Now that they’ve announced the release date itself, the BBC have released another little trailer for Series Eleven of Doctor Who. Is there anything that we can learn from this new little teaser?
It makes sense that, after making the big announcement of the release date for Series Eleven, the BBC release a quick trailer to go with it. This one is considerably quicker than other trailers, however. And at twenty seconds long, it just might be the shortest one yet for the current series of Doctor Who.
Unsurprisingly, it’s pretty basic: Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor stands in a large room, filled with windows. Each window is filled with beautiful stained glass. Even the ceiling is filled with it.
So naturally, all the windows around the Doctor casually explode, including the one above her. Afterwards, the Doctor simply says, “Whoops”.
What can we learn from this trailer? Well, for one thing, the new Doctor is apparently impervious to glass. (Seriously, all of it falls around her and she doesn’t get a single scratch? Is she now the exact opposite of John McClane?)
Second, while the BBC are definitely going for dramatic, even with the teasers, it’s still nice to be reminded that the Doctor is usually whimsical and silly in the face of drama. “Whoops” isn’t much of a response, but it is a fitting one, at least as far as the Doctor’s concerned.
Something missing
However, there was something odd about the trailer. No, not the use of Glorious by Macklemore. That’s just the BBC letting us know how that Doctor Who is now “modern”. I’ll get back to that in a moment, though.
No, it’s something a little odder than that. Watch the “Release Date Trailer” again. Notice anything missing? That’s right: the actual release date. This is currently listed as the “Release Date Trailer”, and yet nowhere in the actual video do you see, “7th October”.
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It may be in the description on the YouTube page itself, but that hardly counts. So that was a particularly strange decision by the BBC, especially considering that this video is bound to be spread far and wide.
Is there anything more that we can take away from this trailer? Only that the song choice is clearly trying to grab as large an audience as possible. Not just the sci-fi fans, but particularly the young crowd, too.
Which if I’m honest, is very promising. We never got trailers like this during Russell T Davies’s era, but he was successful at appealing to the modern audience as a whole, not just to the hardcore fans. It was a great way of keeping Doctor Who fresh, even while he aimed to stick to its roots.
While I don’t want modern songs to be used regularly in Doctor Who‘s soundtrack, it is nice to see the marketing trying to appeal to as large an audience as possible. Let’s hope the stories are decent enough to be worthy of the audience’s attention.
What do you think of the latest trailer? Are you excited that the series is aiming to appeal to a new modern audience? Or are you still confused that it doesn’t actually feature the release date, as advertised? Let us know in the comments below.