The Cutprice Guignol

Fear not, fair readers – your favourite/The Objective Best Doctor Who reviewer has come down from on high to help you navigate the new season trailer! I sincerely hope you’ve been waiting with the appropriately baited breath for my hot takes on the series, given that it’s been a hellacious, what, eight weeks without them, and, before I start my reviews of the next season in April, let’s talk about this (rather interesting) trailer – and whether it points to good things for the struggling series or not.

First and most foremostly, I think we have to discuss our new companion, Belinda, played by Varada Sethu; as referenced in this trailer, she turned up in Boom, the third episode of the previous season, and she’s returning here to take the main companion spot from Ruby Sunday (who is also kicking about, but certainly not filling Full Time Bestie duties any longer). I’ve got mixed feelings on the glimpse we get of her here; I’m really and well and truly over the Doctor’s companions having some sort of epic mystical recurring status in the Doctor’s life, given that we’ve seen it done with Amy and Clara (and, to an extent with the Bad Wolf arc, Rose) already. It’s not that there isn’t any new ground to be explored here, but it’s inevitably going to share a lot of overlap with stories we’ve already seen several times, and that’s not exactly what I was hoping for.

But, that said, I’m interested in what we see of the relationship between them here – after the Doctor and Ruby’s slightly toothless sparkly gel pen BFF status, a relationship that’s a little more contentious does offer some new ground for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. From the glimpses we get here, Sethu and Gatwa have some really interesting chemistry that’s going to draw out different sides of this Doctor, and feel like a good match right off the bat.

In terms of monsters of the week (and of the series at large), the one I’m most excited for by far is Alan Cummings (a fellow bisexual Scottish legend) as Mr Ring-a-Ding, a living cartoon. The look we get at him here, crawling out of a cinema screen, is so damn good – the classic, cheerful, retro styling matched with that sinister fourth-wall-breaking tone is catnip for me, and one that Russel T Davies has balanced well before with villains like The Wire. But there are a couple of other standouts in this trailer, from the strange bone creature who doesn’t look like a complete CGI clusterfuck for a change, to the promise of some campy fun with the Certainly-Not-EuroVision song context episode. I know that the silliness isn’t for everyone, but I’m coming to this show for a good time, and if that involves Space ABBA belting out The Weeping Angel Takes it All, then I’m here for it, you know?

I would love to hear what you thought of this trailer in the comments – are you looking forward to this season? What did you think of the first series of the revival? How do you feel about Varada Sethu’s Belinda based on what we’ve seen here? Let me know down below!

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(header image via Variety)