and the rules of time travel.
However, according to Chibnall it seems that one of the things we won’t be seeing again so soon are one of the Doctor’s oldest foes, “we’ve got two weeks left of shooting and we haven’t seen any [Daleks] yet.”
Unless Chibnall is deliberately teasing us, then the fandom will surely be split on this critical decision. While some long-time fans of the show may see this as a step away from Doctor Who’s roots, it will surely please those who have been asking for the alien race to take a break from our screens. It’s true, their over-exposure in the show in recent years has reduced their scare factor, so perhaps this brief hiatus will restore their truly terrifying nature upon their return.
Finally, Chibnall revealed in an interview with Digital Spy at Comic-Con that the series will be “ten standalone episodes, there’s no two-parters or anything like that.”
The last time we saw a move like was back in series 7 when Moffat opted for blockbuster-like standalone episodes, a decision that proved to be fun at first but eventually wore itself thin. However, given that series 11 will have fewer episodes with longer running times, perhaps this cinematic approach will be a little more successful this time round.
Despite the huge changes Chibnall is making to Doctor Who, he has asserted that he is simply bringing us “a new era, not a clean slate.” He is playing his cards close to his chest, leaving the public in the dark about many of the things they wish they knew – the personality of the Thirteenth Doctor, episode details, companion backgrounds, etc. However, Chibnall’s secrecy at this year’s Comic Con has only driven the hype up even more, leaving us itching to find out exactly what this new era of Doctor Who will look like.
