Series 5 (Doctor Who)

Series 5, also known as Season 31 for clarity over Season 5, is scheduled for broadcast in 2010. Following the 2009 Specials, there will be a full 13-episode season to be broadcast in 2010; filming began in July 2009.

According to Issue 410 of Doctor Who Magazine, the BBC intends to begin the numbering of seasons over again to reflect the change of production team; thus, as far as the BBC is concerned, the 2010 season will not be known as Series 5, but rather, once again, Series 1. What this may mean for marketing and availability of the 2005 to 2008 seasons (particularly the previous "Series 1" starring Christopher Eccleston) remains to be seen.

In the spring of 2008, it was announced that Steven Moffat, who has written Hugo Award-winning or nominated scripts for the revived series in each of its first four seasons and whose association with Doctor Who dates back to his writing of the Comic Relief parody The Curse of Fatal Death in the early 1990s, will succeed Russell T Davies as head writer and producer of the series. Davies has announced he will officially retire from involvement with the series after the 2009 specials are completed and at present has no plans to retain any direct connection to the series once Moffat's tenure begins. However, Davies has announced that he plans to remain involved with production of Torchwood for the foreseeable future, and hopes to see further crossovers with Doctor Who, indicating he may not completely sever his ties with the parent show.

Also departing at the end of 2009 is co-executive producer Julie Gardner. She will be replaced by Piers Wenger. It has yet to be announced whether a third producer will replace Phil Collinson, either in the 2008-09 specials or the 2010 series.

During his acceptence speech for the award for Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards on 29 October 2008, David Tennant announced that he would not return for the 5th series. On 3 January 2009, during a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential entitled "The Eleventh Doctor", the BBC announced that Matt Smith would be playing the Eleventh Doctor.

No details regarding possible storylines have been revealed, although given the events of Series 4 there is widespread speculation about the possible returns of River Song (a character created by Moffat) and Jenny (a character Moffat is known to have prevented from being killed off). The return of River Song appears to have been confirmed as British media published photos showing Alex Kingston filming scenes for the 2010 series. At the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, Moffat claimed that he had only started writing the season on the plane en route to the convention.

It has not yet been announced whether the first episode of the season will feature the regeneration from Tennant to Smith, or if this will occur during the last of the 2009 Specials scheduled for broadcast in early 2010. (However given past precedent, it is most likely the regeneration will occur at the end of the final Tennant episode.)

In his official BBC interview after the casting announcement, Smith let slip that he had (as of January 2009) already read the scripts for Episodes 1 and 4. Although he did not divulge any plot information, he did strongly suggest that one or both of those episodes have been written by Moffat.

On 29 May 2009, the BBC announced that Karen Gillan had been cast as show's new companion.

Soon after production began on Series 5, images of the new cast on location began to appear in the British media, revealing the Eleventh Doctor's costume, and apparent exterior changes to the TARDIS (most notably the reinstatement of a St. John's Ambulance logo which once adorned the TARDIS during the First Doctor era. The media also revealed in July 2009 that Alex Kingston will again portray River Song. It was later said that she will appear in two episodes. Given the out-of-order nature of filming on Doctor Who, however, it is not yet known where in the season these episodes will be placed.

It will air in the United States on BBC America, shortly after their UK debut. Although BBC America expects to air the show in "Q2" of 2010 (suggesting spring), no confirmed airdate is possible until the BBC announces its airdates, which is expected to occur as little as a few weeks before broadcast of the first episode.

It has been speculated that due to media coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2010, the BBC may split the season into two halves. The impact such a split may have on US, Canadian and Australian broadcasts is as yet unknown.

On 6th October 2009, the BBC unveiled a new series logo which will be launched with Series 5.

Primary Cast

 * Matt Smith - The Doctor
 * Karen Gillan - Amy Pond

Confirmed guest stars

 * Alex Kingston - River Song

Writers
Aside from Steven Moffat, who is known to have written at least the first episode of the season, the only confirmed writer for Series 5 is Richard Curtis, best known for co-creating and writing the Blackadder series for Rowan Atkinson and for writing films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Confirmed Rumours

 * Richard Curtis has confirmed that Series 5 (Series 1) will be broadcast in February 2010 and that he is to pen an episode featuring "Van Gogh stabbing a yellow monster".


 * Please discuss unconfirmed rumours in The Howling section of the Forums.

Rumours

 * In DWM Issue 397, Steven Moffat wrote the "Production Notes" feature. This consisted mainly of an anecdote about how he became the head writer but he also touched upon his plans for Series 5. In particular he wrote "Piers Wenger and I are hard at work on Series 5. I can tell you nothing of our plans (except, obviously, THEY'RE BACK!)". Some have interpreted "they" to refer to the Time Lords, who had been "killed off" as a race during the Davies era. However, others have interpreted this as simply referring to the Daleks, who have become notorious for returning at least once a series since the revival.
 * The speculation as to whether "They're back" refers to the Time Lords may intensify with the announcement in September 2009 of a Blue Peter contest in which entrants are being asked to design "a TARDIS console" to be used within the series, which could be interpreted as referring to a TARDIS other than the Doctor's. At the time of the contest's launch in early October, however, the contest description suggested that the console should look like "something the Doctor put together" suggesting a different storyline possibility.
 * After Moffat was announced as new show-runner, speculation began to appear in the media about possible writers for Series 5. The most frequently published speculation is that Moffat had discussed the matter with noted fantasy author and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, although as of January 2009 there has been no indication that Gaiman will actually write an episode.
 * As noted above, Matt Smith let slip during an interview that Moffat himself has written at least one episode, possibly two, as of January 2009. This coincides with Moffat's statement at the August 2008 San Diego Comic con about having only recently started writing Episode 1. Speculation is mounting as to how many episodes of the season Moffat will ultimately write, although if he retains the pattern established by Russell T Davies, he will most likely write, at least, the season finale in addition to the opening episode. However this remains to be confirmed; such information is not expected to be released until at least later in 2009.
 * Media speculation as to who will be the new companion intensified following the announcement of Matt Smith as the new Doctor, with newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph identifying pop singer Lily Allen as a front-runner, with Kelly Brook and Rachel Stevens listed as other possibilities. However, fan speculation also holds the possibility of Georgia Moffett returning as Jenny or Alex Kingston (or another actress) returning as River Song. It has also been speculated that Michelle Ryan, who appeared as a companion in the Tennant special Planet of the Dead, may return. Statements made by David Tennant's Doctor in The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead regarding no longer wishing to travel with companions also opens the possibility that the Eleventh Doctor may not, initially, have an ongoing companion at all. It was later announced that he will have a companion, played by Karen Gillan.
 * British tabloid media have reported rumours that Moffat plans a "radical redesign" of the TARDIS interior, both to mark the new era and also because of the show's switch to high-definition production.
 * It is speculated that the opening credits/theme arrangement will be changed. The introduction of a new series logo in October 2009 increases the likelihood of this occurring, but the BBC has yet to officially confirm such a change.
 * As of April 2009 it has yet to be confirmed that series composer Murray Gold will be continuing in this role under Moffat.
 * There might be a second companion played by either Dean Kelly or Liam Boyle.
 * There are rumours speculating that Karen Gillan will be playing a much younger River Song hence the Eleventh Doctor being portrayed young by Matt Smith. This appears unlikely given the physical differences between Gillan and Alex Kingston, and the fact the two were photographed filming a scene together. The only connection appears to be the fact they both have aquatic-sounding character names.
 * If the first rumour refers to the Time Lords, then Karen Gillan may be playing a Time Lady. Rumours are that River Song may be a Time Lady too, as she knows knowledge of Time Lord anatomy.
 * It was confirmed in DWM that this series will be known as series 1 from a production standpoint; it is unknown what it will be publicly known as, though it will likely be series 5 in order to avoid confusion with the fairly recent series 1.
 * A joking blog entry by the Canadian Doctor Who Information Network has led rise to an erroneous rumor that the character of Amy Pond will be an alien and require the actress to wear prosthetics. This is easily debunked by the fact the character of Amy is shown wearing normal clothing in official publicity images and media coverage of the early filming (although, granted, the actual nature of the character has not been fully spelled out).
 * UK media, including The Telegraph have reported that UK-based American actress Gillian Anderson is being considered for a guest role during Series 5, possibly as a new regeneration of the classic series villain The Rani.
 * A number of websites have reported a rumor that the BBC is considering splitting Series 5 into two halves, the first half to air in the spring of 2009, and the second half to air later in the year.
 * According to the online resume of one of the show's crewpeople, part of one episode has been filmed in Croatia, however the BBC itself has yet to confirm.