Doctor Who Season 2 is venturing to unknown worlds, including at least one with a classic 2-D animated look. The trailer for the new season dropped on Monday, and among the many strange sights it showed us, the strangest may have been the Doctor and his companion animated in a retro style. This is just one of many clues about the stories coming in this new season, which starts on April 12th. In the U.K., the show will only be available to stream on the BBC iPlayer, while in the rest of the world, it will be included on Disney+. There are eight new episodes to enjoy with A-list cast and creators behind them, and fans are getting hyped.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The new trailer lays out an overarching plot for The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) by introducing his new companion, Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu. It looks like Belinda is stranded in a different time and space, but as the Doctor points out to her, with time travel, there’s no real rush to get back. At some points in the trailer, she is clearly enjoying the scenic route, while in others the real horror of the situation is setting in.
The Doctor and Belinda are already dressed for a 1950s throwback when they’re transformed into cartoons. The two appear perplexed as a blue-skinned cartoon character says: “Roll ’em!” and the two are caught in a beam of light cast by a film projector. Somehow, this turns them both into animated versions of themselves, while changing their surroundings as well.
[RELATED: 7 Best Shows on Disney+ You Didn’t Know Were Streaming]
It’s clear this was meant to catch your attention, as it’s the point in the trailer where the music pauses before rising to a crescendo. However, with eight episode titles and no synopses so far, it’s hard to say when in the season this will occur. The most likely episode seems to be the finale, which is titled “The Reality War,” and is written by showrunner Russel T. Davies himself.
Other episode titles are also clearly represented in the trailer — “The Interstellar Song Contest,” for example, is called out by name, and both the Doctor and Belinda are obviously delighted by the premise. The season opens with The Robot Revolution, and the trailer gave us plenty of robots to speculate about. Davies wrote that episode himself as well.
Doctor Who is drawing a bigger audience than ever here in the U.S. now that it’s available week-to-week on Disney+, and with a relatively new Doctor and a brand new companion, it’s a great time to get on board. You can see all of Gatwa’s tenure as the Doctor on Disney+ now, and watch new episodes as they air starting on Saturday, April 12th.
