Series 10 (Doctor Who)

Series 10 was the final series of Doctor Who under show runner Steven Moffat, as well as Peter Capaldi's last season as the Twelfth Doctor.

The first confirmation of plans for this series were revealed in the BBC Worldwide Annual Review on 14 July 2015. On 6 November 2015, in interview with the Radio Times, Steven Moffat confirmed a full series as well as a Christmas special. Series 10 was the last for both Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, and Steven Moffat as head writer and executive producer of the show.

Fathom Events hosted special screenings of the premiere of series 10, on 17 and 19 April 2017, throughout the US only. The theatrical release of The Pilot also included a screening of the first episode of Class, For Tonight We Might Die.

On 23 April 2016, it was announced via a short trailer titled "Friend From the Future" that the Doctor's companion was "Bill", played by Pearl Mackie. Mackie described her character as "wicked" and "cool, strong, sharp, a little bit vulnerable with a bit of geekiness thrown in".

Only a Christmas special aired in all of 2016, with the rest of the series broadcast in April 2017. As the series marked the end of Moffat's reign, Chris Chibnall was chosen to take on the role following his exit.

Moffat confirmed an extra episode to the Daily Record on 4 February 2016: "I have fourteen Doctor Whos and three Sherlock films." Later on 7 October 2016, Moffat re-confirmed the Christmas special for 2017 at New York Comic Con. He told that he planned to sit down with Chibnall and "figure out where he wants it parked and how to get it there." and said "But to be honest, it's a very short conversation, I've had it before with Russell saying, 'Could you crash the TARDIS?' And that was it, really."

In May 2016 at a convention, Michelle Gomez confirmed her return as in series 10.

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat on 6 September 2016, Steven Moffat revealed that the 2016 Christmas special had begun filming and said that "It's got a lot of heart, but it's got a lot of brain too. Figure that one out."

On 12 September 2016, Mark Gatiss told the audience at a Victoria & Albert Museum members' talk, "I think the Christmas special... which is the only one this year...I think is one of Steve[n Moffat]'s best ever scripts, absolutely beautiful." and "It made me cry.".

Speaking at New York Comic Con on 7 October 2016, Steven Moffat told that series 10 would feel completely new, like episode 1 of series 1, and was completely different from anything he had done before.

On joining the Doctor Who team for The Return of Doctor Mysterio, Justin Chatwin said: "Working with the amazing people at Doctor Who has been one of the most fun and rewarding projects I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with.", Moffat also said: "I've always loved superheroes and this Christmas Doctor Who dives into that world. My favourite superhero is Clark Kent. Not Superman, Clark Kent."

On October 17, 2016, Michelle Gomez confirmed her return as on series 10 to The Music.

Steven Moffat suggested that fans shouldn't expect a multi-Doctor story in the near future, having said: "We can't do it all the time. Not in my time on the show will that happen again, I wouldn't think." and jokingly added: "I don't think we're going to do that again until whatever the next anniversary is, the 100th anniversary, which I've already told them I'm not going to do because I'm planning on having been dead for a while!"

The Return of Doctor Mysterio had previously been rumoured to be a sequel to The Husbands of River Song. This turned out to be largely true, with the return of the Shoal of the Winter Harmony, Nardole, and mentions of Hydroflax, River Song, and the Doctor's 24 years spent with her.

On 30 January 2017, Peter Capaldi announced on BBC Radio 2 that series 10 and the 2017 Christmas special would be his last, remarking that "[he feels] it's time to move on". It was also revealed that the series would begin on 15 April 2017. However, Steven Moffat revealed that Capaldi "came close" to staying for series 11. On 23 March 2017, Capaldi revealed his real reason for leaving was to keep the show fresh and even though part of him wanted to stay while he also wanted different challenges.

Due to lots of fans debating back and forth about the possibility of a female incarnation of the Doctor, with the subject having been given mixed reactions, upcoming showrunner Chris Chibnall told East Anglian Daily Times that: "I can honestly say that nothing has yet been decided, I haven't got my feet under the table yet. I have been working on the play (new comedy Worst Wedding Ever) and I am still finishing the latest series of Broadchurch. Nothing is ruled out but I don't want the casting to be a gimmick and that's all I can say." However on 11 June, 2017, former showrunner Russell T Davies told in an interview at LGBT Awards that the next incarnation had been cast and he knew who it would be, but that he would not tell.

While episode 8 writer Toby Whithouse initially referred to episodes 6, 7 and 8 as a three-parter, with Whithouse specifying to Digital Spy that episode 8 was "the third part of a three-parter", Steven Moffat denied this in the June 2017 issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Whithouse again referred to episode 8 as "the third part of this three-parter" in DWM's July 2017 issue. Additionally, in a video introduction for episode 8, actor Pearl Mackie called episode 8 "the last in the trilogy of the Monks and their evil plan".

Just as Steven Moffat wrote the Eleventh Doctor's introductory scene in The End of Time: Part 2, Chibnall has written the first appearance of the Thirteenth Doctor in the 2017 Christmas special.

Bill Potts had been widely reported as the first openly gay companion (despite the precedent set by Jack Harkness being omnisexual), with Pearl Mackie having said that "it shouldn't be a big deal in the 21st century. It's about time isn't it?" and that "that representation is important, especially on a mainstream show."

For the first time ever in the medium of television, there was a Multi-Master story with John Simm as alongside Michelle Gomez's Missy. Simm said of his return that "I can confirm that it's true, thanks to the power of time travel I'm back." His return was originally to be a secret, but Moffat said of the reveal (first given on The Sun) that "Nothing stays secret for long on Doctor Who but you'll have to wait a little bit longer to see exactly what the Master is up to and how he makes his return to face the Doctor."

A then-new show called Whovians aired on Sundays on ABC2 and iView after the weekly screening of series 10.

The fourth episode of series 10, Knock Knock, was the first episode of the franchise to receive a 3D surround sound effect on BBC iPlayer, allowing the viewers to experience the story all around them.

Michelle Gomez revealed that she stepped down from the role as at the end of the series, having said "it's the end of a chapter."

In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine for its 514th issue, Steven Moffat said that the 2017 Christmas special was "funny and lively".

On July 14th 2017, the BBC revealed that the Thirteenth Doctor casting would be announced on July 16th after the Wimbledon Men's Finals.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Capaldi told that his regeneration scene is "beautiful" and said that: "It's quite a big scene – we didn't short-change it".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Bill Potts - Pearl Mackie
 * Nardole - Matt Lucas
 * Missy/The Master - Michelle Gomez, John Simm
 * The Doctor - David Bradley
 * and introducing Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor

Recurring

 * Heather - Stephanie Hyam
 * Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * The Monks - Jamie Hill, Tim Bentinck
 * Clara Oswald - Jenna Coleman
 * Rusty - Nicholas Briggs

Guest

 * Grant - Justin Chatwin, Logan Hoffman, Daniel Lorente
 * Lucy Fletcher - Charity Wakefield
 * Brock - Tomiwa Edun
 * Dr Sim - Aleksandar Jovanovic
 * Moira - Jennifer Hennessy
 * Kezzia - Kiran L Dadlani
 * Goodthing - Mina Anwar
 * Steadfast - Ralf Little
 * Nate - Kalungi Ssebandeke
 * Sutcliffe - Nicholas Burns
 * Kitty - Asiatu Koroma
 * Pie-Man - Peter Singh
 * Overseer - Simon Ludders
 * Dowell - Tomi May
 * Spider - Austin Taylor
 * Dot - Ellie Shenker
 * Harriet - Kishaina Thiruselvan
 * Perry - Badger Skelton
 * The Landlord - David Suchet, Tate Pitchie-Cooper
 * Eliza - Mariah Gale
 * Shireen - Mandeep Dhillon
 * Felicity - Alice Hewkin
 * Paul - Ben Presley
 * Harry - Colin Ryan
 * Pavel - Bart Suakvek
 * Estate agent - Sam Benjamin
 * Ivan - Kieran Bew
 * Tasker - Justin Salinger
 * Dahh-Ren - Peter Caulfield
 * Abby - Mimi Ndiweni
 * Ellie - Katie Brayben
 * Cardinal Angelo - Corrado Invernizzi
 * Pope - Joseph Long
 * Penny - Ronke Adekoluejo
 * Rafando - Ivanno Jeremiah
 * Piero - Francesco Martino
 * Pentagon woman - Alana Maria
 * Nicolas - Laurent Maurel
 * Secretary General - Togo Igawa
 * Commander - Nigel Hastings
 * Colonel Don Brabbit - Eben Young
 * Erica - Rachel Denning
 * Douglas - Tony Gardner
 * Ilya Svyatoslavovich - Andrew Byron
 * Xiaolian - Daphne Cheung
 * Bill Potts' mother - Rosie Jane
 * Jane Bishop - Emma Handy
 * Group Commander - Beatrice Curnew
 * Alan - Stewart Wright
 * Richard - Solomon Israel
 * Godsacre - Anthony Calf
 * Neville Catchlove - Ferdinand Kingsley
 * Friday - Richard Ashton
 * Iraxxa - Adele Lynch
 * Sergeant Major Peach - Glenn Speers
 * Jackdaw - Ian Beattie
 * Vincey - Bayo Gbadamosi
 * Alan Knibbs - Ian Hughes
 * Coolidge - Lesley Ewen
 * Alpha Centauri - Ysanne Churchman
 * Kar - Rebecca Benson
 * Ban - Daniel Kerr
 * Lucius - Brian Vernel
 * Simon - Rohan Nedd
 * Thracius - Ben Hunter
 * Vitus - Sam Adewunmi
 * Cornelius - Billy Matthews
 * Marcus - Aaron Phagura
 * Judy - Jocelyn Brassington
 * Brother - Lewis McGowan
 * Jorj - Oliver Lansley
 * Surgeon - Paul Brightwell
 * Nurse - Alison Lintott
 * Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * Hazran - Samantha Spiro
 * Captain Lethbridge-Stewart - Mark Gatiss
 * Ben Jackson - Jared Garfield
 * Polly Wright - Lily Travers
 * Helen Clay - Nikki Amuka-Bird
 * Soldier - Toby Whithouse

The Tenth Planet

 * The Doctor - William Hartnell
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Ben - Michael Craze

The Tenth Planet

 * General Cutler - Robert Beatty
 * Krail - Reg Whitehead
 * Cyberman Voices - Roy Skelton, Peter Hawkins
 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

 * The Doctor - Jon Pertwee

Arc of Infinity

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison

The Happiness Patrol

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy

The Night of the Doctor

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann

The Parting of the Ways

 * The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston

The Pandorica Opens

 * Cyberman Voice - Nicholas Briggs

The Waters of Mars

 * The Doctor - David Tennant

Journey's End

 * Davros - Julian Bleach

Production
The first readthrough began on 14 June 2016, with filming beginning on 20 June.

On 23 August 2016, it was rumoured that filming on series 10 would continue to 31 March 2017. This proved not to be true, as filming wrapped on 7 April 2017.

Producers
to be added

Writers
The Radio Times reported Mark Gatiss was writing an episode for series 10, possibly a sequel to his series 9 episode, Sleep No More. On 4 June 2016, Gatiss himself confirmed that he was writing an episode. However, on 6 December, Gatiss told on Twitter, due to recent edits of fake titles (among them, "The Sandmen Return"), that he has not made a sequel to his 2015 episode. According to Doctor Who Magazine, this was the ninth episode in the series.

On 30 November 2015, Steven Moffat revealed Jamie Mathieson had "just been in and pitched a brilliant idea, a brilliant new monster." On 16 November 2016, the BBC revealed that Mathieson wrote episode 5.

While Digital Spy reported on 17 December 2015 that two new writers would join series 10, the only new writer revealed from Steven Moffat's final list in Doctor Who Magazine was Mike Bartlett.

On 14 June 2016, the BBC announced details of the first and second episodes, revealing that they would be written by Steven Moffat and Frank Cottrell-Boyce respectively. The release also revealed two further writers for the tenth series: Sarah Dollard and Mike Bartlett. According to Doctor Who Magazine, Dollard wrote episode 3.

On 9 October 2016, it was announced by Steven Moffat that a writer of the classic series would be contributing a script for series 10. On 16 November 2016, it was revealed that Rona Munro, known for work in Survival would be writing the ninth episode of series 10, called The Eaters of Light. This was later moved to episode 10. This marks the first time a writer of the original series will contribute to the revived series. Munro told Doctor Who Magazine that: "Writing Survival was my dream job, but it was a mournful time in the show's history. This has been a very different experience. There's more of everything; people, resources, confidence, success… but the same constantly renewing and indefinable wonder that is Doctor Who," and added, "When I was very small and watching the First Doctor, I had a special cushion known as 'Rona's Doctor Whocushion'. I would hide my face in it when the Daleks or other monsters appeared on screen! The Eaters of Light is my version of other stories that have haunted me for almost as long."

On 8 October 2016, it was announced that Mike Bartlett, known for his work on Doctor Foster, wrote an episode called The Haunted Hub. By the time DWM 511 went to print, the episode was known as Knock Knock and was the fourth episode in the series.

According to the March 2017 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Steven Moffat wrote episodes 6, 11, and 12, Peter Harness wrote episode 7, and Toby Whithouse wrote episode 8. In the magazine's June 2017 issue, Moffat told Doctor Who Magazine that Moffat wrote the final draft of episode 7 close to filming of the episode's production block.

Directors
In a video posted on his Facebook page, Peter Jackson teased that he might be directing an episode.

On 14 June 2016, the BBC announced that the first episode of the series would be directed by Lawrence Gough.

The March 2017 issue of Doctor Who Magazine listed all the directors apart from those in the final two episodes, which at the time of printing had not yet begun shooting. Lawrence Gough directed episodes 1 and 2, Bill Anderson directed episodes 3 and 4, Charles Palmer directed episodes 5 and 10, Daniel Nettheim directed episodes 6 and 7, and Class director Wayne Yip directed episodes 8 and 9.

On 6 March 2017, Rachel Talalay was announced by the BBC as the director of episodes 11 and 12.

Filming
In 2015, production designer Michael Pickwoad said in an interview on the podcast Radio Free Skaro that work on the new series "won't start until well into the New Year", and that he expected to start filming in May. Peter Capaldi said filming would begin "sometime...next year."

Although originally reported as beginning in May 2016, filming commenced on the 20th of June.

To avoid online leaks, the production team used the codeword "Mean Town", an anagram of "Ten Woman", when talking about Bill, casting director Andy Pryor revealed to the Radio Times. This was a reference to the fact that Bill is the companion of series 10.

The working title of The Pilot was A Star In Her Eye.

In the line-up to the beginning of series 10, a bunch of small videos were released with Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, in which three of these featured a description that Steven Moffat himself used for the Doctor in 2013.

On 24 June, 2017, Benjamin Cook, writer of Doctor Who Magazine, confirmed on that the pre-titles sequence in World Enough and Time was shot two weeks prior to broadcast, during the production of the 2017 Christmas special

At a Live Q&A on 24 June, 2017, after the broadcast of World Enough and Time, Steven Moffat said that the second part The Doctor Falls had not finished filming, leading to a possible delay in the broadcast. Peter Capaldi's final scene on set had been his regeneration scene, just as his first scene in TV: Deep Breath had been him emerging from the TARDIS. By the end of July 2017, Moffat stated that Jodie Whittaker had already filmed her half of the regeneration scene.

Twice Upon A Time was originally rumoured to be titled The Doctors.

Episode notes

 * On 25 May 2017, the BBC announced the episode The Pyramid at the End of the World would air in edited form, with a line of dialogue about terrorism removed. This is in the wake of the preceding Monday's terrorist bombing in a Manchester arena during an concert. The version of the episode broadcast in Canada and the U.S. also contained this edit.
 * It had previously been believed that there was to be a Casualty crossover and this was speculated to be a Children in Need-special. However it now seems that this was to be part of the episode The Lie of the Land, but was cut from said episode.
 * Benjamin Cook, writer of Doctor Who Magazine, confirmed on Twitter, on 24 June 2017 that the pre-titles sequence in World Enough and Time was shot two weeks prior to broadcast, during the production of the 2017 Christmas special Steven Moffat and Rachel Talalay confirmed this on The Fan Show.
 * Due to technical difficulties some viewers watching on BBC Scotland HD lost the sound during watching of the Series 10 finale The Doctor Falls, in the last part of the episode.
 * Steven Moffat, showrunner for this series, used the finale World Enough and Time and (even more so) The Doctor Falls to pay a subtle tribute to former showrunner Russell T Davies, by having the Doctor's last stand take place on Floor 0507 of the colony ship. He explained that RTD's go-to number was always "57".
 * The beginning of Twice Upon A Time features a "Previously" sequence from The Tenth Planet with William Hartnell, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze. The sequence slowly morphs Hartnell into David Bradley, and then Lily Travers and Jared Garfield appear as Ben and Polly, reenacting the missing last bits on Snowcap of said episode. The ending of Twice Upon A Time from the First Doctor's view also starts with Bradley starting to regenerate and the episode slowly morphs back into that of Hartnell's First Doctor regenerating into Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor.
 * Mark Gatiss portrays Captain Lethbridge Stewart as a companion in Twice Upon a Time

Aliens/enemies

 * Shoal of the Winter Harmony
 * Sentient oil
 * Heather (possessed)
 * Movellans
 * Daleks
 * Vardies
 * Emojibots
 * Sea creature
 * Lure fish
 * Lord Sutcliffe
 * The Landlord
 * Dryads
 * Ganymede Systems
 * Smartsuits
 * Human corpses (controlled)
 * The Monks
 * Ice Warriors
 * Ice Queen
 * Iraxxa
 * Alpha Centauri
 * Light-eating locust
 * Cybermen
 * Patients
 * Mondasian Cybermen
 * The Testimony
 * Glass avatars
 * Kaled mutants
 * Rusty
 * Kaled mutants
 * Rusty

DVD / Blu-ray
to be added

Novels

 * The Shining Man
 * Diamond Dogs
 * Plague City

Audiobooks
to be added

Comics

 * The Wolves of Winter