It’s a series wrap on the 11th season of BBC America’s Doctor Who, which has already seen a world of new-ness, from a new Doctor and companions friends, to new showrunner Chris Chibnall.
The production has been kept very secret so far, with new images emerging of Jodie Whittaker and co-stars Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole and a short teaser, but we still don’t really know who the new friends are, or what is happening. We haven’t even known officially who’d be writing and directing the series–until now. The BBC has released the list of new creatives, and much like everything about the show so far, it’s a lot of new faces and names. With the exception of Chibnall himself–who had written five episodes of Doctor Who in the past, as well as showrunning the first two seasons of Torchwood–none of the writers announced have worked on Doctor Who before, which is very exciting!
The writers roster contains novelist Malorie Blackman; BATFA-nominated Skins writer Ed Hime; playwright and screenwriter Vinay Patel, whose television debut Murdered by My Father won the Royal Society of Television award for best Single Drama, and was nominated for three BATFAs; Pete McTighe, the originating writer of Wentworth Prison, the female prison drama that has sold to over 150 countries; and acclaimed screenwriter, TV writer, and playwright Joy Wilkinson.
You’ll notice right away at the writers list contains two women, which is as many as have ever written on a single season of Doctor Who. Patel and Blackman also become the first people of color ever to write for the TV series, in its now 55th year in existence. Blackman has written some Doctor Who prose in the past.
The director’s list includes veteran TV director Sallie Aprahamian; Jamie Childs who directed Jodie Whittaker’s reveal video; up-and-coming filmmaker Jennifer Perrott; and Mark Tonderai, who has directed everything from Lucifer, Gotham, and Black Lightning, to George RR Martin’s Nightflyers and the Jennifer Lawrence thriller House at the End of the Street.
Chibnall made a point during the press conference at Comic-Con to say that he and executive producer Matt Strevens deliberately added more women and more people of color to the show’s production, saying “It should be the most inclusive show in the universe.”
Doctor Who returns sometime in the fall to BBC America, with a premiere simulcast on BBC America and BBC One in the UK.
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
