Tonight was the night many Doctor Who fans have been waiting for as the Series 7 opener Asylum of The Daleks received its premiere at a screening at the BFI Southbank.
But such an event is good for more than just a preview of what is to come from the new series. These evenings are as much about the Q&A session that accompanies them as about the episode itself.
With Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner on hand to field the questions, there should have been at least a couple of surprises and indeed there was.
First off, there was what we already know; Richard E Grant will play the villain of the Christmas 2012 episode.
Then there are the bits we suspected; There will be a number of events in 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show. Matt Smith has confirmed that he will be playing the Doctor in 2013 and 2014. Alex Kingston will once again be reprising her role of River Song.
Then the important stuff that we have not heard before.
Series 7 of the show will not have any of the two-parters that seem to have become the norm in recent years. Although it is good to have self-contained episodes, there has always been multi-part episodes in Doctor Who, and as any fan knows even whole series’ that have been one long story. Could this be just a sign of how varied the stories of the new series are? Are there so many stories to be told that writers had to limit them to one episode each?
Steven Moffat made a comment about the constantly referred to belief that the Doctor has thirteen lives. He said, “The Doctor has 13 lives. UNLESS I make something up”. Considering we have only had 11 Doctors so far, in that sentence is Moffat saying he will be staying with the show for another two Doctors after Matt Smith moves on from the role. Or does he plan to unlock some more lives for whoever takes the helm on his departure (assumedly not before 2014).
Possibly the most intriguing piece of information in light of other news articles currently doing the rounds is that Steven Moffat has recently met up for dinner with David Tennant. Could this mean that talks for his return to the Tardis for the 50th anniversary are being held? Of course we are left to speculate on that one a bit longer.
All in all, there is certainly plenty to keep Who fans speculating and pondering for a while yet.
In addition, the date for the first episode to air has now been confirmed as 1st September. Let the countdown begin.
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2 Comments
*raises hand* Question! Just want to clarify something. So, does this mean that River will be in the 2013-14 series too? Or just we’ll see River again in general (which we already know from the trailer.)
That’s my bad. The River bit should have been in the “what we know” section. Although there was no direct word on River’s possible appearances in the following series, I would say it is fair to assume that as long as Steven Moffat is with the show we will continue to see River making appearances.