Steven Moffat had one objective when he walked onto the stage at Tuesday night’s press screening for Series 10 opener The Pilot, and that was to convince you to actually blink! Like for a really long time, you know, because closing your eyes for an extended period of time is actually called a long blink, right?
For the purposes of this intro, yes, it is and, I hear you cry, why did he want you to ignore his own warning for dealing with Weeping Angels and close your eyes? Well, because Moffat didn’t want those gathered and eventually, you the audience at home, to bear witness to the ‘brain melting’ spoiler in the next time trailer for episode two, which is written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
And, thanks to the Radio Times, we’ll leave it to Steven Moffat to deliver his playful warning:
“This is just a public warning. Some people hate spoilers and some people love spoilers – and everybody hates me whatever way they think about it. So this is my last attempt in this role to avoid hatred.
“At the end of the episode there will be yet another awesome trailer for Doctor Who… at the very end of the trailer there is, frankly, an enormous spoiler, a spoiler that may actually melt your brains. But I promise you, you’d be better off not knowing because awesome though it will be here, it will be even more awesome in a few weeks’ time. So we’re gonna give you the option, in our frankly camp and ridiculous way…
“There will come up a warning and then there will be a countdown to the spoiler, and then there will be a warning to ‘blink now’. If at that point you close your eyes and wait until you hear the cliffhanger noise, you will have a better experience in a few weeks’ time.”
The Radio Times goes on to say that the same countdown will be included in trailer when it airs on BBC1 on 15th April after the first episode.
So there you have it. You can either close your eyes and avoid the internet for a week (chances are it’s already been leaked anyway), or you can glimpse what sounds like a ‘squee’ worthy spoiler as the episode airs.
The only hint that the RT would let slip was that it might “Just fill in an important gap in Time Lord history.”
Ten days to go. The countdown has begun.