The BBC has released an interview with showrunner, Russell T Davies, who chats about this ideas for Doctor Who Series 15.

The season began with The Robot Revolution, which introduced us — and the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) — to Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), a reluctant traveller cut off from her own time, though we won’t know why until, presumably, the two-part finale…

What can viewers expect from [Series 15]? What was your vision?

The vision is to be bigger, and brighter, and bolder than ever. There are some darker swings in this season but some bolder swings as well. There’s an Interstellar Song Contest; that’s possibly the biggest and maddest thing we’ve ever done! It’s absolutely gorgeous. The joy of Doctor Who is that it’s different every single week. People keep on saying to me, “What’s different about [Series 15]?” And that’s the point of the show; it’s designed to be different each week, and we’re leaning into that.

There are hostile planets – more hostile than ever – The Interstellar Song Contest has got more aliens than we’ve ever had. We keep learning on this job, we keep enjoying it more and more, loving the show, and pushing it further. There’s lots more energy, lots more scares, lots more thrills and lots more laughs as well. It’s a more grandiose series, and we’re very proud of it.

In [Series 14], we had the theme of finding out Ruby’s birth mother. Is there a theme in S[Series 15]?

Yes, the theme is “Get Belinda home”! Surviving the first episode is a bit of an ordeal for her, but once that happens it’s a very unusual story in that the Doctor can’t get her home – specifically to the 24th May 2025, 7.30am in the morning… And the reason for that is something very important that runs across the series. You can still watch every single episode, completely unencumbered by that knowledge. It doesn’t stop you enjoying every week’s episode as an anthology series but nonetheless – why can’t the Doctor get Belinda home? What is happening? What force is working against them? Is it to do with her? Is it to do with him? Is it something on that date? We are heading towards the transmission of an episode on the 24th May 2025 – that’s the exciting thing – that’s part one of the season finale.

Belinda has a mum and dad who she loves very much. Her dad is a taxman, her mum’s a violinist, and that’s a life she wants to get back to. Of course, it has to be said, within this space of one journey to Miami, she’s also loving being on board the TARDIS because I think it would be strange for her to not love what the Doctor does, and to love his character as well. So, she’s very quickly enamoured by the whole setup. Nonetheless, she’s got very strong reasons for getting back.

Varada is absolutely wonderful and was obviously in the show last year (Boom, written by Steven Moffat) and we loved her so much. We went to audition for Belinda and we went to a lot of people and saw some really great names and, at the same time every day, we were still working on [Series 14]. As I watched another edit of Boom – I must see an episode about 50 times by the time I’m finished – and every single viewing I was more and more impressed by her, and then suddenly, like a light in my head, I went, ‘oh, why don’t we just bring her back?’ Doctor Who’s been doing that for many, many years – finding actors that we like and bringing them back again. So, I sent everyone an email, and everyone just said yes straight away, all the way up to the heads of the BBC and Disney+ because they all adored her. It was one of the easiest decisions we’ve ever had.

What can you tell us about the dynamic between the Doctor and Belinda?

She’s tougher with him than Ruby [Sunday, played by Millie Gibson] was. Ruby was younger, and Ruby was also looking for a family and a more exciting life. Finding the TARDIS fitted her exactly, and we’re coming back to that story, because of course Ruby’s returning, but for Belinda it’s more of a life interruption and “how dare he have the nerve to do this”. Seeing alien planets and vistas and travelling in history is obviously a wonderful thing, but she’s very much aware of the death sentence that’s put over your head whenever you step outside the TARDIS. You can’t take a single step without a rock, or a laser, or an arrow being fired at you and she’s very much aware of that. She knows this is deadly and it’s quite surprising that companions of the Doctor in the past don’t really point this out much! It’s all danger and disaster from the word go, but she is very open to that.

I like the fact she works in A&E and she’s always cleaning up other people’s troubles. It’s hard work in A&E, that really is the front line of the NHS. So, she’s very much wondering why anyone would live a dangerous life, because she sees what happens to people. She’s keenly aware of physical and mortal danger and thinks the Doctor has no right to put her there. Belinda is a bit more of an equal for him, she doesn’t listen to him and she won’t be charmed by him so easily. That’s a nice tension on board the TARDIS. It’s fun.

And speaking of the Doctor, will we see a different side to him this year? Is the character going to develop anymore?

There are always different sides to him. Again, without giving away too much, there’s a couple of episodes where he’s very much out of his depth. It’s always very interesting to watch an actor and work out what they’re not doing, so we can push things into that area, which is difficult with Ncuti because he’s got absolutely full range and he offers you everything. But nonetheless, there’s some moments of real genuine comedy that I think we’ve never had a chance to play, and at the other end of the scale, absolute darkness… Ncuti is wonderful, that’s what these great Doctors are, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with many of them. It’s just limitless performance where you think they could be as angry, or as sad, or as happy, or as mad as you could possibly hope for, and they simply deliver. It’s brilliant.

Ncuti gave some absolutely incredible performances last year. Is there a particular episode or moment this year that you’re excited for viewers to see?

Yes, all of them! There’s a living cartoon coming up [in Lux], and the Doctor himself becomes a cartoon at one point in that episode and that’s really fun, but also rather dark and strange. It’s a really weird, surreal situation for the Doctor to be in. And of course, I have to say the finale where he’s pushed further than ever before and saving everyone’s lives is harder than ever. It’s a really tough season finale where everything’s on the line and we discover things about the Doctor we’ve never discovered before…

And if you could describe this season in one word or phrase, what would it be?

Get Belinda Home!

Doctor Who Series 15 continues this Saturday (19th April 2025) with Lux…