The first trailer for Jodie Whittaker’s final outing as the Doctor has been released – and the footage teases one epic battle for the Time Lord. The episode features all the hallmarks of Chris Chibnall’s chaotic writing style we’ve come to expect throughout Whittaker’s era. It’s a lot to take in. So we begin with fifteen of the world’s most valuable paintings, which have disappeared, and then we’ve got a handful of missing seismologists.
A Dalek invasion of Earth is imminent, Tegan and Ace are caught in the crosshairs with Cybermen, and Sacha Dhawan’s Master, who alternates between a smartly-dressed alien sociopath to a long-haired, unkempt alien sociopath, is busy making sinister speeches over images of interplanetary wars, and brand-new alien worlds. Jacob Anderson can be seen reprising his role as Vinder from Doctor Who: Flux and Yaz is standing in the TARDIS with a gun. There’s also a bullet train in space.
As to what it all means, we’ll need to wait and see. The trailer packs a lot, and it promises to be a big finale for Jodie Whittaker’s Time Lord, who took over the role from Peter Capaldi in 2017. She is set to be replaced by Ncuti Gatwa, who was cast in the role of the iconic Time Lord earlier in the year.
Per a report from The Radio Times, the synopsis for the episode reveals that Whittaker’s Doctor will “fight for her very existence, against her deadliest enemies: the Daleks, the Cybermen and her arch-nemesis, the Master.”
“Who is attacking a speeding bullet train on the edges of a distant galaxy? Why are seismologists going missing from 21st century Earth? Who is defacing some of history’s most iconic paintings? Why is a Dalek trying to make contact with the Doctor? And just what hold does the mesmeric Rasputin have over Tsar Nicholas in 1916 Russia?” the teaser continues.
The Power of the Doctor will be broadcast on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer on October 23 (Sunday). It will debut the weekend after the BBC’s Centenary celebrations on October 18 (Tuesday).
