Doctor Who's showrunner writes exclusively for DWM... This issue: keeping secrets out of the TV listings, celebrating milestones out of order and getting Ncuti to the Oscars on time!

Timey-wimey.

It’s all getting very timey-wimey in the Doctor Who office. Shooting Season 2 before we’ve transmitted Season 1 is complicated enough! But timescales are sliding and overlapping all over the place. Just the other day, Liv (you met Liv in DWM 599) was asking me about billings, whether we wanted something kept secret in a certain episode. I said, that’s fine, that’s all revealed in the episode before. But she pointed out that billings for the later episode become available before the previous episode is transmitted. Oh my head. Time storm! But good call, Liv!

At the same time, you might have noticed Scott Handcock’s Production Diary disappear from these pages. That’s because Scott has moved onwards and upwards at Bad Wolf - congratulations, Scott! - and you can welcome our new script team, David and his assistant Hilla, on the pages of Gallifrey Guardian this month… except, look, it’s timey-wimey again, this information is so old already. I just looked up the very first email I received from David, and it’s dated 30 May 2023! You see, this show is so out of sync with the perception of it, even within a magazine as closely-tied to production as DWM.

(Though Scott isn’t entirely absent from Season 2, he stayed on to script-edit the first drafts of Episode 4 because… well, yes, timey-wimey reasons, you’ll see.)

I often think, the timey-wimeyness was most evident in the past couple of years’ worth of Specials. The Power of the Doctor celebrated television’s 100th birthday with a story featuring classic Doctors and companions. While an episode celebrating the show’s 60th featured John Logie Baird! Wrong way round, surely? What are the chances of that happening? At the same time, ever since I came back to this job, people have been asking me if I’m going to do anything special for the 2025 season, to celebrate the fact that it marks 20 years of new Who. But to be honest… no. Sorry. I don’t think that’s wise. Even though it’s a time-travel show, I don’t think it looks good to have a 100th, then a 60th, then a 20th. Let alone the fact that’ll be Season 2, or Series 15, within a 20-year span. Mind-boggling. Let’s just look forward.

But forward isn’t easy, when the production team is being pulled hither and thither. Here we are now, snouts deep in Season 2 (today, 8 March 2024, we’re shooting a scene that will live forever in Doctor Who history, and for once, that’s no exaggeration, I mean for-bloody-ever; remember this date and nod in agreement next year) but Season 1’s demands are still huge. For example, coming up soon, days after this DWM is published, you should have all the Season 1 episode titles revealed in a very lovely presentation. Meanwhile, yesterday, we sat and watched the final mix of Episode 6. I’ve mentioned this before, but Ep 6 has slightly less FX than other episodes - only slightly, it’s still wild! - so as a result, we’ve had to watch it less often. Fewer shots to check, fewer sign-offs needed. So we hadn’t seen it for months. Faithful reader, we loved it. We hooted and whooped, what a great story! And one of the best monsters ever. “Live vivisection!”

But as the time vortex soars and sweeps around us, one date stands out. Hurtling towards us through the light and smoke and colours. May 11. The new season. The Doctor and Ruby, Ncuti and Millie, unleashed across time and space. All those brand-new stories. The ultimate unboxing. Except, hold on, even that event is merrily timey-wiming away. Already, eight weeks are being concentrated into seven, as we launch with a mighty double-bill in the UK. And then, technically, the launch date is May 10 in the USA and other territories to the left of GMT. But hey, okay, we can time-and-wime those facts later, let’s talk about that next month, when DWM stands on the precipice of transmission, with so much fun to come.

Because as the launch gets closer, the Doctor Who office is juggling time-zones, quite literally. If you could have seen the schedule that got Ncuti to Los Angeles for the Oscars (scream!), you’d have awarded it the Turner Prize as a work of art, a beautiful cat’s cradle of double-banking, flight options and extended days. A masterpiece! And now, we’ve got a launch coming on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously, with the shoot for Season 2 still making its demands. But we can do it! We’re ready! This is why we write, plan and shoot so far in advance. We’ve been discussing this since 2021, so we can be…

Okay, I’ll say it.

So we can be Time Lords. The timing and the wiming is all under our control. And I promise you. It’s going to be spectacular. Mind you, the funny thing is, we still end up clock-watching, even those of us making the show, because the wait is agony. We can’t wait for you to see this stuff.

Almost there. One more DWM before transmission, hold on tight! Tick tock.