The long-running BBC sci-fi series “Doctor Who” is fast approaching its 60th-anniversary. The show recently aired a cryptic video providing more details about the upcoming episodes. Complete with a callback to a previous season’s theme song.
Three episodes will air in November to celebrate the series’ impressive accomplishment. These will see the return of David Tennant, who played the 10th Doctor from 2005 through 2009. He will now play the mysterious 14th Doctor in all new stories. And will also see the return of Catherine Tate‘s character Donna Noble and are all written by returning showrunner Russell T Davies.
The teaser interrupted an ident, a displayed logo between programs to identify the station, on BBC1. Broadcast interruptions for “Doctor Who” teasers have become a bit of a tradition. Matt Smith‘s Eleventh Doctor also interrupted a broadcast on BBC1 in 2013 to promote the 50th-anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor.”
A fan account on Twitter, known as TARDIS Central, was able to capture the entire 60th-anniversary teaser:
As you can see all we really get out of it are glimpses of Tennant, Tate, and the TARDIS. As well as a brief but exciting shot of the 10th Doctor’s severed hand from the season 4 finale, “Journey’s End.” Specifically showing the scene where previously stored Regeneration energy in the limb was absorbed by Noble. This leads to her briefly becoming a hybrid between Doctor Donna Human and a Time Lord. Though the Doctor did have to wipe Noble’s mind to prevent her body from dying from the strain of the transformation. There is a chance some element of the change remained within her and could play into the upcoming special.
All of this footage is shown while a variant of season 4’s theme song plays in the background with some seemingly gibberish audio on top of it. Twitter user @argodotz64 reversed the teaser to show that it was actually hidden dialog.
We hear the 14th Doctor say “Cryptic, I hate that.” Noble asks, “Why did this face come back?” because the show isn’t known for its sassy sense of humor, at all.
We’ll keep you posted on more “Doctor Who” updates as they become available.
