Doctor Who Season 12 Premiere Clip Introduces Stephen Fry

Doctor Who returns for the first time in 12 months this New Year’s Day, and ahead of that you can now view this new sneak peak, courtesy of the BBC America YouTube channel. The twelfth season of the sci-fi series is set to kick off with an epic two-part story titled “Spyfall,” which as the title makes clear, will have a strong James Bond flavor. And in this clip, you can see the Thirteenth Doctor and co. being brought in to save the world by the head of MI6, as played by Stephen Fry.

Fry’s spy boss shows Jodie Whittaker’s Time Lord and her friends – Yaz Khan (Mandip Gill), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) and Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh) – the terrible fate that’s befallen one secret agent. As the Doctor explains, her DNA has been rewritten, leaving her a lifeless human shell. The time traveler notes that this is impossible, at least for humanity. So, there’s something evil and alien at work on Earth. In Doctor Who? Never!

The synopsis for the episode reveals that the strange non-death of this spy is something that’s befalling secret agents all over the world, too, hence why Fry’s military intelligence chief has had to turn to the Doctor and the TARDIS crew.

“The time traveller returns for a fresh set of adventures. When intelligence agents around the world come under attack from alien forces, MI6 turns to the only people who can help – a certain Doctor and her companions. As they travel the globe in pursuit of answers, threats arrive from all sides, leaving Earth’s security resting on the team’s shoulders. But where will this planet-threatening conspiracy lead them? Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Bradley Walsh and Mandip Gill star, with guest appearances from Stephen Fry and Lenny Henry.”

As the synopsis says, Sir Lenny Henry is also on board the episode as some kind of Bond villain-like billionaire, who we met in a previous sneak peak.

Be sure to catch the first half of “Spyfall,” which runs at 65 minutes in length, on BBC One/America this January 1st. Doctor Who season 12 continues on Sundays from then on.