Stephen Fry makes his ‘Doctor Who’ debut in this short clip from the first episode of Season 12, entitled “Spyfall” Part 1. That episode will air on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. The second half of the story will air on Sunday, January 5, in the show’s regular time slot.
Fry plays some type of government agent who calls The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) in on a special case, or more specifically an “impossible” case. There is a woman lying on a hospital bed, but when The Doctor examines her status, she discovers that the woman’s DNA has been rewritten, turning her into something inhuman.
Backing her up are her three companions, who were all introduced in Season 11– Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), and Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill).
S11 broke from tradition in a lot of ways, not the least of which was the casting of Whittaker as the first female Doctor. But showrunner Chris Chibnall has promised that this time, the series will be embracing a lot of the familiar elements of ‘Doctor Who’ that were absent last season. The series will once again include multi-part storylines and not just stand-alones. The cold opens will also be back, starting with “Spyfall” Part 1. In recent years, the show would open with the start of the story and end on a little cliffhanger before the opening credits. For whatever reason, that was done away with in S11. But not every new episode will have a cold open. The show will also welcome back foes like the Daleks, Cybermen, and the Judoon.
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Says Chibnall (via Express UK):
“There is a difference between the first year of a Doctor and the second. There are different types of stories you want to tell, different rhythms and structures. This series is action-packed. It’s probably a step up from last year. It’s got scale, it’s got fun. It’s got some old monsters, it’s got some new monsters. It’s an incredible variety of stories and locations. We’ve got the historical episodes, we’ve got the big space stories, we’ve got some Earth stories and some big guest stars as well.”
‘Doctor Who’ Season 12 kicks off on Wednesday, January 1 at 8 pm EST on BBC America in the US.
