Season 56 (Doctor Who)

Season 56 of Doctor Who, also known as Series 4 premiered in May 2022 for a run of 13 episodes. It was a special season, which formed part of the 60th Anniversary Celebrations. It saw the return of three former showrunners, to handle each serial of the season - Ronald D. Moore, Jane Espenson and David Renwick. It starred Ace Bhatti as the Doctor.

After Hodges Departure
After Adrian Hodges left as showrunner at the end of the previous season, and with a thirteen episode season order, Franchise Executive, Mal Young decided to split the season up into three separate serials, to celebrate the 60th Anniversary, with two serials spanning six-episodes, and the thirteenth episode acting a special for the BBC's Centenary. In collaboration with the Executive Supervisor of Television, Jane Espenson, he decided to air the first serial in the Spring 2022, followed by the Centenary Special in the Autumn 2022 and the third serial in Spring 2023, proceeding the 60th Anniversary movie, in the Autumn.

As the the new showrunner had yet to be picked, Espenson made the decision for each of the three serials to have a separate showrunner, namely a returning showrunner from the past. Espenson offered the first serial to, former showrunner of season 49, 50 and 51 as well as series 4 to 7 of spin-off Panopticon, Ronald D. Moore. Initially, Moore did say no. He had reservations about returning to Doctor Who, especially after what had happened in 2017, but he had maintained a friendship with Espenson over the years, so shrugged the offer off as her being very gracious. He was also busy with showrunning Apple TV+’s For All Mankind. However, upon discussing the offer with Ira Steven Behr, over dinner, Behr encouraged Moore to reconsider, telling him that he never got to finish his time on Doctor Who properly, and Espenson’s offer was one that probably wouldn’t come around again, especially as she was going to be leaving the franchise. After some consideration, Moore did eventually meet with Espenson again, where she discussed a list of possible things they could do for the serial, which, finally managed to win him round and Moore accepted the offer. Unbeknownst to Moore, Espenson had asked Ben Aaronovitch to fill his place, but Espenson terminated the agreement, following Moore accepting to come on board. The second serial was only a single feature-length special, and in-part due to it's importance, and also because Espenson was departing the franchise the next year, she, herself, decided to handle the serial. For the third and final serial, Espenson gave the offer to, former showrunner, from seasons 35 to 40, David Renwick. Despite multiple showrunners handling the season, Espenson coordinated things so some story threads did continue throughout.

During this time, Gaynor Holmes left BBC Scotland to join BBC North to oversee the production of the new series of Waterloo Road, Gavin Smith took over her position of overseeing production on Doctor Who for BBC Scotland.

The Moore Serial
With Moore contracted as showrunner for the first six episodes of the season, he and Espenson sat down and pitched ideas that could be done for his serial and with this, Moore returned to an idea that he had originally planned for Season 53, which he'd first thought of during the production of The Martian Equinox. Initially, Moore had planned a pseudo-remake of the serial for the opening two-parter of Season 53, which would set up the season arc with someone tampering with the Doctor’s memories and timeline. Additionally, peppered throughout the season, but not every episode, would be additional reimaginings of missing serials. Moore’s original idea was for it to all tie into a time-hopping paradox created by the Ascended Daleks (from Panopticon), which would all collimate in his planned Season 53 finale. While in his early discussions with Espenson, Moore reminded her of his ideas for Season 53, and said that a full-on Battlestar Galactica style reimagining of The Daleks’ Master Plan could work well for a 6-episode serial format, and Espenson instantly enthusiastic.

As work began, Moore was bound to strict secrecy, as Mal Young, in his usual showman-like style, decided that everything would be kept confidential until late-November at the Official Doctor Who Convention, meaning that production would already be a month in at this point, let alone the amount of time it’d have to remain secret in pre-production. It was decided that until after the convention, Moore would work remotely for the United States on the show, in order to prevent fans connecting the dots, if he was sighted in Scotland. Moore also had to delay Season 3 of For All Mankind, but in order to prevent fans from being suspicious, it was officially cited as being because of “the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic”. Moore vowed to return to For All Mankind, as soon as his work on Doctor Who had wrapped.

As showrunner, Moore decided not to “go it alone”, instead calling up his back-catalogue of writers, from his era, to contribute to the serial. He also assembled them, once again, in a (zoom) writers’ room, to help with storylining. These writers were Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Ira Steven Behr and Matthew B. Roberts. For two weeks, they storylined the serial, and worked out who would write which episode. They were once again given the credit of Co-Executive Producer – the first time Ira Steven Behr had held this credit on Doctor Who.

Moore similarly consulted directors he was used to working with, hiring Rachel Talalay, John Dahl and also Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who he’d met on Battlestar Galactica and wanted to use on Doctor Who for years, but was always unavailable. After coordination with Mal Young and Jane Espenson it was decided that Block 1 would be handled by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, and cover Episodes 2 and 3, while Block 2 would be handle by Rachel Talalay, and would shoot in Vancouver on the Pixomondo AR Wall. Additionally, this Block, for production reasons would cover the Centenary Special, as well. This meant Espenson would be shooting a Block of 3 episodes, covering Episodes 1, 5 and 7. After filming completed in America, the block wrapped with a day of filming on the TARDIS set in Scotland. Block 3 was handled by John Dahl, covering Episodes 4 and 6, and were both set entirely in Scotland. Producer wise, Moore hired Nikki Wilson for Block 1, Seth Edelstein for Block 2 and Brian Minchin for Block 3.

Casting wise, Moore was happy to work with Andy Pryor, again, especially while casting the returning legacy characters. Suranne Jones was suggested very early on, in discussions, and she was invited for a screen test for, a 6-episode Doctor Who recurring character, called Jean Morgan – a pseudonym (in order to keep the secret) created from Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom’s original actor), and Morgaine (the character Marsh played in Battlefield). It was only after Jones accepted the role, that she was told the truth, and then forced to sign an NDA. In preparation for filming, Jones met with Jean Marsh to discuss the character of Sara Kingdom. It was during this meeting that the two came up with the idea of Marsh cameoing as an old Sara Kingdom in Episode 6. Jones presented this to Moore, who instantly loved the idea and wrote it into the script. Although wanting to keep it a surprise, Mal Young was told, in April, that news of Marsh’s appearance was likely to leak, so the upcoming trailer for the season was adjusted to include Marsh at the end, allowing for Young to officially reveal the news.

Moore had agreed, early on, with Pryor, that for Mavic Chen they wanted to cast a genuine Asian actor, as while Kevin Stoney’s performance was popular with Doctor Who fans, it would be simply racist to use a white actor in the role. Therefore Pryor set about auditioning Asian men between the ages of 60 and 80 for the role of Vaughn Chang, another pseudonym. Togo Igawa was eventually cast in the role, and then told exactly who he’d be playing. In 1995, Igawa had previously appeared in the Season 32 serial Saint Anthony’s Fire as the character, Hovv. Further recurring legacy characters were auditioned with pseudonyms, as well, in the months leading up to production.

Production officially began at BBC Scotland on 18 October 2021, the day after the broadcast of The Highland Beast, in complete secrecy. The production had been plagued with leaks recently, and the team at BBC Scotland were extremely nervous about more leaks travelling out of the set. As a precaution, all the call sheets, scripts and paperwork included false character names, with some scripts containing different scenes, as well, so if something did leak, it could be tracked back to who. Unfortunately for the production team, a call sheet did leak to the Mirror, however, due to the use of pseudonyms the surprise was (largely) kept. Although some fans on the internet had manage to crack the code, and work out what the pseudonyms were hiding, the theory wasn’t widespread, so most fans were genuinely surprised at ODWC, when it was announced.

Although Ruth Barrett had been Doctor Who’s composer for the past two seasons, Moore called upon Bear McCreary, once again, to handle the music, however, Jeff Russo’s theme did remain. The title sequence remained the same as Season 55 too, with the only change being the logo, which now remained on screen for less time before moving off the screen for The Daleks’ Master Plan logo, appearing on it’s own, after the main Doctor Who logo. Everything else, apart from cast credits, which now read “Ace Bhatti”, “Suranne Jones”, “and Togo Igawa”, remained the same as Season 55. The title cards remained the same, except above the episode title a smaller “Episode One” or “Episode Two” etc etc appeared.

The Espenson Serial
To be added.

The Renwick Serial
To be added.

Promotion
Details about the season were first announced at the Official Doctor Who Convention 2021, on 27 November, alongside a teaser trailer for the first serial. This teaser trailer was screened at the convention, and live-streamed through YouTube, before being uploaded to various social media platforms. It was not featured on BBC or CBS television, instead only appearing online.

Several months later, on 30 March 2022, the official key art for the first serial was released, alongside an airdate announcement. The key art was initially released via Twitter, but went onto appear, not only on BBC and Paramount+ listings, but also on posters and billboards around the world, and eventually the home media releases. Two variations of the key art were released, one with BBC branding, and the other with Paramount+ branding.

On 25 April 2022, BBC One premiered a 40-second TV trailer for the first serial, in a bumper between EastEnders and Panorama. This was followed by a longer 108 second trailer being released online, through various social media platforms, including the official Doctor Who YouTube Channel and the Paramount+ YouTube Channel. The 40-second TV trailer continued to be aired across linear BBC channels, up until the 8 May premiere. A 30-second edit of the trailer was frequently seen on both CBS, and internationally around the world, advertising it's Paramount+ premiere.

Regular

 * The Doctor - Ace Bhatti
 * Sara Kingdom - Suranne Jones (4/A)
 * Mavic Chen - Togo Igawa (4/A)
 * The Doctor - Anthony Head (4/B)
 * The Doctor - Samantha Bond (4/B)

Recurring

 * Bret Vyon - Sam Claflin
 * The Monk - Jo Brand
 * Phaedra - Emma Caulfield
 * Raleigh Baker-Mitchell - Sarah Winter
 * Pete Fletcher - Daniel Adegboyega
 * Sally Brennen - Shelley King
 * Annie Downes - Jane Wymark
 * The Intendant - Ronan Summers
 * Andark - Bill Nighy
 * Marc Cory - Finn Cole
 * Karlton - Peter Caulfield

Guest

 * Kert Gantry - Tom Varey
 * Jeff Garvey - James Dutton
 * Gordon Lowery - Charlie Hamblett
 * Lizan - August Winter
 * Roald - Michael Boisvert
 * Tawny Richard - Andrea Carter
 * Trantis - Alex McCooeye
 * Malpha - Jonathan Watson
 * Celation - David Westhead
 * Gearon - Paul Kasey
 * Beaus - Jennifer Chaiet
 * Hachi - Choose Bay
 * Mei-Ling - Suni La
 * Shu-Fen - Gabby Wong
 * Lujing - Dan Li
 * Returning Officers - Arthur Lee, Aaron Phinehas Peters, Lloyd Morris
 * Mavic Chen, aged 5 - Jung Hyeon-jun
 * Mavic Chen, aged 10 - Aiden Li
 * Mavic Chen, aged 15 - Ian Chen
 * Ice Warrior - Richard Ashton
 * Venusian - Rochenda Sandall
 * Borkar - Tom Glenister
 * Karlton - Peter Caulfield
 * Froyn - Adam Hugill
 * Rhynmal - Erick Hayden
 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Sara Kingdom, aged 8 - Tallulah Conabeare
 * Bret Vyon, aged 6 - Ralph Rhodes
 * PC Graham - Mark Roper
 * Katarina - Adrienne Hill
 * The Doctor - Adjoa Andoh
 * Rasputin - Piotr Adamczyk
 * Russian Guards - David Vickers, Bruce M. Stockert, John MacDonald
 * Leanne - Gina Bramhill
 * Brent - Dominic Rowan
 * Carla - Ruth Gemmell
 * The Doctor - William Hartnell
 * Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
 * Dalek Operators - Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Jon Davey, Matt Doman
 * Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Crew
To be added.

Filming
To be added.

Aliens and Enemies

 * The Daleks
 * Varga Plants
 * Mavic Chen
 * Sara Kingdom

Physical Media
To be added.