As part of a
major promotion campaign for the new series, several television trailers have been broadcast on TV and over the Internet over the last few days.
The trailers are causing quite a stir among fans of the show after it was realised that the producers of the 48-year-old show appear to be hiding images and scenes within them.
First, two different versions of a fifteen-second-trailer were aired. The original version included an image of a reflection of the Doctor (Smith) shown in an astronaut’s helmet visor. However, a later version showed the same image but with another – apparently alien – figure in the background.
Fans had originally dismissed the teaser as not much to get worked up about. However, after
Unlimited Rice Pudding! drew everyone’s attention to the second version, the Internet exploded in a storm of tweets and bulletin-board messages. It’s even been suggested that the alien depicted could be a Sensorite – a race that last featured in the series in 1964, in Peter R. Newman’s
The Sensorites, when William Hartnell (
The Army Game) played the Doctor.
To date, the Sensorites – who live on the Sense-Sphere – have appeared in
Doctor Who only once. However, another alien race, the Ood – who have appeared in the series several times in recent years – originate from the the Ood-Sphere, which is positioned in the same part of space.
Regeneration of the Doctor
Now,
Den of Geek has highlighted a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that appears – at approximately 37 seconds in – during a longer trailer.
According to the report, the brief scene shows “the TARDIS console from the David Tennant era of the show” and what appears to be the show’s trademark “firestorm” Time Lord regeneration effect. The effect, which was first used in 2005 when the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, regenerated into the Tenth (Tennant), was last seen when Tennant handed over the role of the Doctor to Smith at the beginning of 2010 – in
The End of Time, by Russell T Davies (
Torchwood).
During the climactic scenes of
The End of Time and the opening moments of Smith’s first episode –
The Eleventh Hour, by Steven Moffat – the TARDIS console room is destroyed. Then, during the space/time ship’s self-repair procedure – which on the outside retained the look of an old British police telephone box – the inside is completely updated.
Den of Geek ponders: “What on earth is the older TARDIS doing in the middle of Matt Smith’s second run on the show? How does that work? And what does it mean?”
Internet speculation has centred on suggestions that either Tennant could be making a guest appearance during the series or that there is to be another regeneration.
Regenerations are defining moments in
Doctor Who, and, even before the Internet Age, generated massive interest. The first regeneration took place in 1966 – in
The Tenth Planet, by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis – in which Hartnell was seen to change into Patrick Troughton (
The Box of Delights).
In 2008, Davies had viewers believing that the Doctor (Tennant) was regenerating when, at the end of
The Stolen Planet, he was exterminated by a Dalek. However, the following episode –
Journey’s End – showed the Time Lord able to abort his regenerative process and recover.
The
Independent certainly seems to think that a regeneration may well be on the cards, saying: “the one moment that proves particularly troubling is midway through where Rory and Amy seem to be witnessing some sort of regeneration in the TARDIS. Will the Doctor be changing his form once more? Only time will tell.”
The Doctor has a wife!
Meanwhile, if the dozens of press reports are anything to go by, viewers around the world seem to be in agreement that Smith’s second series is looking like a winner.
Typical is
this from the Independent: “Judging from the trailer, showrunner Stephen [sic] Moffat has upped the ante with series 6 and many fans are saying that it could be the best so far. It promises to be darker and scarier with new adventures ahead and foes to be faced”; while
Metro quotes the new series as looking “epic”, “impressive” and “pure awesomeness”!
Doctor Who is due to be launched in the UK, US, Canada and Australia later this month. For the first time since its revival in 2005, the opening story is to be a two-parter – the Moffat-penned
The Impossible Astronaut/
Day of the Moon – a
prequel mini-episode to which can be viewed here.
A few days ago
it was revealed that the fourth episode, by Neil Gaiman (
Stardust) and guest-starring Suranne Jones (
Coronation Street), is called
The Doctor's Wife.
In the new series, Smith will once again be joined by Karen Gillan (as Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) and Alex Kingston (River Song).
