Here’s an interesting quote you might have missed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine: Steven Moffat has hinted that Doctor Who Series 11 won’t begin until Autumn 2018.
This has been rumoured for some time, and in his extensive interview with outgoing DWM editor, Tom Spilsbury, the current showrunner said that he’d done Series 10 (starring Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, and Matt Lucas as Nardole) because otherwise:

“The alternative might have been to have had no Doctor Who at all between Christmas 2015 and the autumn of 2018”

Of course, Moffat is leaving the role of showrunner, with this year’s Christmas special to be his swansong, as well as Capaldi’s. So this might mean he’s purely speculating; however, it’s similarly likely that he knows when the new run of episodes will go into production and subsequently air.
Chris Chibnall (The Power of Three) takes over as lead writer for the next series, with Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor.
If this is, indeed, true, it feels like the BBC, or Chibnall, has dropped the ball on this one. Why not capitalise on the publicity generated by the first female Doctor as soon as possible? As it stands, it appears they’ll be one hour-long festive special in the next 12 months; we expect Series 11’s Autumnal spot to begin in late August/ early September 2018.
Does the show effectively need a long gap again so soon after 2016’s “gap year”? Is Doctor Who more suited to Spring or Autumn? Do you think this will improve ratings?