Spoilers Two big characters return for anniversary.

When did Ten find the time to get to know that Roman dude from Pompeii

 

Could've been a different Doctor. We know at least The Seventh Doctor was there, too.

 

So the new DWM has revealed the title of the finale/Centenary special.

Power of the Doctor

 

...so The Doctor pretends to be a servant for an offshoot colony in order to deceive the Daleks?

 

Cubey things and paintings fence again?

 

you evil bastard you

 

I'm just going to repeat what I've said on FB: Considering how the Whittaker era has gone, and how much of a supporting character she has been in her own damn show, this had BETTER be a 'Caves of Androzani' level tour de force showcase for Jodie with an episode title like that.

 

Fingers crossed, she deserves a bloody good send off if nothing else!

 

I don't know where these photos originally come from (but I'm guessing the same Doctor Who Magazine issue that revealed the episode title), but they're some new shots of Tegan and Ace...with The Doctor and Kate!

 

They seem to have predated the official account posting the same pics (and, in a separate tweet, a poster for the Power of the Doctor). https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1572624234249068546?s=46&t=WVrWKSVuJYk1Bw6SouIAhg

 

Do other shows in England withhold their release dates to the last minute or is that only a Doctor Who thing?

 

I believe BBC schedules in general are not released until relatively close to the week; I don’t know about other UK networks.

 

With the BBC it's usually two weeks in advance.

 

Netflix does it a lot, too, although not as close as two weeks away.

 

From what I've read, it's a country-wide thing in Britain. British networks tend to wait until the last minute to release their premiere dates to prevent their competitors from "counter programming." Essentially sticking a popular show on at the same timeslot another popular show is known to be on on another network.

In The Writer's Tale RTD talks about how secretive BBC is about airdates, even internally. They would never tell him when the seasons would premiere until a day or so before it was revealed to the public, and oddly enough they would never confirm for him the Christmas episodes would air on Christmas Day, despite the fact that in Britain "Christmas Special" literally means something which airs on Christmas Day as opposed to America where Christmas Specials can air anytime during December.

Granted, I'm thinking that BBC loosened up the policy about being secretive about airdates internally given episodes which aired during the Moffat and Chibnall eras have utilized their airdates within the narrative, most especially the recent Flux storyline.

 

That's broadly correct but we do have Christmas Specials outside of Christmas Day. Usually they fall in the week around Christmas so the 20th to the 27th.

 

Yeah, puzzled where that “airs on Christmas Day” comes from.

 

The Writer's Tale. It's the whole reason RTD was confused why BBC wouldn't confirm the Christmas episodes would air on Christmas Day, since as he put it "this isn't America, a Christmas episode by definition can only air on Christmas Day."

 

The answer to his confusion being that there are more hours of Christmas Special programming on BBC One than there are hours in Christmas Day, of course...

 

People connected to BBC America have complained about this for years, because their promotional needs and marketing window are different than the BBC's. Any success they've had is in spite of the BBC, not because of it.