Well, with something of a trailer coming this weekend. Either a proper trailer, something shot special for it, or just footage from the first couple of episodes string together, we’re going to finally see something more than a brief snippet at the end of Twice upon a Time. So before we get to that I want to make a couple predictions
Now I know about the leaked footage and the behind the scenes photos and the rumours but I’ve kept clear of them. I’m trying not to have the show spoiled for me. At the same time I have so many ideas of what I want to see and what I think we’re going to see. So I’m putting this out there. This way I can crow if I’m right, or be surprised when I’m wrong and have some evidence one way or the other.
Prediction number One. At the beginning of the season the Doctor will have already been in the “present” (as it were) for a while. She will already have established herself and will be more or less stable (at least as stable as the Doctor gets…)
Prediction Two. She’s already going to have established her team, it will be through them that we are introduced to this version of the Doctor rather than the now traditional introduction to the characters through following the Doctor.
Now we get into specifics; Prediction Three. The Doctor will be practically homeless when we meet her. Without the TARDIS she will be living in the streets, or as close to it, as she is working on a way to summon her vessel. The difficulty being that she has not got access to any sort of technology to do it.
Prediction Four. It will be a failed attempt to bring the TARDIS to her that sparks off the adventure, with the Doctor being the only one that can stop whatever’s coming and the friends she has made during her time there helping out.
Prediction Five. The Doctor will have been seen as this relatively harmless mad woman… right up until whatever happens to kick start the plot. At which point the friends she has made will be in awe of just what she is capable of.
Prediction Six. The TARDIS will arrive in the last act, giving the Doctor everything she needs to defeat the enemy of the week.
Right so far that’s just the first episode and I think that’s going to cover it. It’s both what I want to see and what I think we’re going to see. But what about the series as a whole?
Well I think it’s gong to stick with the whole series long arc idea we’ve had for the last 11 years(!). With little bits of storyline dropped here and there, building to an epic conclusion that tests our heroes resolve, but in the end only makes them stronger. However I think this time it’s going to be more focused on the Companions. I think, or at least hope, that with four people in the TARDIS this year we’re going to get some time to really investigate them more.
You see the Doctor is a mystery, even after fifty five years we still don’t know their name, so hopefully Chris Chibnall remembers that and rather than trying to explore and learn more about them we realise just how little we do know.
Perhaps an arc plot that introduces the idea that the Doctor is a mystery to even the Time Lords? That despite it all they felt The Doctor didn’t fit in with Time Lord culture either. We know he didn’t, but why? and just how alien were they to the ancient culture? But that’s the far future.
This season I think we’re going to see new villains, The Master is going to be taking a break. Same with the Daleks, the Cybermen and even the Weeping Angels. There might be some cameos from the iconic villains here and there but Chibnall is going to be looking at making new bad guys to fight.
Hopefully that will be true. His attempt to put a new spin on the Cyberman in Torchwood lead to the nightmarishly abysmal Cyber-woman. I won’t hold that against him, as he was working to a spec script he didn’t really have much choice in the matter.
Former Companions. I’ve wanted this for years and hopefully this will be the series for it. I want to see a former companion turn up. We haven’t seen them since Sarah Jane all the way back in series 2. We’ve had previous Doctors Villains and even one off aliens have made a cameo or two. At the same time we’re losing a number of them and it’s getting to be now or never. There are several companions that really need a better end, or at least a better closure.
New Control room. We know there’s a new control room that everyone’s being very tight lipped about. There’s a design out there for the seventh’s that was going to be redesigned, with the whole thing coming down from the roof and not actually attached to the ground. If they figured out how to do that in the late 80’s they can do it today. Really I just want something new, that we haven’t seen before, and not a re-hash of the same old ideas just in a new colour palette.
Keeping it Fun. Doctor Who has, even at it’s darkest moments, had fun at it’s heart. Or hearts. Even when it’s been sad it’s always had those moments that offset them. It’s ran the spectrum and as much as the show has had children hiding behind the sofa there has always been the Doctor to let you know it was safe to come out. That is the touch of magic That is what, throughout regeneration and even cancelation, The Doctor has always had.
I think I’d best leave it there. At least until the next time, where I look at the Companions of Nu Who and ask what worked and what didn’t!
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