'Doctor Who' Resets Its Season Counter With Season 1 Teaser

Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson officially start a new era with Disney+

It’s been a very merry Christmas as Doctor Who returned with its first Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road”, seeing Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa meet his new companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson as they rescue not only her newborn sister Lulubelle from goblins and their king, but soon Ruby herself. Next Time trailers for Christmas specials tend to encompass the entire upcoming series or remainder in the case of “The Snowmen”, and in that regard, it was no different here.

Okay maybe there was one difference. What was long expected to be branded as series 14 is actually confirmed to be season 1…again. It’s not just internal usage among the crew. This does make sense in some fashion, as to not alienate new viewers on Disney+, though it certainly didn’t stop Tubi from using the original season numbers (1 to 26) for their individual classic listings of the series instead of each starting from 1. It seems not everything can be America’s Funniest Home Videos for Disney+, which has seasons 20-22 available on the streamer, and is labeled as such. Showrunner Russell T. Davies had confirmed the rebrand in an SFX Magazine interview released in November but to see it actually employed was still a bit surreal.

What’s actually in the trailer, with the whole universe at the Doctor’s fingertips? It starts with a bit of staring, a bit of running, before Ruby braces herself as they head into the vortex. The Doctor finds himself dancing again, this time a bit of ballroom with Jonathan Groff’s character, who might be the one the Doctor calls a cad. The episode with ‘60s garb that April’s photos come from is an episode with a trip to Abbey Road Studios. That’s right, the Doctor is meeting The Beatles nearly 60 years after using their concert footage. A reaction shot of Fifteen in the same outfit is followed by seeing Jinkx Monsoon as her character, with another shot of snazzy Doc. Same episode? Who knows. As the episode itself made clear the footage labeled “2023” in that “60 Years in 60 Seconds” video was not from Fifteen and Ruby’s only 2023 adventure, but instead is from a Season 1 episode, reportedly the premiere, that we got to see more from in this trailer. The outfit and scene lighting are the big giveaways. We get Fifteen and Mel Bush together again after “The Giggle” on her scooter! And then surprise! Yasmin Finney is back as Donna's daughter Rose, apparently inside UNIT once again, so it will likely be where Mel and Kate Stewart, also previously reported to be returning and played by Jemma Redgrave will be too. It’s going to be a classic romp of a season that will also see returns from Anita Dobson as Mrs. Flood and Michelle Greenidge as Carla Sunday, and new characters such as Lenny Rush as Morris, Indira Varma reportedly as the Duchess, Aneurin Bernard as Roger ap Gwilliam, Jack Forsyth-Noble as Will, and Millie Kent as Valerie.

A spring 2024 premiere for the new season has been known since Gatwa was announced to be the next series-starring Doctor, but the month had yet to be specified, sort of like how long it took the show to formally refer to “The Church on Ruby Road” as a Christmas special as opposed to a festive special. Heck the season trailer didn’t have it either. The version of the “New Home, New Who” teaser embedded in the episode uses Spring 2024, but the version on Disney+’s socials do reveal when exactly. It’s May. That’s when we might start figuring out what the deal is with Mrs. Flood. With the numbering restarting and the terminology reverting, it can now simply be said that in the United States, the first 26 seasons are on Tubi, the 13 series are on Max, and the seasons after them are on Disney+. I will also gladly point to the Doctor Who Filming Locations Twitter account, the seeming Canadagraphs equivalent for Doctor Who, has a thread that's aligned every scene in the trailer to their respective episodes, so I’ll link that here.