At last Russell T Davies has some dates for your diary he'd like to tell you about...

At last!

It’s time to GET EXCITED. Here we gooooo! Come ON! (I’m going to use capitals this month, I LIKE them.)

Doesn’t it feel like ages since Doctor Who was on? Well, if we get this right, you’ll be spinning with Who-ness for years and years. If content is king, then we’ve got a right royal regal procession coming your way, so stand back! Fanfare! Trumpets! Ermine! Tiaras!

After months of hints and winks and sly little asides, it’s time for… well, okay, a few more hints and winks and blah-blah-blah, but we’re almost there! And you’ve seen that lovely great big pre-Strictly trailer. The UNIT Tower with its built-in helipad on the 55th Floor, I mean, get in! So much more is on the way this year, like Miriam Margolyes’s Meep, and the brand new Tardis interior, oh, and that terrifying scene with Sue, not to mention two celebrity historical figures thrown in for good measure, plus the sheer goddamn mystery of Special 2, and like a cherry on top, a genuine in-universe crossover with my ITV drama from earlier this year, Nolly, which is truly canonical and official, because I say so. I told Charlie Quinn, the Script Editor of Nolly, what I’d done, and he actually gasped, “It’s the RTD Universe!” Promote that man.

DATES to LOOK OUT FOR

November 1, November 17, November 23. And none of those is the date of the Specials’ transmission! Also, I’d better say, none of them is a date to book a hotel for, since we don’t have any live events planned. Sorry! We concentrated our fire on things everyone can see.

I’m writing this on September 18, which is a strange, liminal time, when not all publicity decisions have been finalised. So I’m talking about things which should have been announced by the time this is published, and yet… I can’t quite be sure. (Like Miriam’s announcement; we had that planned for October but then her autobiography was published, giving the game away early. Oops, press release, quickly!) But you’ll know about Unleashed by now, yes? Although you won’t know it’ll be popping up unexpectedly, briefly, well BEFORE The Star Beast is shown. What? How? Oh just wait!

And you’ll have been told about the Archive. The back catalogue of Doctor Who arriving on the iPlayer, AT LAST! When I arrived in this job, I told them I wanted to (1) make Doctor Who, (2) annually, (3) create massive Behind the Scenes coverage, (4) not telling you that yet, (5) nor that, and (6) have the back catalogue of Doctor Who ready and available not just for us, the fans, but for children and families and absolutely anyone. The show has always been split up on different platforms and behind paywalls. Now it’s here, for all to see, as one mighty empire. You can go from 1963, to The Power of the Doctor, without changing channels.

Mind you, I made that statement, then kind of forgot about it. I was busy, y’know? About 18 months later, I casually said to Julie Gardner, hey, what happened to that iPlayer plan? Has anyone done anything? She gave me her Basilisk Stare. And informed me that, while I’d forgotten all about it, fleets of lawyers and producers and subtitlers and data-wranglers had worked their fingers to the bone into the small hours of the night for an entire year to swing the deal. You idiot. Oops. Thanks all!

So you’re going to get stuff we’ve planned for more than 18 months. You’re also getting extra things that sprang into being, well, yesterday. Okay, it was July, this year. But as the summer began, I was thinking about the 60th and wondered, have we done enough? So I had an idea on July 5, sent a formal proposal to the team on July 20, then three scriptwriters got to work, and now, just two months later, in the second half of September, we’re about to embark on a 6-day studio shoot of brand new material that will make you FIZZ! I promise!

And meanwhile, we’re filming the actual show! Back on the streets of Cardiff, to shoot the NEXT series. Five of the next nine scripts, finished and planned. So all of the excitement above is already in the past tense for us…

Naah, that’s not true. We’re as wired as you are. Programmes don’t really exist until they’re transmitted, so right now, the Whoniverse feels alive and buzzing and wild with anticipation, and any… second… now… YAHOO!