With filming having started on the seventh season of ‘Doctor Who’ on Monday, Whovians have been scrambling trying to find any news about what the upcoming season will bring. A couple days ago we shared the first official image from the show and now we have some set photos and a round-up of news about the upcoming season.

Producer Marcus Wilson, in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, mentioned that a couple of classic monsters from the 60’s and 70’s ‘Doctor Who’ episodes would be returning. Could one of them be the Zygons? (Zygons, if you recall, were the shape shifting aliens that first appeared in the episode ‘Terror of the Zygons’ starring the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker.) Carol Skinner, executive producer of the show, was asked by SFX if they would be featured this season and she replied, “Wait and see.” Although it was not a definitive “yes” answer, it wasn’t a definitive “no” either. (Me thinks she has been taking lessons from ol’ Steven Moffat himself!) She did say, however, that the first episode was written by the Moff himself and that it was “going to blow everyone’s mind!”

Earlier in the week, the cast and crew were on Southerndown Beach in Wales filming a few scenes. Matt Smith, Arthur Darvill and Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley of the ‘Harry Potter’ film series) were on hand for the shoot. The beach may look familiar as it was the same location where the parting scenes between the Tenth Doctor and Rose were filmed in ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Journey’s End’ and it was also used as Alfava Metraxis in ‘The Time of Angels’ with the Eleventh Doctor. Below are a few of the location photos:

Williams is said to be appearing in the second episode of the series and had apparently already filmed scenes with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill inside the Ponds-Williams home.

Regarding the start of filming for this season, Matt Smith has said, “It’s thrilling and exciting to be back and working with two of my closest friends.”  Gillan added, “It’s just brilliant to be back on the TARDIS with Matt and Arthur for our craziest adventures yet.”

So what do we know of season 7? Here’s a few “spoilers” of what has already been revealed and confirmed:

* Steven Moffat has said that the first episode will be like the movie ‘Die Hard’ and teased that the episode would be called “(Spoiler) of the (Spoilers).”

* Amy and Rory will leave during season 7 in a “heartbreaking” story and the Doctor will meet “a new friend in the most unexpected place.”

*River Song (played by Alex Kingston) will be seen sometime during the season but it’s still unconfirmed if she will be involved in the departure of her parents.

*There will not be very many 2 part episodes in this season as there has been in the past.

*One of the episodes will be filmed in Spain (it’s rumored that it will be one of the first 3 that will be shown)

* Besides, Moffat, writing episodes for this season will be Chris Chibnall (co-producer and writer on the classic ‘Torchwood’ series and wrote the Doctor Who episodes ‘Cold Blood’, ‘The Hungry Earth’, and ‘42’), Toby Whithouse (who wrote ‘School Reunion’, ‘The Vampires of Venice’ and ‘The God Complex’) and Mark Gatiss (who wrote ‘The Unquiet Dead’, ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’, ‘Victory of the Daleks,’ and ‘Night Terrors’ as well as episodes on ‘Sherlock’)

* According to EP Skinner, not all the scripts for the season have been written, “but we’ve got a lot of them and the ones that are written are really, really epic and very exciting.”

One of the most exciting rumors for this upcoming season is the return of Sophia Myles (Madame de Pompadour from season 2 with the Tenth Doctor). From the tweets that she has been posting, she hints about coming back to the series but nothing has been confirmed by the BBC as to who she will play or even if she is really going to appear in an episode.

So get ready for what looks like an exciting “blockbuster” rollercoaster of a ride when ‘Doctor Who’ returns in the fall. And keep checking back here on ScienceFiction.com because as soon as we learn more of what to expect, you will too!

Source: Doctor Who TV