A new “Team TARDIS” publicity photo was released by the official Doctor Who social media accounts. Here is what we can discern from the new photo.
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The photo, featuring Dan (John Bishop), the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Yaz (Mandip Gill), was taken by Unit Stills Photographer James Pardon. The setting matches what was seen at the location filming at A Bond Warehouse in Bristol in early June.
The dates of the location filming in Bristol likely coincide with filming for one of the two specials which are part of the eight Doctor Who episodes filmed from November 2020 to July 2021.
Three specials will air in 2022, a New Year’s special, a spring special and a Doctor Who BBC centenary special, which is commissioned but not yet filmed, to air in autumn of 2022.
The two previous New Year’s specials, Resolution in 2019 and Revolution of the Daleks 2021, featured Daleks as the main threat. Part 1 of Spyfall also aired on New Year’s Day 2020 but is considered more of a premiere episode for Series 12 than a New Year’s special.
The filming in Bristol was also discovered to include a Dalek prop. This will possibly complete a trifecta of Dalek New Year’s specials featuring the thirteenth Doctor.
Dalek back season 13 photo “this from Facebook fan group not my photo”👌 something for u guys👀 @BBCWilliamWho @nerddenreal @Joe_Street00937 @TharriesYT pic.twitter.com/9CYBfGPMeQ
— Conal 🐧🎬 (@GODOCTORWHO1) June 5, 2021
The A Bond Warehouse in Bristol is covered in graffiti. Judging from the publicity photo, the choice of a graffiti-covered location was purposeful. The words and images contained some of the graffiti could possibly play a significant role in the episode. Scenic artists were hired for Series 13 filming. The head painter for Doctor Who Series 13 is Steve Simpson.
If John Bishop referred to the A Bond Warehouse filming during the Comic Con @ Home panel, a very special set was built inside the warehouse.
“We were in a building, that looked an old building. We were on this – and there’s an elevator shaft. And then I suddenly walked around the back of the elevator shaft and went, ‘Oh! This isn’t real! Someone’s built this just for us to play on!'”
Doctor Who Series 13 will consist of six episodes of a single story. The series is scheduled to air in autumn of 2021.
There will be three additional specials in 2022, airing on New Year’s Day, spring, and a BBC Centenary special in Autumn which will be the last for Jodie Whittaker’s thirteenth Doctor.