‘Doctor Who’ spring special release date looks to be confirmed

It looks like Doctor Who fans can finally note a date in their diaries for when to expect the show to return to our screens. Following on from her last full season dropping last fall, Jodie Whittaker has three final episodes as the Thirteenth Doctor unfolding across 2022. The first aired on New Year’s Eve with the second coming this spring. It’s previously been rumored that the spring special could be released at Easter, and now it looks like that’s definitely the case.

As pointed out by Doctor Who Production News on Twitter, BBC America’s schedule for Sunday, April 17 — aka Easter Sunday — practically confirms when the special will be airing. As the network commonly does when there’s a new episode out, a Who marathon will be hosted on that date, but two slots in the schedule have been left unlisted, only being labelled as “To Be Announced.”

The slots are 2 pm and 8 pm. It’s easy to guess that the first slot is the episode’s premiere, released in sync with its U.K. airing (7 pm GMT), with a repeat showing six hours later.

So, there you have it. It seems the episode will be a proper Easter special as it’ll arrive on the day itself. As revealed via a teaser trailer tagged onto the end of January’s “Eve of the Daleks,” the next special is titled “Legend of the Sea Devils.” As that suggests, it’ll bring back classic monsters the Sea Devils for the first time since 1984. As co-written by showrunner Chris Chibnall and Ella Road and directed by Haolu Wang, “Sea Devils” will be set in 19th century China and see the Doctor and friends encounter a fearsome pirate queen.

Following the Doctor Who Easter special, Jodie Whittaker’s final special will follow sometime this summer as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations. The Fourteenth Doctor has yet to be announced.