In his Letter from the Showrunner in Doctor Who Magazine 587, Russell T Davies revealed new information about scenes in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary teaser trailer.

Three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials will air later this year. Davies revealed that the trailer only shows scenes from Special One, directed by Rachel Talalay and rumoured to feature Beep the Meep and the Wrath Warriors; and Special Three, directed by Chanya Button and featuring Neil Patrick Harris who is rumoured to play The Toymaker. There are no scenes in the trailer from Special Two directed by Tom Kingsley.

“The trailer contains zero footage from Special Two. I have a dream that Special Two could air with no previews – it has an opening scene shot in the wide open air, full of surprises, which no fan or passerby saw, so it’s still a lovely secret.”

Davies also revealed that the UNIT officer who shouts “Open fire!” in a dramatic battle scene is Major Singh, played by Ronak Patani.

Davies also teased an unknown Special Three guest star who filmed in Bristol.

“Wait a minute, who’s that? The man with an umbrella and his back to camera, walking into the bright red shop in the rain, who’s he? That’s a lovely guest star. Wonderful actor. Walking past unnoticed. Wait and see!”

One more interesting detail about the trailer can be found in the Production Notes column in Doctor Who Magazine 587. Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa filmed his scene for the trailer on 21 June, 2022. This marks the first time Gatwa had filmed scenes for Doctor Who.

According to Davies, the trailer was originally meant to be longer, revealing “bigger plans.”

“Those 60 seconds were originally designed as a much larger trailer, 90 seconds long, to go out after The Power of the Doctor on 23 October 2022. A trailer for… well, things that are still secret. Announcements of our bigger plans. But then we said, no, too soon. And in fairness, we realised: this is [Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker’s] night, it’s time for us to step back so we can all celebrate her, along with viewers across the world.”

A much shorter 16-second teaser for the 60th anniversary was released on 23 October 2022 instead.

Doctor Who will return in November 2023 with three 60th anniversary specials starring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. In the following festive period, Ncuti Gatwa will star in his first full Doctor Who episode as the Fifteenth Doctor.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 587 is available Thursday, 2 February from Panini and WH Smith. A DWM digital edition is available from PocketMags.