A second trailer was released for the new, eight-episode Doctor Who series to air starting in May 2024 starring Nucti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday on March 22.
A teaser trailer was released prior to the trailer on March 15.
Episode One
This episode, directed by Julie Anne Robinson, begins with Ruby entering the TARDIS for the first time and impulsively embarking on a new adventure with the Doctor.
Ruby, you want to know my secret?,” the Doctor asks. “I have the whole universe at my fingertips and I’m all on my own. I’d love it if you came with me.”
“Give me a number. Give me a year.”
Where do you take a companion on their first trip on the TARDIS? How about to see some dinosaurs?
“What if I change history by stepping on a butterfly?, Ruby asks. “Well that’s not going to happen, is it?,” the Doctor answers. By eerie coincidence, this is what follows to humorous effect.
How Ruby changes into something resembling a Menoptera by stepping on a butterfly is, as yet, unexplained, as is how she is restored. But restored she is in time for a bumpy ride on the TARDIS for another adventure.
The TARDIS ends up on a space station.
As shown in the previous trailer, among the denizens of the space station are babies in glass tanks and a monster known as the Bogeyman.
There is another unidentified location in this episode which Ruby describes as “completely mad.”
The TARDIS arrives at Ruby Sunday’s flat, to the surprise of her mother and grandmother.
Episode Two, The Devil’s Chord
This episode, directed by Ben Chessell, begins with a bit of 1960s swagger with the Doctor and Ruby dressed for the period.
Featured in the previous trailer is The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios. The second trailer also has some interesting studio scenes with a recording booth, a person trapped in a drum and stool smashing through a recording booth window and a shattered glass.
Part of the adventure takes place in a basement.
A woman fearfully reacts.
A tuning fork lends its vibrations to water.
There’s an exuberant musical scene as it appears to rain indoors.
Enter a villain played by Jinkx Monsoon and some dark, serpentine music.
The TARDIS console explodes.
London lies in ruins. Can this catastrophe be averted?
Episode 3
This Hitchcockian and “explosive” episode directed by Julie Anne Robinson is heavily rumoured to be written by former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat. The Doctor seems to have stepped into a perilous situation. There is a curious implosion to reveal a figure alone in a pit.
Ruby and the Doctor must fight for their survival.
Episode 4
Though none of the trailers show him, this episode, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams, features Aneurin Barnard as Roger Ap Gwilliam, Welsh candidate for the Albion Party. Jemma Redgrave reprises her role as Kate Stewart, UNIT Chief Scientific officer. Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter and Anita Dobson play Ruby Sunday’s Mother, Grandmother and neighbour, respectively.
The Doctor promises Ruby’s mother Carla that he will keep Ruby safe.
Ruby enjoys breakfast at a fictional Welsh pub or inn called Y Pren Marw, translated as The Dead Wood in Welsh.
Ruby appears to be incognito for an unknown assignment.
The TARDIS is perched nearly unendingly on a cliff by the ocean.
The figure of a woman approaches from a distance, possibly a precise distance.
Episode 5
A character played by Callie Cooke warily favours a massive, tentacled, chitinous gastropod with the side-eye in this episode directed by Dylan Holmes Williams. As evidenced from filming, this episode features a mysterious corporate entity called FINETIME.
Episode 6
This episode, directed by Ben Chessell and co-written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, is sumptuously set in the Regency period. Ruby comments, “Oh, my Bridgerton!”
The Doctor is scanned and identified.
Not pictured in this trailer is Jonathan Groff, who guest-stars along with Indira Varma as the Dutchess. Dress to impress and beware the Dutchess, who is not what she seems.
Episodes 7 and 8, the two-part finale
These episodes were directed Jamie Donoughue. The TARDIS approaches Earth.
The TARDIS flies toward UNIT tower and skids in for a landing.
The Doctor and Ruby have arrived a UNIT headquarters with the Doctor exuberantly shouting, “Give me the loving!”
UNIT Chief Scientific Officer Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford). Morris (Lenny Rush), and Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney) take the Doctor and Ruby inside a large vault.
An array of equipment can manifest snow.
Snow appears to be a frequent occurrence in the finale if not the entire series.
Kate Stewart faces an unknown threat at UNIT headquarters.
The Doctor and Mel must flee on an orange Vespa as chaos ensues. Regrettably, Ncuti Gatwa and Bonnie Langford’s stunt doubles briefly appear in a frame from the trailer.
There are a few scenes which can’t yet definitively be identified as belonging to any specific episode.
The series makes a return to the church on Ruby Road where Ruby was left as an infant just before midnight on Christmas Eve. The scenery warps and quivers as we look at the Waterloo Inn across the green from the church. The mysterious woman the Doctor initially identified as Ruby’s mother points accusingly.
A planet and its moon are engulfed in a miasma.
The Doctor in an unfamiliar costume, possibly in a tent.
There’s yet another trailer coming on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. All eight titles of the 2024 series episodes will be revealed.
Doctor Who, starring Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson returns on 11 May 2024 midnight, 00:00 BT (10 May 7:00pm ET) streaming on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ with Episode One directed by Julie Anne Robinson and Episode Two, The Devil’s Chord directed by Ben Chessell. Both premiere episodes, written by Russell T Davies, will broadcast on BBC One in the UK and Ireland on 11 May immediately before Eurovision. The remaining six episodes will stream at 00:00 BT on the six subsequent Saturdays.