Doctor Who Series 14 Trailer Confirms a Returning RTD Character and Release Date Window

This Doctor Who article contains spoilers.

The Fifteenth Doctor era of Doctor Who is well underway with Ncuti Gatwa‘s first full episode helming the TARDIS. This year’s Christmas Special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” saw the Doctor not only face off with mischievous Goblins with a taste for baby scones (that is, scones made out of babies) but also meet his new companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who brings plenty of her own mysteries to the show. Who are her birth parents, what does her neighbor Mrs. Flood have to do with the upcoming season’s overarching plot, and what’s going on with the Hooded Woman who dropped her off at the church 24 years ago?

All questions we’ll have to wait to have answered in series 14, which is officially being marketed as Doctor Who season 1, marking the start of a new production era for the show, with returning showrunner Russell T Davies back at the helm. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long for season 1/series 14 to hit our screens. The very first trailer for the Fifteenth Doctor’s debut series confirms that the show will return in May 2024 with eight new episodes. Give the short trailer a watch below…

The trailer teases some of the monsters and celebrities the Doctor and Ruby will meet in their adventures, including what look like giant alien cockroaches and The Beatles — we get a glimpse of the star-struck time-traveling duo inside Abbey Road Studios as the Fab Four prepare to record a track. On top of that, we get very brief glimpses at Jinkx Monsoon‘s new villain, which the BBC describes as “the Doctor’s most powerful enemy yet,” as well as the character played by Jonathan Groff in a historical episode alongside Indira Varma’s mysterious Duchess.

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the trailer also confirms the welcome return of Yasmin Finney’s Rose Noble, who appeared in the two of the recent David Tennant specials. We see the Fifteenth Doctor excitedly greeting her inside the UNIT command center, lifting Rose off the ground with a big hug. Rose’s return shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as RTD previously told EW that there would be “more appearances to come [for Rose], simply because I adore working with her.” But it’s nice to see she’ll be back sooner rather than later, as we barely got to spend any time with her in 60th anniversary specials before the Doctor and Donna zipped off on the TARDIS.

The BBC also announced that Bonnie Langford will once again reprise her role as former companion Mel Bush, who is now working with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart at UNIT headquarters. Perhaps Donna will be there too, unless she’s out enjoying her five weeks of paid leave when the Doctor and Ruby pop in.

We’ll get to see how this all unfolds in just a few months time. In the meantime, there are more than a few mysteries we can speculate on from this year’s specials. Just who picked up the Gold Tooth in “The Giggle?” And seriously, what’s going on with Mrs. Flood?!

Doctor Who season 1/series 14 will air on the BBC in the UK and on Disney+ everywhere else starting in May 2024.