Just a couple of months ago, we were eagerly awaiting the debut of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, but now here we are nine weeks later, getting ready to see out Doctor Who season 11 with its finale due to arrive next Sunday.
As written by showrunner Chris Chibnall and directed by Jamie Childs, episode 10 is titled “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” and promises to feature the TARDIS team finding themselves in an unforgiving environment – a dangerous battlefield where they’re trying to answer nine separate distress signals. In the first promo for the finale, seen below, there’s also a hint that a familiar threat might be returning.
See for yourself:
For more, here’s the official plot summary:
“On the planet of Ranskoor Av Kolos lies the remains of a brutal battlefield. But as the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan answer nine separate distress calls, they discover the planet holds far more secrets. Who is the mysterious commander with no memory? What lies beyond the mists? Who or what are the Ux? The answers will lead the Doctor and her friends towards a deadly reckoning.”
As hinted at above, the most intriguing part of the trailer is the moment when the Doctor realizes she’s heard a certain voice before. We don’t hear the voice in question ourselves, but it seems that we have a returning character on our hands. And given that we’ve been told repeatedly that season 11 would stand apart from everything that’s gone before, that narrows it down to the past nine episodes.
Our best bet, then, is that it’s T’zim-Sha AKA Tim Shaw, the evil Stenza leader from season premiere “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” who escaped the episode alive. “The Ghost Monument” also referenced the Stenza, making clear that they’d lain waste to much of the galaxy, so it’d make sense for the Doctor to wander into another war of the nasty alien species.
As for the main guest star for the finale, that’d be Mark Addy as Paltraki. Addy’s a prolific star of the small and silver screens who’s probably best known to international audiences for his turns in Game of Thrones, Robin Hood and A Knight’s Tale (apparently, anything with a medieval vibe).
Be sure to catch Doctor Who 11×10 “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” on BBC America next Sunday, December 9th.
