In his Letter from the Showrunner in Doctor Who Magazine 600, Russell T Davies gave an update on filming and production progress of the Doctor Who series starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor to air in 2025. What follows is the information written in his letter combined with other filming news.
Block One of the current production period began in October 2023 and is already entirely filmed by director Alex Pillai. The block was dedicated to filming the 2024 Christmas special. The editing on the special should be locked by now and the FX begun, according to Davies.
#dwsr Millie Gibson and Jonah Hauer-King on location pic.twitter.com/R3hk43Li7b
— Doctor Who Filming Locations (@set_dw) November 20, 2023
Block Two, directed by Peter Hoar, consists of Episodes One and Four of the 2025 series. Filming for this block included Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Jonah Hauer-King. Davies wrote on 2 January 2024 that the episodes were already filmed except for the opening scene of Episode One, which was filmed some time in the middle of January featuring none of the main cast.
A Time Lord has landed in Penarth Pier 👀
Picture: @robgbrowne @set_dw #dwsr #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/xJJRAOPTIM— Sam Cook (@SCook_TV) January 22, 2024
Block Three filming began with director Amanda Brotchie on 8 January 2024. The block consists of Episodes Two and three. New companion actress Varada Sethu and Lewis Cornay were spotted filming scenes alongside Ncuti Gatwa for Episode Two in Penarth, Wales and Leominster, Herefordshire. Davies revealed that there is a guest star in Episode Two who has played a different role in a previous episode of Doctor Who.
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Block Five is rumoured to be directed by Ben A Williams. Since Davies wrote that Episode Five has already had methodology meetings and the Episode Six script is being readied, Block Five likely contains these episodes.
That leaves Block Six with Episodes Seven and Eight of the eight-episode series. Davies revealed that the Episode Seven script “sits waiting” while promising that, as of January 2, the Episode Eight script would be written soon.
Davies also wrote of the production progress of the 2024 Doctor Who series, already filmed and in various stages of editing, visual effects and music with Episode Four of the series complete and ready for when the series transmits in May.
A new 8-episode Doctor Who series starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday will debut in May 2024.
Another 8-episode series of Doctor Who series starring Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Varada Sethu will debut in 2025.
Doctor Who Magazine 600 is on sale Thursday 1 February from Panini and WH Smith in the UK and as a digital edition from Pocketmags.