The new Series 12 trailer has arrived and, as ever, it has settled some questions while stirring up new ones. Recently, Bradley Walsh told fans to ‘be prepared for the monsters… they’ve come up with [some] that are absolutely terrifying’ and they’ll ‘absolutely make your hair curl.’ And we saw some of those new monsters. So, what do we know about returning favourites and the new series’ debutantes?
Let’s round up – and if you don’t want minor spoilers, look away now.
Firstly, what of returning foes? We’ve known for months that the Judoon will be stamping back on to our screens, not least because Big Finish announced in May that Nicholas Briggs will be back to give them growl. The Judoon first appeared back in the Series 3 opener, Smith and Jones, when they stole a hospital and left it on the moon. Since then, they’ve made small appearances in the parent show (such as in The Magician’s Apprentice) and had a starring role in the Sarah Jane adventure, Prisoner of the Judoon. We saw a publicity shot several months ago, and the trailer has this moody shot:
Similarly, we now know that at least one Cyberman will appear, as the trailer showed it striding Terminator-style through the flames. The design has been revamped again but it’s clearly a ‘modern’ era Cyberman. They last appeared, in their more classical form, in World Enough and Time, back in 2017.
There were no Daleks featured in the preview, but we still have good reason to suspect that they will make yet another appearance, following the New Year’s Day 2019 special, Resolution. Again, the design appears to have been tweaked but many fans will still feel that the Doctor’s premier nemesis perhaps deserves a holiday, having appeared in every season since 2005.
We also saw what looks like a Weevil, well known to Torchwood fans but they’ve never appeared in the parent show. And do we have another returning species: the Racnoss? Judge for yourself from the comparison below. The make-up is similar, but there are some notable differences.
We saw the Tenth Doctor dispatch the Queen of the Racnoss back in The Runaway Bride in 2006 but we never saw any of her fellows.
We also know there’s an episode themed on plastic waste coming up — and most Doctor Who fans will be conscious of which race has a particular affinity for plastic…
As for new foes, there’s what looks like a mechanical spider/scorpion, which might support the idea of a returning Racnoss. There’s also a coterie of figures in white who appear to be in 17th Century dress. Each has a line extending from their head that might indicate a noose. Could these be Guy Fawkes, Robert and Thomas Wintour, and the other ‘gunpowder plotters,’ who were convicted of trying to blow up Parliament before being tortured to death in January 1606? There are only 6 figures in the image and there were 8 plotters, but any story might only focus on those most prominent.
Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, we have the reference to something ‘coming after’ the Doctor and we see an image of something powerful enough to force its way through the TARDIS doors. Could this be the ‘Timeless Child’ mentioned in Series 11? Or might it be someone else who’s known to have the power to force his way into the TARDIS, last seen in Arc of Infinity, back in 1983?
Doctor Who Series 12 will be on BBC1 with Spyfall on 1st January 2020.
