Doctor Who to change format for new series

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 26 July 2021

Doctor Who's showrunner reveals that the new series will comprise a single story thread rather than standalone episodes.

Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall has revealed that the upcoming new series will feature a single story thread rather than standalone episodes.

The new series - the 13th since the show's revival - will run to eight episodes and feature John Bishop as Dan Lewis, a new companion to The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her sidekick Yas (Mandip Gill).

Usually each series of the show has an underlying storyline which plays second fiddle to the storyline of the week, but Chibnall has said that the new series will be entirely focused on one story - a format not seen since 1986.

"The big thing we're going to be doing this year is that it's all one story – so every episode is a chapter in a bigger story," he told a Comic-Con panel. "And so we've changed the shape of the series for this year.

"There were two ways you could go: we're just going to do lots of tiny episodes in one room with no monsters, or we could throw down the gauntlet and go 'we're going to do the biggest story we've ever done, we're going to go all kinds of different places, we're going to have all kinds of characters and monsters, and it's all going to be part of a bigger whole.'

"I think it's definitely the most ambitious thing we've done since we've been on the series."

Filming of the new series is now believed to be in its final throes ahead of the show's premiere later this year.

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