'Doctor Who' Sets Two-Episode Season Premiere

As global simulcasts continue, the long-running sci-fi series technically has two simultaneous release dates

We’ve got new diddly-deets on when exactly in May long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who returns for its first full series since 2021’s Flux, as a May return was known since the season trailer dropped after the Christmas special. Now starring Sex Education and Barbie’s Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday, the series is taking on an entirely streaming-first model when the new season 1 aka series 14 premieres on Saturday, May 11 in the UK…and Friday, May 10 where time zones allow.

Doctor Who will no longer arrive on BBC iPlayer after the episode airs/transmits on BBC One. Instead, it’s heading there at midnight UK time on its airdate, hours ahead of its linear airing on the latter. Viewers in the UK will now be able to watch whenever and wherever they choose, with the option to stream at midnight on BBC iPlayer or tune in at primetime on Saturday nights on BBC One…but risk being spoiled until then on social media. It’s almost like how DisneyNOW would have, and probably still does, all the day’s new episodes of Disney programming in a similar fashion. Speaking of Disney, Disney+ is still the new-ish home of the series outside of the UK, and simultaneous global premieres are still a thing. That means for the (contiguous) United States, the episodes will drop at 7 PM Eastern/4 PM Pacific and everything in between on Friday, May 10. The linear premiere will happen after the Eurovision Song Contest, an occasion for which the 60th anniversary specials’ titles were revealed last year.

The premiere date announcement came with its own trailer and revealed that the season’s own trailer premieres next Friday, March 22. It’s a season that features everything from “Regency era in England to war-torn futures”, as the duo “champion the forces of good” while coming across new and familiar friends and foes. As showrunner Russell T. Davies said for his first full series back “At last, it’s my great delight to unleash a whole new season of the Doctor and Ruby’s adventures together. Monsters! Chases! Villains! Mysteries! And a terrifying secret that’s been spanning time and space for decades. Don’t miss a second!”

As previously covered, the season will see appearances from Michelle Greenidge as Carla Sunday, Angela Wynter as Cherry Sunday, Anita Dobson as the mysterious Mrs Flood, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble, Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush, and (probably) new characters played by Jinkx Monsoon, Aneurin Barnard, Jonathan Groff, Lenny Rush and Indira Varma. More are to be announced soon, though it’s not known if it will coincide with the trailer or come in the weeks until premiere. Following the two-episode premiere, single episodes will be released in the same manner, midnight in the UK on iPlayer and globally outside the UK simultaneous on Disney+. Your cosmic joyride awaits, and come back next week for the season trailer.

Source: Doctor Who