Chris Chibnall and company already planning Doctor Who season 13

The twelfth season of Doctor Who — the rebooted version started in 2005, anyway — is just a few weeks away, with the tour-episode premiere set to air on New Year’s Day. It’s been a while since we’ve last had a new episode — on New Year’s Day this year, in fact — but it sounds like showrunner Chris Chibnall and his team are taking steps to save us from a similar wait next time around. “It’s categorically untrue [that I’m leaving],” Chibnall told RadioTimes.com during a visit to the set. “We’re already planning the next series after this series.”

So season 13 is already in the works! That’s good news for anybody who can’t stand to go too long without checking in the time traveling do-gooder and her rotating cast of companions. I wonder if we’ll even get another new season at the end of 2020?

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. We have season 12 in our immediate future, and to hear the cast and crew tell it, it’s gonna be a good one. “It doesn’t feel like we’re regurgitating anything that we’ve done before,” said Jodie Whittaker, who plays the Doctor. “I feel like we’re treading new ground for each of the character journeys, and the development of everybody’s storylines. I felt more comfortable, because playing it during my second season is obviously less nerve-wracking than day one of season one. Now, it’s second skin already.”

Chibnall agrees that season 12 “feels like a step up,” and describes it as “probably more ambitious” than season 11. “Scale, storytelling, everything. I would say we are aiming to keep moving forward and up. There are bigger moments this year.”

"Last year was a recruiting year for the show, and I think we managed to recruit some people for the show. That’s exciting. And obviously we kept the existing audience and built on that. I think this year we’re developing that, so for all the people who are new to Doctor Who we’re going to go, ‘Look at the amazing world of Doctor Who, look at all the treats that are in there.’ So we’re building on last year. There are lots of new faces, a few old faces. There are some things trickling through which might be important. It’s different!"

Chibnall is right that ratings did indeed tick up for season 11. Can the trend continue?

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – SEPTEMBER 24: Author/Writer Stephen Fry from ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ speaks onstage during the Zurich Film Festival on September 24, 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. The 11th Zurich Film Festival will take place from September 23 until October 4. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

As for new faces, you better believe that season 12 will be continuing the Doctor Who tradition of bringing in guest stars. This time around, we’ll see British treasures like Stephen Fry (Blackadder, A Bit of Fry and Laurie) and Lenny Henry (The Lenny Henry Show, Broadchurch) right at the top of the season. “Doctor Who is coming back with a bang — with two great British icons in major roles,” Chibnall told Entertainment Weekly. “One of the great joys of Doctor Who is getting to work with actors from your wish list. Stephen and Lenny are two of my absolute favorite actors — and to be able to bring them into Doctor Who, in one of our biggest ever stories to kick off the new season, is an absolute thrill.”

Overall, Chibnall boiled his strategy for season 12 down to a willingness to take risks. “Doctor Who has to exist in the modern television landscape,” he said. “There is so much drama, there are so many shows. We have to continually find new reasons to be existing.”

"[T]here’s loads of things the show hasn’t done before. I think you saw last year that we took a lot of risks, and I think that they paid off, and I think that we’ll continue to take some big risks this year. But you can do that and also give people all the stuff they love about Doctor Who as well. You balance the two. Risk is built into Doctor Who, from day one in 1963. No question of that."

Also, star Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien) says there are going to be more stunts, which is also good. Something for everybody!

Going back to risk, I wonder if Chibnall is referring to the show’s willingness in season 12 to engage with topical issues, such as in the episode “Demons of the Punjab,” which explores the 1947 partition of India, or “Rosa,” which looks at Rosa Parks’ activism during the American civil rights movement in the ’60s. If you ask me, those were the two best episodes of the season (I also really liked the one about the English witch hunts), so I’m definitely looking forward to more of where that came from.

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 24: Tosin Cole arrives at the Doctor Who Premiere Screening at The Light Cinema on September 24, 2018 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

But not everyone feels that way. During a press event, one reporter brought up criticism that the episode “Rosa” was “too preachy,” according to Digital Spy. Star Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair) wasted no time in shutting that foolishness down…in a polite British way, of course.

“[Racism] is one of the most current things going on today,” Cole said. “So, [the criticism] is just ignorant for them to say that, in a sense. Not to get angered by it, but those issues are still going on now.”

"I don’t think it was preachy in any way. I think it was just reigniting that fire that these issues are still going on today…Let’s be aware of what’s going on.”"

As someone who grew up in England, Cole wasn’t intimately familiar with the details of the American civil rights movement, with “Rosa” helping him fill in some of the gaps. “Obviously, I learnt it in school but maybe some of the details I didn’t know to that extent,” he said. “If I didn’t do the show, I wouldn’t know the dates, the precise things. The ripple effect that [each incident] caused. The little intricate details, it’s, I think, refreshing to do that for a younger audience and also a family so you can have that conversation in a household.”

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Let’s hope Doctor Who keeps on trucking when it returns on January 1.

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