Doctor Who Season Eight Will Premiere In Fall 2014

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

WhoAll the Doctor Who buzz of late has been focused on the 50th anniversary episode in November and the Christmas special that will introduce the Twelfth (or possibly Thirteenth) Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi. But once we’ve consumed those, when will we get to dive into the new Doctor’s ongoing adventures? Unfortunately, we’ll once again have a long wait, because the show’s eighth season isn’t set to premiere until Fall 2014.

Showrunner Steven Moffat earned a place on the Guardian’s “Media 100” list, which is a sort of who’s who of “the most powerful people in television, radio, newspapers, magazines, digital media, media business, advertising, marketing & PR.” Moffat lands at the #87 entry, which includes the following tidbit:

Doctor Who may not be quite the force it was when it returned with Christopher Eccleston and in its David Tennant heyday in the UK, but has a growing audience in the US on cable channel BBC America.

It will not return next year until the autumn, giving it plenty of time to recharge batteries. And what better way to do that than with a new Doctor?

With filming on season eight not likely to begin until January 2014, this announcement isn’t terribly surprising. It’s the same model that season seven followed — Christmas special, then the new season premiering in the fall of the following year. Hopefully, the show will do away with the annoying hiatus in the middle that we got this past year. The four eps that opened season 7 were very transitional, introducing (in a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey way) new companion Clara and wrapping up the Ponds’ adventures with the Doctor. Splitting the season at least made sense from a narrative standpoint, but since Clara is still going to be around for awhile, hopefully they’ll just run the series straight through.

If those long months seem unbearable, the video below will either make the wait better or much worse. Here’s a rather impressive fan-created season 8 opening credits sequence from Neon Visual. I love the way it uses the TARDIS in dizzying fashion, and it really does get me even more excited to see Capaldi’s Doctor in action.

And if you thought that was fun, here’s one they did for that other new Doctor we’re about to learn more about…John Hurt.