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Jul 15, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Doctor Who

Back in July 2017 the BBC announced British actress Jodie Whittaker will be taking over the iconic role of The Doctor on Doctor Who, making her the first ever female Doctor (and the Thirteenth Doctor overall). Now the first teaser for the new season, the first to feature Whittaker, has been revealed. It’s only 50 seconds long and shows off The Doctor’s new companions (Tosin Cole as Ryan, Mandip Gill as Yasmin, and Bradley Walsh as Graham) more than Whittaker, who shows up at the end. The new season will be the eleventh since the show returned in 2005 and is expected to air this fall on BBC America. Watch the trailer below.

Whittaker is best known for playing Beth Latimer for three seasons on Broadchurch. Other notable credits include “The Entire History of You” episode of Black Mirror and the film Attack the Block, among others.

Doctor Who first aired in 1963. The writers worked out a clever way to keep going when its original lead actor, William Hartnell, needed to leave the show in 1966: as The Doctor is an alien, instead of dying, when he is mortally wounded he “regenerates” into a new body and personality, allowing them to cast a new actor every few years while retaining the same continuity. Whittaker is the thirteenth actor to play the role (if you don’t count John Hurt’s the War Doctor and the fact that the First Doctor has been played by two other actors since Hartnell’s death) and the fifth one since the show came back in 2005 (which was 19 years after the last regular season of the classic series).

Peter Capaldi took over as time- and space-traveling alien The Doctor in 2013, but he regenerated into Whittaker during last year’s Christmas special, which saw him team up with the very first Doctor, who was played this time by David Bradley (Harry Potter, The Strain).

Last season was also Steven Moffat‘s final season as the showrunner and head writer on Doctor Who, last year’s Christmas special was his final episode as showrunner. His replacement is Chris Chibnall, who has already written several episodes of Doctor Who and its spinoff series Torchwood and is also known for creating and writing the acclaimed British detective drama Broadchurch (which starred David Tennant, who used to star as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who). Chibnall obviously was instrumental in bringing Broadchurch‘s Whittaker on board.

Whittaker had this to say in a previous press release when she was announced: “I’m beyond excited to begin this epic journey - with Chris and with every Whovian on this planet. It’s more than an honor to play the Doctor. It means remembering everyone I used to be, while stepping forward to embrace everything the Doctor stands for: hope. I can’t wait.”

When Whittaker was announced a teaser trailer/announcement video was shared. Last November the BBC shared the first photo of Whittaker in costume (every Doctor has a different look/dress sense, an outfit they wear in most episodes).

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