It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for: the next Doctor will materialise live on television in a Doctor Who special this weekend.
If it feels different this time, it’s because it’s the first time the Doctor has been announced live on TV. Zoe Ball — you were expecting someone else? –presents the half-hour show on BBC One this Sunday 4 August at 7pm.
Currently keeping warm in the TARDIS, the eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and show runner Steven Moffat will be on hand to introduce the twelfth Doctor, regenerating new teeth, arms, hands, and lots of fingers after Who‘s 50th anniversary episode on 23 November.
Sunday’s programme will be simulcast on BBC America for Whovians stateside, and will look back on the absolutely fantastic past 50 years of Doctor Who. But most viewers will be concentrating on one thing: the identity of the twelfth — and last? — Doctor. Or will it be John Hurt? He’s out there, I know.
Potential names bandied about for the last of the Time Lords include Rory Kinnear, new Q Ben Whishaw and The Thick of It‘s Peter Capaldi, who could turn the Doctor’s police box into a swear box.
Who would you like to see in charge of the TARDIS? Will you be on the edge of your seat, or is Auntie Beeb milking it a bit? If you’re sad about the Matt Smith’s last words, don’t cry. While there’s life there’s Twitter, the comments or our Facebook wall. That sounds better. Now where shall we go?