British viewers have just had the treat of watching Doctor Who‘s New Year’s special, “Resolution,” which reintroduced the Daleks after their absence from the recent season 11. It was a definite improvement on the underwhelming season finale, but the sad news is that it’s the only episode of the show that we’ll be seeing on our screens in 2019.
On the plus side, we know that season 12 will at least arrive early in 2020. The BBC’s Director General Tony Hall announced that Doctor Who will air its next season on BBC One and BBC America “very early in 2020.” That’s all he told us for now, but we can perhaps come up with a good guess on when exactly it’ll premiere based on his brief comment.
Most of the past seasons of the modern series have landed in the spring, starting in either March or April. You wouldn’t call them “very early” in the year, though, so perhaps Hall was suggesting February instead. Alternatively, the emphasis on “very” could mean that the next run will kick off in January 2020. Perhaps even on New Year’s Day, if this slot’s to become a regular fixture for the show.
Fans are obviously heartbroken that they have a whole year without a new season, so it’d be in the BBC’s best interests to give it to them as soon as possible. In terms of production, this would also be feasible given what we know, as it’s been reported that season 12 will begin shooting this month. A season of Who usually takes 9-10 months to make, so there’d conceivably be time for them to get the episodes ready for January 2020.
In the meantime, be sure to catch Doctor Who “Resolution” if you haven’t done so already. And if you don’t mind spoilers, you can read our review of the thoroughly enjoyable episode right here.
