; Date: Fri Oct 15 2021

Tags: Doctor Who »»»» Doctor Who Season 13

There is now an official trailer for Doctor Who Season 13, and we have verified show dates, we have the names of the directors and writers, and some clues about the storyline. But we do not know show titles. And, why oh why did Chris Chibnall write every single episode?

Normally a teaser video for a new Doctor Who episode gets me excited. This, left me feeling sleepy. That's been my issue for every episode under Chibnall's tutelage, that the characters seemed to be sleepwalking through the story, and that there wasn't much motivation for them to be present.

This trailer tries to be exciting and intriguing. For instance, there's the Sontaran on horseback looking to be a medieval knight. That's intriguing isn't it? But, having watched the trailer 3 times, and another time carefully watching the scenes for clues, I can't shake this feeling of malaise.

This is rather intriguing isn't it? It's got the look of a normal earth construction yard you might see for building ships. The construction gantry in the foreground even has a company logo, just as you'd expect a construction company logo. But, in the foreground there's a Sontaran ship being built?

And, a Sontaran on horseback looking just like a medieval knight. Remember that one of the first times Sontarans were seen in Doctor who was in a medieval castle.

This character whispers "What is that" (he's obviously inside the TARDIS), but we are asking "Who is that".

Dreadlocked dude wearing a kind of military uniform with an intriguing badge of rank on his shoulder while standing in the TARDIS? Who is that, indeed?

This character says "Our final fight has begun". But, that sort of wording implies this dude has known The Doctor for a long time. But, who is this, and why have we never seen this dude before? Intriguing?

Earlier in the trailer The Doctor asks why she doesn't remember all this, but who does know about it? So, the fact that we have no idea who is this guy with the crystals on his face could just be part of why The Doctor doesn't remember.

And, of course, the "doesn't remember" could be part of that Timeless Child nonsense. Namely, we saw in those stories, that I fear will be revisited in all this, that The Doctor was really The Timeless Child, and that The Timeless Child had had his/her/its memories wiped by that organization that isn't the Celestial Intervention Agency.

Here's the field battle, complete with laser cannon's. In another scene The Doctor is running across a muddy field of battle, a cannon ahead of her, towards the TARDIS, so that could have been on this field. What is this about? We have no clue.

I can say it's extremely unlikely that the BBC hired a couple thousand extra's to film this. As a former member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I've witnessed actual field battles (Pennsic War in 1987 or so). This is easily 10,000 people on a side. That's way too many to be a rational choice for the BBC to have hired human extra's, and therefore it's almost certainly CGI.

I don't think it is good military tactics for the units to stop being a cohesive unit, and to instead just run towards the opposing army as if they're a disorganized band of ruffians. Why did the militaries of old line up in orderly units if they would just turn into a disorganized mass when it came to the battle? In the field battles I witnessed, at Pennsic, the units tried to work together. In particular, I have a clear memory from Pennsic of the Ansteorran Knights fighting their way across the battlefield as a solid line.

And... the Sontaran as a medieval knight on horseback makes sense with having a field battle like this....?

These are normal Cybermen, not the Gallifreyan Cybermen we saw in the previous episode.

But.. over the last few seasons, starting with The Doctor Falls, we've seen a story-line building with The Master building expertise with constructing his own Cybermen. In The Doctor Falls, he was on a long distance "generation ship" falling into a black hole, building old school Mondasian Cybermen. Then throughout Season 12, we saw the new The Master working with Cybermen, and ending with him converting the Time Lords into Gallifreyan Cybermen.

But the Cybermen shown here are not those Cybermen, so this is ... what?

Here's The Doctor on the left, someone in medieval-knight garb with feathers on his helmet, someone unidentified in the middle, and Sontaran ships in the background.

Yeah, okay, that's what you want us to believe. There's some elements of some of that.

Hey, BBC, was "epic stories" what sold Doctor Who in the past? Or was it "great stories" full of time-wimey twists?

Take the Key to Time series from the Fourth Doctor. There was a great puzzle to unravel, spread out over 24 episodes - back when a full season had 24 episodes - and none of the episodes were what we would call "epic". They were interesting, funny, scary, had some interesting elements of time travel, such as sticking that one military guy in a time loop, etc.

Maybe the BBC feeling forced to produce Epic Stories is causing the stories you produce to fall flat on their faces?

For some reason Chibnall's stories have felt malaisacle. I just made up that word, but it describes how I feel after watching his episodes, and watching this trailer.

The return of RTD is eagerly anticipated.

Doctor Who, Season 13 dates, directors, and authors

Date	Director	Author
Sunday, October 31	Jamie Magnus Stone	Chris Chibnall
Sunday, November 7	Jamie Magnus Stone	Chris Chibnall
Sunday, November 14	Azhur Saleem	Chris Chibnall
Sunday, November 21	Jamie Magnus Stone	Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton
Sunday, November 28	Azhur Saleem	Chris Chibnall
Sunday, December 5	Azhur Saleem	Chris Chibnall