Everything Is Possible In New ‘Doctor Who’ Trailer
by Erik Amaya
Disney is finally introducing people to The Doctor.
The company released a trailer for the new season of Doctor Who on Friday that establishes some of the series’ basics, but also gives long-time fans a few things to mull over why waiting for the episodes to stream.
Ncuti Gatwa stars as The Doctor, an alien who travels time and space in a British Police Box prop that is bigger on the inside called a TARDIS. His latest companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), is about to learn just how vast the universe is and how much trouble one can get into when they run through corridors with the generally mad Time Lord. But that’s just the tin Disney is providing for all the new people never caught up in the vortex that is Doctor Who.
For those of us who have been with The Doctor for sometime — and seen some of their other faces — there are interesting wrinkles buried in the preview. At one point, The Doctor says there is no such thing as monsters, just “creatures you haven’t met yet” before being freaked out by a monster. Elsewhen, an unseen voice says things are getting more and more supernatural. The series, across its 60 year history, usually debunks the supernatural as advanced science or alien incursions. The Loch Ness Monster, for example, has been explained away twice. But it seems with The Doctor’s visit to the more malleable places outside the universe in one of the 60th Anniversary specials, some things that are less scientific have crept into reality. One of these may be Jinx Monsoon‘s music-powered antagonist. Another suspect: The Duchess, a seemingly new character played by Indira Varma. There’s also the legions the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) promised would be coming for The Doctor.
And to get even more granular, at 1:11 there is a shot of a robed and hooded woman pointing just off of camera. The setting around her looks quite similar to the snow-cover church The Doctor briefly visited in the 2023 Christmas Special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” when he was trying to learn the identity of Ruby’s mother. Is she also part of the vast, seeming supernatural forces invading the universe?
Mysteries like this are integral to Doctor Who, but so is the fun glimpsed in the trailer, like The Doctor and Ruby’s visit to Regency England or The Doctor’s opening line when the TARDIS lands at UNIT HQ. Even the old saw about stepping on a butterfly in the past is part of the joy that is the show, even if the mavity of things threatens to upend The Doctor and Ruby’s journey.
Doctor Who comes to Disney+ on May 10th.
