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The First Episode Title for Doctor Who Series 14 Has Been Revealed

Russell T Davies, showrunner on Doctor Who, has confirmed the title of Series 14 Episode 2, which features Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday.

The episode will be called The Devil’s Chord, as revealed in Doctor Who Magazine.

This is the only Series 14 episode title we know, apart from the already-broadcast Christmas Day episode, The Church on Ruby Road, which introduced Ruby and saw her step on board the TARDIS.

The Devil’s Chord, directed by Ben Chessell, will be set in the 1960s and include the Beatles, as well as a new villain played by drag artist, Jinkx Monsoon. We presume it’s on similar lines as The Shakespeare Code, with music unlocking some fantastic alien darkness akin to words freeing the Carrionites in that Series 3 story.

The Beatles were seen in the First Doctor serial, The Chase, when the foursome were played by… The Beatles. The clip used was from an otherwise-lost instalment of hit BBC music show, Top of the Pops, in which the band perform Ticket to Ride.

Parts of this episode were used for the in-person audition for Ruby Sunday, so we’ve got The Devil’s Chord to thank for us getting the lovely Millie! Presumably the in-person scene was with Ncuti Gatwa so the production team could see their dynamic.

It feels a good move for Davies to revert back to his Series 1 to 4 structure, of having the Doctor and his companion on contemporary Earth in the first episode, potentially a story set in the future, then for them to go into the past. We’re inferring the second episode for this TARDIS team, i.e. the first of Series 14, takes us into the future anyway…

Doctor Who Series 14 will be compromised of eight episodes, plus a Christmas Day 2024 special.

Philip Bates

Editor and co-founder of the Doctor Who Companion. When he’s not watching television, reading books ‘n’ Marvel comics, listening to The Killers, and obsessing over script ideas, Philip Bates pretends to be a freelance writer. He enjoys collecting everything. Writer of The Black Archive: The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang, The Silver Archive: The Stone Tape, and 100 Objects of Doctor Who.

The First Episode Title for Doctor Who Series 14 Has Been Revealed

by Philip Bates time to read: 1 min
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