As is becoming traditional (well, this is at least the second year I’ve done it) at this time of the year, it’s interesting to look around for hints about when the new series of Doctor Who will launch. Normally it’s about Easter, but Easter is about as early as it gets this year – and it’s definitely not starting this weekend.
Of course, it won’t start until Torchwood has finished. And there are still a few episodes of that to run. But the BBC seem to have noticed that issue too and from this week, they’ll be showing two episodes a week (on Wednesday – as usual – but also on Friday), so that means that Torchwood will be out of the way in just over a week.
The BBC Doctor Who site isn’t giving anything away yet (well, yes, it’s giving away Doctor Who wallpapers – but you know what I mean) but a couple of days ago they ran a news story saying that the trailer for the new series will be shown on Saturday 22nd. Since when was the broadcast of a trailer such big news?
Obviously the show won’t start on the same day as the first broadcast of the trailer. So we can say that the earliest it will start is Saturday 29th March. But then I saw this post on TV Scoop (which I found via Planet Dr Who) which claims that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be guests on the Jonathan Ross show on Friday April 4th. It seems likely that this appearance will be promoting the start of the new season. So that’s where I’m sticking my marker.
I reckon the new series will start on Saturday 5th April.
Update: Looks like the CBBC Newsround site is the first one to confirm that date.