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Doctor Who Series 11: How the new trailer has started the hype

By Luke Molloy

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I feel glorious, glorious…Got a chance to start again! The Doctor Who countdown has begun, and we are less than two weeks away from Jodie Whittaker’s time travelling debut. With publicity beginning to increase, we should all be very excited indeed…

Chris Chibnall, new showrunner of Doctor Who and messiah of secrets, has lain dormant in his publicity coffin for the last nine months, before rising at the beginning of September to deliver some much-needed hype. After colorful screensavers and on-the-nose teasers, we have been rewarded for our wait with a scintillating new preview of Series Eleven—and it’s fantastic.

The first trailer a few months ago was a bit “simple”. Besides the parade of poster-like location shots, it was basic and so far away from release that the hype was hard to establish. The new trailer is superior in all elements and builds on the only detail the first showed off—the visuals.

This series is using brand-new cameras and anamorphic lenses to give Doctor Who a cinematic look, and the show looks considerably improved. There is a shot of a spaceship, approximately ten seconds in, which looks so stunning that I thought the BBC had secret agents at Disney, stealing film from the set of Star Wars: Episode IX. If there’s one thing we can be certain of this year, it’s that our eyes are in for a visual feast.

We know that the TARDIS crew will be landing on alien worlds and places. But what will the monsters be like?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

Monsters?

I have been a Doctor Who fan for over ten years and I have never once felt like this two weeks before a premiere. That feeling is utter cluelessness. The trailer holds everything you need to make the show work: running, explosions…but no monsters.

We don’t know anything about this year’s rogues gallery—what they look like, what they’re called—and as an advertisement strategy for Doctor Who it’s completely mad. Yet, it’s worked.

When was the last time you had an unspoiled monster reveal? Or a terrifying new big bad? Chibnall’s promised (from his cloudy coffin) that all the episodes will contain new villains. However, we have no idea how they work, their motivations, anything!

I have such little knowledge about the new series—so little that when watching, I will not have an upper hand on any first-time viewer. For fans that have been swamped in spoilers every year, it’s so exciting to become that first time-viewer once more.

Music

Arguably, the only heavy criticism of Who’s advertising campaign has been the music choice. Macklemore & Skylar Grey’s Glorious has backed both recent trailers and is a large departure to the action-esque tracks that usually accompany the teasers of our favourite time traveller.

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At first, I longed for the latter, thinking the new choice to be cheesy and disappointing. However, the more I’ve watched the trailers, the more the words have spiraled round my head, like a penny in spiral well, generating anticipation as we fall closer to the premiere date. I’ll defend the music choice as it’s the reason the trailer is addicting—it’s bold, it’s adventurous and most importantly for a trailer, it makes me want to tune in.

The Doctor backs away and kisses the trailer to an end with a promise—it’s about time. Doctor Who is coming back and it’s going to be absolutely glorious.

dark. Next. Torchwood: Why I love Mr Colchester

Doctor Who returns Sunday 7th October in The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Are you excited for the new series of Doctor Who? Are you on board with the hype—or think some aspects of the advertising campaign could have been handled better? And most of all, does the trailer leave you feeling “Glorious”? Let us know in your comments below.

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