The trailer at the end of The Power of the Doctor was originally much longer, and revealed “bigger plans” for the specials than what we initially saw.
Writer and showrunner, Russell T Davies, wrote in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine that the teaser, which showed a bit more of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, tagged onto the end of the Jodie Whittaker’s final episode as the Thirteenth Doctor, initially featured much more footage. So why not? He explained:
“Those 60 seconds were originally designed as a much larger trailer, 90 seconds long, to go out after The Power of the Doctor on 23rd October 2022.
“A trailer for… well, things that are still secret. Announcements of our bigger plans. But then we said, no, too soon. And in fairness, we realised: this is Jodie’s night, it’s time for us to step back so we can all celebrate her, along with viewers across the world.”
In fairness, the trailer was shown more than a year before the 60th anniversary specials are due to air, so seeing too much feels premature.
What’s more, Davies revealed that the trailer showed no footage from the second special. And that means there’s still plenty of surprises in store for us!
Just as a refresher, here’s that trailer again — with a shock appearance of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor!
David Tennant returns to Doctor Who in three specials, due to air in November 2023, alongside Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Yasmin Finney debuts as a new character called Rose, while Neil Patrick Harris will star as an as-yet-unnamed antagonist… who plenty of fans reckon is the Celestial Toymaker.
