Doctor Who leaps forward in time to 2020
DOCTOR Who will be disappearing from our TV screens for a year before returning in 2020.
Series 11 ended last night with Jodie Whittaker as the Time Lord answering distress calls from a battle-scarred planet.
Fans cannot even look forward to a Christmas Day treat this year as, for the first time since the show was revived in 2005, the seasonal special will be on New Year’s Day. And that will be it for 2019 although head writer Chris Chibnall said work has already begun on the 12th series ready for the following year.
The sci-fi show drew its biggest launch viewing figures for a decade in October with an audience of 8.2million. Since then, however, it has drawn complaints about ‘politically correct’ storylines with episodes covering the US Civil Rights movement and the 1947 partition of India. Meanwhile within weeks ratings for Miss Whittaker, 36, and her sidekicks Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gil and Tosin Cole had dropped to just over 6million.
Mr Chibnall said of the future series: ‘We’re off again! Well we never actually stopped. As Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and friends have been winning the hearts of families across the nation this autumn, we’ve been busy with a whole new set of actionpacked adventures.
‘We adore making this show and can’t wait to bring more scares, more monsters to BBC1. Brilliant!’
Miss Whittaker recently told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I can’t wait to step back in and get to work again... I’m not ready to hand it over yet.’ She became the first female Doctor after replacing Peter Capaldi.