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Moffat's "Radio Times" Series 10 Preview - Read At Your Own Risk!

StCoop

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1. The Pilot
“What’s the one thing you never see when you look at your reflection?”
Meet Bill Potts. She works at St Luke’s University, serving chips to students, and nothing ever, ever happens. Then, one day, she finds there’s another world beneath the one she knows. A familiar face in a pool of water, and a love that is over before it can begin, will change her life for ever – because this is the day Bill meets the Doctor.

2. Smile
“Between here and my office, before the kettle boils, is everything that ever happened, or ever will. Make your choice.”
In the far future, at the edge of the galaxy, there is a gleaming, perfect city. This brand-new human settlement is said to hold the secret of human happiness – but the only smiles the Doctor and Bill can find are on a pile of grinning skulls. Something is alive in the walls, and the Emojibots are watching from the shadows, as the Doctor and Bill try to unravel a terrifying mystery…

3. Thin Ice
“So the TARDIS has dresses and likes a bit of trouble? I think I’m low-key in love with her.”
In Regency England, beneath the Frozen Tames, something is stirring. The Doctor and Bill arrive at the last of the great frost fairs and find themselves investigating a string of impossible disappearances – people have been vanishing on the ice! Bill is about to discover that the past is more like her world than she expected, and that not all monsters come from outer space.

4. Knock Knock
“Did you hear the trees creaking outside when we arrived?” “Yeah. It was the wind.” “There wasn’t any wind.”
Bill is moving in with some friends and they’ve found the perfect house! So what if it’s strangely cheap to rent, and the landlord is a little creepy? The wind blows, the floorboards creak and the Doctor thinks something is very wrong. What lurks in the strange tower at the heart of the building – and why can’t they find any way to enter it…?

5. Oxygen
“You only see the true face of the universe when it’s asking you for help.”
The Doctor, Bill and Nardole answer a distress call in deep space, and find themselves trapped on board space station Chasm Forge. All but four of the crew have been murdered – and the dead are still walking! In a future where oxygen is sold by the breath, and space suits are valued more highly than their occupants, the TARDIS crew battle for survival against the darkest evil of all.

6. Extremis
“They read The Veritas – and chose hell.”
In the Haereticum (the Vatican’s secret library of blasphemy) there is an ancient book known only as The Veritas. Throughout history, anyone who has ever read it has immediately taken their own life. Now a new translation is online, and the danger is spreading. The Vatican appeals to the Doctor. Will he read The Veritas? But can even the Doctor survive the ultimate truth?

7. The Pyramid at the End of the World
“Fear is inefficient. We must be loved.”
A 5,000-year-old pyramid stands at the centre of a war zone, where the Chinese, Russian and American armies are about to clash. There are many problems with that, but the one that intrigues the Doctor is this: there wasn’t a pyramid there yesterday. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole face and alien invasion unlike any other – before conquest can begin, these aliens need the consent of the human race.

8. The Lie of the Land
“I’m sorry, Bill, I really wanted to make you see!” “Oh my God, this is real. You’re really doing this!”
The world is gripped by a mass delusion and only Bill Potts can see the truth. When even the Doctor is fighting on the wrong side, it’s up to Bill to convince the Time Lord that humanity is in deadly danger. And if she can’t do that, she may just have to kill her best friend.

9. The Empress of Mars
“It’s a simple choice, Iraxxa. The oldest one in the book. We must live together. Or die together.”
The Doctor, Bill and Nardole arrive on Mars and find themselves in an impossible conflict between Ice Warriors… and Victorian soldiers. As the Martian hive awakes around them, the Doctor faces a unique dilemma – this time the humans, not the Ice Warriors are the invaders. When Earth is invading Mars, whose side is he on?

10. The Eaters of Light
“Now you have a choice. You can all keep on slaughtering each other till there’s no one left standing, or you can grow the hell up!”
A long time ago, the Roman legion of the ninth vanished into the mists of Scotland. Bill has a theory about what happened, and the Doctor has a time machine. But when they arrive in ancient Aberdeenshire, what they find is a far greater threat than any army. In a cairn, on a hillside, is a doorway leading to the end of the world.

11. World Enough and Time
“My name’s Doctor Who.”
Friendship drives the Doctor into the rashest decision of his life. Trapped on a giant spaceship, caught in the event horizon of a black hole, he witnesses the death of someone he is pledged to protect. Is there any way he can redeem his mistake? Are events already out of control? For once, time is the Time Lord’s enemy…

12. The Doctor Falls
“Without hope, without witness, without reward.”
 
Interesting. I'm thinking we might just get a pre-Christmas special regeneration after all, which will be cool. I don't know which episode is supposed to have

multiple Masters

but I'd assume its 11 and/or 12. Can't way for Series 10 to start.
 
I'm getting the impression what's going to happen is...

He starts to regenerate in Episode 12. But the lack of all that lost energy, siphoned out of him by Davros & the Daleks in 'The Witch's Familiar,' causes that regeneration to fail. Completely.

Maybe even to the point of him splitting into two beings - one good but dying Doctor still with Capaldi's face, one completely evil and looking a lot like Michael Jayston...
 
Pity the title for the first episode changed from "A Star in Her Eye" to "The Pilot" (assuming it was actually ever called that and not just a rumor). I much prefer the previous title. Episode 4 also changed from "The Hub" to "Knock, Knock."

Most of it sounds pretty promising, particularly "Knock, Knock" (presumably the one with David Suchet as "The Landlord") and "The Eaters of the Light."

Recall that "Extremis," "The Pyramid at the End of the World," and "The Lie of the Land" make up one continuous story. Based on those synopses, I'm not sure how but I'm definitely curious.

However, I can't help but notice that Frank Cottrell-Boyce ("In the Force of the Night") wrote "Smile," i.e. the one of the Emojibots. I was already on the fence about them, but knowing he's the writer for them doesn't leave me with much hope...
 
Recall that "Extremis," "The Pyramid at the End of the World," and "The Lie of the Land" make up one continuous story. Based on those synopses, I'm not sure how but I'm definitely curious.

Well Veritas from Episode 6 means the Truth and location photos from Episode 8 were full of posters like this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C35XV0pWMAAJqH4.jpg

And on the subject of the Regeneration there was an interview with Capaldi in the New York Times last week in which he said that it will not be the same as the last few.
 
Okay, I'll admit, for the most part this does seem and interesting and promising season. My only concern is the trilogy of episodes 6, 7, 8. Having the Vatican involved with episode 6 and centering around Catholic mythology I'm not enthused about, but that could go either way as far as quality is concerned. While episode 7 seems to be drawn from current events, and combined with the fact that it's written by Peter Harness I'm worried it could come off as heavy-handed and preachy as the Islamophopia allegory with the Zygons was last year. Episode 8 just sounds like a typical Nu Who resolution to me, with the bond between Doctor and companion being tested and one of them close to doing something controversial, which in the end they won't do.
 
Something's definitely going on with the Regeneration. According to this story Capaldi has already shot it but the Xmas Special doesn't start shooting until May...

Combine that with rumblings that the new Doctor has been cast (and I'm not referring to Doctors Trainers' rumor here), it's entirely possible. *shrug*

I've been entertaining the idea that there won't actually be a Christmas special this year. In terms of marketing and momentum, it doesn't make a lot of sense. With Chibnall moving the series to the autumn, then we're looking at six months between the end of series 10 and Christmas, and then another eight months from Christmas to series 11. A one-shot episode to either write out the old Doctor or introduce the new Doctor feels like a complete waste of effort.
 
Combine that with rumblings that the new Doctor has been cast (and I'm not referring to Doctors Trainers' rumor here), it's entirely possible. *shrug*
Hm, I've only heard the Doctors Trainers' rumor, so good to know there's other rumblings going on and I'm not hearing about it.

I've been entertaining the idea that there won't actually be a Christmas special this year. In terms of marketing and momentum, it doesn't make a lot of sense. With Chibnall moving the series to the autumn, then we're looking at six months between the end of series 10 and Christmas, and then another eight months from Christmas to series 11. A one-shot episode to either write out the old Doctor or introduce the new Doctor feels like a complete waste of effort.
While I agree with that argument, I'm pretty certain it's been specifically stated that there will be a Christmas special and it will be written Moffatt.

Maybe the one-off Doctor idea suggested in another thread might actually happen...
 
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Honestly, I can't see them not doing a Christmas special. The Christmas specials are television events themselves, especially since there are some people who only watch Doctor Who at Christmas.
 
The 13th Doctor's Christmas Special

"....And then he just died again. Freaking Time Lords. Dying when you need them to, and getting in the way when you want them dead."

Regenerates in the 14th Doctor for next series.
 
Honestly, I can't see them not doing a Christmas special. The Christmas specials are television events themselves, especially since there are some people who only watch Doctor Who at Christmas.

Unless everyone is flat-out lying it's scheduled to shoot from late May to early July with Capaldi in it. (Though notably neither Pearl Mackie or Matt Lucas confirmed as appearing as of now.)
 
Unless everyone is flat-out lying it's scheduled to shoot from late May to early July with Capaldi in it. (Though notably neither Pearl Mackie or Matt Lucas confirmed as appearing as of now.)
That is interesting about Mackie and Lucas. Anyway, if Capaldi has indeed already filmed his regeneration scene, I guess we are getting a non-linear storyline.
 
IIt's certainly possible for Capaldai to have shot his part of the regeneration without his successor on site- remember they did that with Eccles before Tennant was cast.

That said, he then has to reappear in the Xmas Special, so unless that's a flashback...
 
Maybe the regeneration was intended to be a cliffhanger that Moffat would have resolved in the Christmas special without having him regenerate at the end, but now has to account for that since he has to in order for the new guy to come in as the Doctor.
 
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