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; production is expected to begin sometime in the second half of 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 Series 5, but rather, once again, Series 1.

In the spring of 2008, it was announced that Steven Moffat, who has written Hugo Award-winning scripts for the revived series in each of its first three 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). 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.

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.

A slideshow on a story in The Sun revealed that Alex Kingston will again portray River Song, but it is currently unknown if she will be a companion or just a guest star. It was later said that she will not be a companion, but will instead just be in two episodes.

Primary Cast

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

Secondary Cast

 * Alex Kingston - River Song

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.
 * 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. Related speculation exists related to whether the show's current logo and opening credits/theme arrangement will also 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.
 * 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.