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2022 Specials Production News, Spoilers, Speculation Discussion

DanaK

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DanaK

DanaK

(edited)

Since we’re getting close to the end of the year and info is starting to come out about the first of the 3 specials, now seems like a good idea to start this topic so the Series 13 spoiler topic doesn’t get overburdened

After Series 13: Flux ends, there will be 3 specials in 2022 as Jodie Whittaker’s final episodes as the 13th Doctor

Special #1 will be on New Year’s Day, Saturday, January 1, 2022. It might involve Daleks, based on a Dalek and Nick Briggs and his Dalek operators being spotted on set during filming

Special #2 will be in Spring 2022, possibly Easter. It might involve a Chinese/East Asian theme, possibly Chinese pirates, based on filming that was seen. The director is said to be Haolu Wang, a Chinese woman living in the UK and new to directing other than short films

Special #3 will be in Autumn (Fall) 2022, possibly October and will be feature length and will include 13’s regeneration. There were observations during filming that suggested UNIT was involved. There was also observations during filming that suggested Sacha Dhawan as the Master will be back

For the New Year’s Day special, a synopsis and list of guest stars have been released https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/dw-nyspecial

“The festive special will feature guest stars Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Living With Yourself, Quiz), Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black, Enterprice) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless).

Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned…”

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DanaK
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Here's my writeup summarizing various things in the coverage of the special from DWM. I've put in spoiler brackets for length. This is just from the interviews Sacha, Janet and Sophie did. There's a l

DanaK
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Summary from Cultbox on Radio Times interview with showrunner Chibnall https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/doctor-who-showrunner-almost-quit-in-2020 My summary of Chibnall’s interview with Radio

Llywela
Llywela

Tegan and Ace! I haven't been this excited since Sarah Jane came back!

DanaK

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Title  for the New Year's Day special: "Eve of the Daleks", premiering of course January 1, 2022

Synopsis

The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends will kick-start 2022 with an action-packed spectacular episode on New Year’s Day. The festive special will feature guest stars Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Living With Yourself, Quiz), Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black, Enterprice) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless). Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned…

 Trailer:

 

 

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Cultbox has a roundup of the writers and directors plus known plot details and set pictures for the upcoming specials https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/doctor-who-2022-specials-news-writers-and-directors

We already know the details for the NYD special, but Cultbox says Special #2 in the Spring (which may be shown on Easter), will be co-written by Chris Chibnall and Ella Road and directed by Haolu Wang. Special #3, the Centenary special set to be shown in Autumn (Fall), will be written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Jamie Magnus Stone

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(edited)

The second special, which will be seen in the Spring, is titled "Legend of the Sea Devils"

Synopsis:

Legend of the Sea Devils finds the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) in 19th century China, where a small coastal village is under threat – from both the fearsome pirate queen Madame Ching (Crystal Yu) and a monstrous alien force which she unwittingly unleashes. Will the Doctor, Yaz and Dan emerge from this swashbuckling battle with the Sea Devils to save the planet?

The teaser

 

TVZone UK has several pictures and guest cast names

https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/drwho-01jan22

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Llywela

Llywela

A return of another 1970s classic - the Sea Devils (who are related to the Silurians, as I recall). Be interesting to see if this take on a classic monster works out any better than the modern take on the Silurians!

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31 minutes ago, taanja said:

Thanks! Nice article. So the actress who played Sarah is well known? I have never seen her before or heard of her but she did make an impression.

Yes, she's a well-known comedian in the UK and maybe somewhat known in the US for her acting

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(edited)

A poster on Reddit by the name of TomeDeaf who has previously given valid spoilers for this era has indicated that 3 actors who played the Doctor from Classic Who (ie, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and I'm not sure of the 3rd [ETA: Peter Davison is the 3rd]) will be in Jodie's final special, probably as cameos or something like that. It's not entirely clear if they will be playing their Doctors straight up or some variation of such.

A poster on Gallifrey Base fan forum, let's call him RS since the forum is private, who has previously given accurate info says the 13th Doctor will regenerate on an alien planet and not the Tardis

ETA: The Gallifrey Base poster RS also said the 2nd special will likely be broadcast on Easter

 

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Llywela

Llywela

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

A poster on Gallifrey Base fan forum, let's call him RS since the forum is private, who has previously given accurate info says the 13th Doctor will regenerate on an alien planet and not the Tardis

Well, I, for one, will be thrilled to have a non-TARDIS regeneration again at last! If true, of course.

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gonzosgirrl

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4 hours ago, Llywela said:

Well, I, for one, will be thrilled to have a non-TARDIS regeneration again at last! If true, of course.

I'm having a major brain-fart and legitimately can't remember Jodie's regeneration. I feel like we just saw her in the woods. OMG can someone refresh my memory?

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DanaK

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3 hours ago, gonzosgirrl said:

I'm having a major brain-fart and legitimately can't remember Jodie's regeneration. I feel like we just saw her in the woods. OMG can someone refresh my memory?

You mean from Peter to Jodie in Twice Upon a Time or something else?

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Maren

Maren

The woods thing I think was the announcement commercial they did for her. You saw the Doctor walking in a hood and then she pulled it down to reveal Jodie.

Twelve regenerated into Thirteen on the TARDIS. He did that beautiful speech and then transformed and the TARDIS went nuts and dropped her out.

Thank you for the rumors, DanaK!!! I would LOVE to see those Docs come back for a cameo!!! Tom Baker's return still makes me tear up!!

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Llywela

Llywela

Yes, all of the New Who Doctors have regenerated in the TARDIS, many of them with a burst of energy that destroys the console room around them - which is not something that ever happened during regeneration in the Classic era, introduced here purely for a) added melodrama, and b) an excuse to redesign the TARDIS!

I'm looking forward to seeing what Davies does for the anniversary. My only real wish is that it plays as more of a celebration of the show as a whole than the 50th anniversary did.

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DanaK

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Producer Matt Strevens said at the Gallifrey One convention this weekend that we should see a teaser for the final special at the end of the Legend of the Sea Devils special (which doesn't have an official broadcast date yet but is rumored to be on or around Easter)

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DanaK

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(edited)

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (officially out on Thursday) confirms the Sea Devils special was written by Chris Chibnall and Ella Road (she's a playwright) and directed by Haolu Wang. A preview of the episode will be in the March 31 issue. Cultbox has further details https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/doctor-who-legend-of-the-sea-devils-new-details

Also, producer Matt Strevens has indicated in the magazine that the Centenary special is a massive feature-length epic, with a lot of surprises for fans of all ages

 

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Just an FYI on the probable airdate and timeslots of the Easter special. No official announcement yet of course. The running time of 1hr 25min with ads suggest the episode length is about an hour

 

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(edited)

Unverified info/rumor: 13’s regeneration takes place in a body of water. That doesn’t necessarily mean she drowns

Edited by DanaK
One rumor in wrong thread
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SFX Magazine’s latest issue came out yesterday with pictures and an article of the upcoming special. I won’t share the pictures that went around on social media because this is a public forum, I will share the news articles about the SFX article. It’s mainly designer Ray Holman talking about the cast costumes

Cultbox https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/doctor-who-easter-special-sea-devil-pirates

Radio Times https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-sea-devil-design-newsupdate/

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(edited)

An airdate finally for the Easter special. Sunday, April 17. I think it's likely BBC America will do a simulcast again with the UK in the afternoon and repeat it later at 8pm ET

 

Also, Doctor Who Magazine posted their cover for their next issue, out Thursday

 

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A summary of various things in the Doctor Who Magazine 15-page writeup of the Easter special. I've put it in a spoiler box so it won't take up much room. I suggest getting the issue because there's lots of good stuff in there, including interviews and great pictures

Spoiler

The special started with an idea to do something on a pirate queen. They had a script in development for Flux, but they couldn't make it work in time for various reasons. When they started thinking about the specials, they decided a pirate queen would make for a great Easter episode. They dropped the original story when they started thinking about Madam Ching. Guest star Crystal Yu knew all about Ching before she was cast in the role
Showrunner Chris Chibnall worked with playwright Ella Road on the script. The team approached Road because they thought she was really talented and they really liked her voice (as a writer I guess). In the story, Madam Ching is tracking down the lost treasure of the Flor de La Mar ship. She unleashes a terrifying evil that the Doctor has to help everyone deal with. Depicting the Sea Devils in the setting of 19th Asia was a bit ambitious. They didn't want the level of ambition to go down in the last couple of episodes. For many reasons, they had to make the NYD special with the Daleks self-contained and doing so allowed them to consider doing a big number at Easter and a big finale in Autumn. Chibnall felt it was really important to honor John Friedlander's original design. There was some augmentation here and there but nothing major.
The special has swordplay and there was lots of fight choreography and some spectacular fight sequences. Chibnall describes the special as "big, broad fun". Also, Madam Ching questions Dan and guest Ying Kei while they are dangling upside down.
Co-writer Ella Road talks about writing the special: The job came about because she was in a theater workshop for children with Who script editor Rebecca Roughan. The script came together late in the day and it was an accelerated process. She was brought on board on a Thursday, was in Wales by the Monday, brainstorming with Chibnall and 2 script editors. When she was first called, they wanted her to help come up with the story. There were 3 really intense days at the beginning sitting in Chibnall's house in Wales coming up with stuff. There were some central elements already in place before she joined, with Chibnall knowing he wanted to place the Sea Devils in an historical nautical setting, ideally in Asia, it was Road's suggestion to include the 19th century pirate leader Madam Ching. On the writing process, Road did the first 3 drafts, then she handed over her final draft to Chibnall, who did a big cleanup. Before she even got the first draft done, she was already in meetings with the technical crew. She did go on the set and thought it was amazing.
Regarding the Thasmin relationship, the thread of their evolving relationship carries over into the Easter special. Road said it wasn't a huge part of the episode, but she thinks it's good to be able to include real relationshiop questions that people can relate to. The question of whether or not to enjoy a relationship for what it is now vs worrying about the future is a very universal thing according to Road. For her, it felt really special to be able to write a queer relationship in the series. Given she identifies as queer. it felt like she had been handed the opportunity to explore something in a way "that was quite subtle, actually, and quite delicate"
Director Haolu Wang says because the Doctor is regenerating in the last episode, this was her last chance to have a bit of fun with her friends. She said it's done in a way "that maybe we haven't seen on Doctor Who before. It's quite epic, but also very emotional". She also said, "But I also love the way that, by having the fantastical time-travel element, you can have these larger-than-life emotions. This is a very emotional episode, especially in terms of the Doctor and Yaz. I hope it reveals a side of the Doctor we haven't seen before"

 

 

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DanaK

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I think it’s likely a trailer for the Easter special will be released today or tomorrow. The picture appears to be of the Doctor in her Chinese Jacket costume from the special 

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BBC America update: Since the Easter special will be shown at 7:10pm UK time on BBC1, BBCA has tweeted that BBC America will simulcast it at 2:10pm ET (and likely repeat at 8pm)

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Summary from Cultbox on Radio Times interview with showrunner Chibnall https://cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/doctor-who-showrunner-almost-quit-in-2020

My summary of Chibnall’s interview with Radio Times

Spoiler

Production and budget pressures forced Chibnall to pare down NYD special Eve of the Daleks. They had to ditch their original idea and Chibnall had to write a new script in just over a week

Chibnall, having written 5 episodes under Davies and Moffat and being lead writer on Torchwood for the first 2 seasons, he somewhat knew what he was letting himself in for and that's why he partly imposed his own exit plan. He indicated he had observed Davies and Moffat at work and knew how exhausting the show was, and both he and Jodie Whittaker had families. He didn't want to be showrunning the show in the year his kids were doing their A-Level and GCSE exams

He and his family still watch Doctor Who and he treasures a picture of his oldest child, then aged 5, in David Tennant's Tardis and another picture of his child, now aged 18, on the set of Jodie's ship. The show had been woven into Chibnall's life since Tom Baker was the Doctor

When asked by the interviewer if he had had fun in his dream job, Chibnall indicated "Everything on Doctor Who is exciting! You have to live in the moment and enjoy it, because you know you're never going to do anything like it ever again, whatever you do"

When asked how much consideration does he give to fandom, he indicates absolute zero, which was advice he got from Davies and Moffat. He had a vision of a 3 season arc and delivered it. Any other worries, including whether the show's weekly release pattern was an outlier in the age of streaming, was above his paygrade

Of his alien creations, he's proud of Swarm, Azure and Karvanista from Flux and his debut baddie Tim Shaw

One of his most signicant legacies is his democratising of the writing team. Moffat anchored his series to veteran writers like Richard Curtis and Chibnall. This most recent era has been full of new, diverse voices, from Vinay Patel to Ella Road. Chibnall felt like he'd be doing the show a disservice if he didn't bring in amazing new writers. Some of the stories he wanted to tell, like the Partition of India and the protest of Rosa Parks, demanded authenticity and a writer's room shaped ideas, with Chibnall having a final pass on each script. Stories emerged both organically from a shared interest and from serendipity in fusing loose threads from different story ideas.

Having worked with Jodie Whittaker on Broadchurch, he was asked what planted the seed to hire her as the first female actress playing the Doctor. He says, "Firstly, she's one of the greatest actors of her generation. But I thought - and I'd been guilty of this - the parts she'd taken didn't necessarily demonstrate her energy and physicality, her humour and her clownlike qualities." "In her audition, he recalls, she brought the Doctor in with her straightaway" Her idea of the Doctor fused Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future with Madonna in a trouser suit. Having spent most of Broadchurch sobbing on screen, she pleaded, 'Can I please not cry?'. He says "I promised her she wouldn't be crying for a long time." His writing leaned into a childlike quality shared by actor and character - "like she's in a cave and the lights come on, at every moment" - plus a pragmatism and love of engineering and science that have inspired young female fans. 

Having planned an emotional journey of discovery for Jodie's Doctor over 3 seasons, he promises her story will wrap up "in a really huge, fun, action-y, mad, heartbreaking way. There will be a lot of laughs and tears in that final episode. You want to do everything." Since the final special is also part of the BBC's 100th anniversary plans, expect a "celebration" of the BBC within the story, he teases. "There are some treats - Easter egs and kisses to the past."

He says of Davies returning, "Everybody should have a big smile on their face. Russell is one of the elite showrunners and Who is very lucky to have him, especially off the back of 'It's a Sin', one of the greatest shows of all time. For him to have incredible ideas and passion for it, to want to take it forward again - that's fab. Nobody has a greater love for Doctor Who"

 

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DanaK

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Reminder that the Easter special will be broadcast at 7:10pm on Sunday (already Sunday in the UK) on the BBC and iPlayer. In the US, BBC America will simulcast at 2:10pm ET and repeat at 8pm ET. Streaming network AMC+ will make the special available at 2:10pm ET or soon after

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