Doctor Who’s season 12 premiere may be the “biggest” episode in the show’s history

After a year away, the Doctor returns on New Year’s Day with Spyfall, a brand-new, two-part episode Chris Chibnall describes as “probably the biggest episode of Doctor Who we’ve done, or has been done, I would imagine.”

Considering the series has a 50+ year history, that’s a pretty big claim. “Physically, there’s a lot of stunts, there’s a lot of locations, it’s a globe-trotting action thriller,” Chibnall told Deadline. “But you don’t want to lose sight of character and intimacy and emotion. You can’t do everything at 11.”

It’s all part of keeping up with the rest of the splashy, big-budget genre fare on TV today. When you have stuff like Stranger Things and Watchmen and The Expanse to compete with, you’ve got to raise your game. “Doctor Who has a thing that those shows don’t have, which is that we go somewhere new every week,” Chibnall said. “So every week, we’re in a new world, we’re in new locations, we’ve got new guest actors, got a new guest cast, got new monsters, we’ve got a new threat, got a new story. So the incredible thing is Doctor Who has already structured itself like that. Our responsibility is to make sure the production standards are up to scratch.”

To do that, Chibnall is taking the show bigger. While season 11 featured pretty much all standalone episodes, season 12 will feature two-parters, a thread that runs through the whole thing, and an increased role for the Doctor’s companions.  “Last year it’s like she was showing them the wonders of the universe,” Chibnall told Radio Times. “This year she’s going to need them a lot more. She’s going to rely on them. They’ve been traveling long enough to know a bit more now.”

"What they realise is they don’t really know anything about the Doctor. Because I don’t think that she said the words Time Lord last year. I don’t think that she said the word Gallifrey last year. She’ll be saying those words this year."

It also means more monsters and more guest stars. Season 11 didn’t have many legacy aliens, but we know that season 12 will feature the Judoon, the universe’s rhino-headed space police, and the Cybermen. However, Chibnall cautioned Entertainment Weekly that we “wouldn’t expect Daleks this series.” You have to save something for later, after all.

As for guest stars, Stephen Fry will be in the premiere episode, and the show has locked down Goran Visnjic and Robert Glenister to play Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison respectively. Those two scientists had a real-life rivalry, so expect them to turn up in the same episode. Plus, Tesla apparently claimed he received messages from Mars, so including the Doctor in his story seems pretty natural. I’d also be on the lookout for an appearance by Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein.

Another old favorite returning: cold opens! Season 11 didn’t feature any scenes ahead of the opening credits, but they’ll be back for season 12, complete with jolting little cliffhangers. Although they won’t be on every episode. “[S]ome have a cold open, some don’t,” Chibnall said. “I think the danger is, if you shape everything towards it all the time then your shapes will become predictable.

"I think it’s really important in a time when television is moving so fast and there’s so much content, that nothing feels too fixed. It’s really important for the show. The show’s gotta be nimble, and so when you turn on you’re not quite sure whether you’re going to get a pre-titles, you’re not quite sure whether you’re going straight into the credits. I think that’s really good, that it should be per whatever the series demands, whatever the episode demands."

We’re very ready for the Doctor to return. See you on New Year’s Day!

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h/t Radio Times