A 13-Day Doctor Who Marathon Is Coming to BBC America
On July 16, 2017, Doctor Who fans around the world got the news they’d been anxiously awaiting when the BBC announced that Broadchurch star Jodie Whittaker would be taking over the TARDIS in the iconic sci-fi series’s 11th season. Though fans got an early glimpse of her regeneration in “Twice Upon a Time,” the show's 2017 Christmas special, it was only earlier this week that the new season got an official release date of October 7, 2018. Now, in the weeks leading up to the Thirteenth Doctor’s first season, BBC America will run a “13 Days of Doctor Who” marathon.
The event will kick off at 6 a.m. ET/PT on Tuesday, September 25 with “Rose,” the first episode of the series’s reboot featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, his soon-to-be companion. The network will air every episode from the past 10 seasons, meaning that in addition to Eccleston’s single season you can relive every moment of David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi’s time as a Time Lord.
Though Whittaker will be the first female Doctor, she’s not the first actress to be considered for the role. Back in the 1980s, original series co-creator Sydney Newman proposed revitalizing the show by regenerating the Time Lord into a Time Lady. For years, the show’s producers have toyed with the idea of making The Doctor a woman. In 2008, former showrunner Russell Davies (who’s passing on the torch to Chris Chibnall for the 11th season) broached the idea yet again, citing Catherine Zeta-Jones as his top pick for the Eleventh Doctor following Tennant’s departure.
The marathon will conclude on Sunday, October 7th with the premiere of “The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” Whittaker’s first full episode.
If you’re itching to binge-watch another beloved sci-fi series, BBC America is dedicating five days of next week’s programming to The X-Files, in honor of its 25th anniversary. That marathon will kick off at 6 a.m. ET on Monday, September 10 and conclude on Friday, September 14.