“There’s been so many surprises that I never saw coming,” said new series star John Bishop.
It seems fair to say that Doctor Who’s most recent series had some pretty major twists, from the unmasking of Sacha Dhawan’s Master in the first episode and Jo Martin’s arrival as a surprise new version of the Doctor at the series midpoint all the way through to the revelations of series finale The Timeless Children.
But apparently that was all just warm-up for the upcoming series 13, which will apparently have enough cliffhangers and shock moves to banish all thoughts of the Fugitive Doctor or Spyfall from Whovians’ collective consciousness. Master Who?
“Yeah, a lot of cliifhangers this year,” showrunner Chris Chibnall said during a virtual panel aired as part of Comic-Con@Home.
“There’s a couple of my favourite cliffhangers that we’ve done this year. I think you’ll know [them]…”
“There’s been so many surprises that I never saw coming,” added new series star John Bishop. “Not at all. So I think there’s definitely some shocks.”
Bishop also noted that the unusual serialised nature of series 13 (a fact revealed earlier in the panel) made some of the biggest shocks possible, with each chapter of the overall story able to end on a cliffhanger that pushed the story forward, rather than resetting it for another standalone episode.
“What’s brilliant about this is that story going through,” he explained.
“So you end an episode…and I know in previous series there’s been sometimes a double episode or something. But [this year] each episode’s ending on a brink point where you’re thinking ‘what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna happen?’
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“I think that, if I was a fan that would be the thing that would make this series so different to the previous ones.”
Bishop also added that fans could look forward to “a lot of unanswered questions” week to week, raising the stock of reddit messageboards (and speculative TV/fan websites) in one fell swoop. Thanks John!
Altogether, it sounds like series 13 will be quite a ride for Doctor Who fans, with enough twists and turns to make a trip through the time vortex seem like a pleasure cruise. Time to strap in – and prepare to be surprised.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One later this year. For more information check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.