The BBC has announced that the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who will air in the UK on Sunday 31 October 2021, Monday 1 November in Australia. The six episode Season 13 has the title “Doctor Who: Flux”.
If the ABC does the same as they have with previous releases, it should appear on ABC iView on Monday 1 November and on television around that date.
In July it was announced that this will be Jodie Whittaker’s last full season as the Doctor and it will be followed by three special stand-alone episodes in 2022. The first two specials were originally intended to be a part of season 13; one of these will be the New Years 2022 Special and the second will appear in the first half of 2022. The third special episode is a longer length, will include Whittaker’s regeneration and will broadcast later in 2022 as a part of the BBC’s Centenary Celebrations.
Doctor Who executive producer and show runner Chris Chibnall announced that he will also be leaving the show when Jodie Whittaker leaves.
In September 2021 it was announced that Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf Ltd will be co-producing Doctor Who from 2023, with Russell T Davies as show runner, including a 60th anniversary special to air in 2023. Russell T Davies was the Executive Producer who brought back Doctor Who in 2005 and was the show runner from 2005 to 2009. Bad Wolf was formed by some of the former Doctor Who production team members and has gone on to produce shows such as His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches and won many awards.
That Russell T Davies isn’t trying to produce Doctor Who all on his own is a great sign as, in my opinion, the program has suffered since 2005 from one person trying to do everything – producing and script editor and lead writer. It’s just too much for one person to do comfortably and have time to consider where the show is going overall.
In recent times Russell T Davies has mentioned online that he would like to see Doctor Who becoming an expanded universe, rather like Disney’s expanded universes with Star Wars and Marvel or the recent Star Trek expansion into six television series. This is something he did to an extent with Doctor Who in the late 2000’s with the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and the Doctor Who Confidential behind the scenes documentaries.
It will be interesting to see what will become of this and is there is more than fandom’s wishful thinking to the idea of a Doctor Who expanded universe, or at least spin-off stories.