What we know about the next Doctor Who special, 'Wild Blue Yonder'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first Doctor Who special, “The Star Beast”

In comparison to the first Doctor Who special “The Star Beast” (which fans knew was based on an old comic strip adventure) and the finale “The Giggle” (which will feature Neil Patrick Harris as returning villain The Toymaker), avid watchers of the beloved BBC sci-fi series have been left in the dark as to what the middle special, “Wild Blue Yonder”, entails…

To recap, the series opener ended with Catherine Tate’s Donna getting her memories of David Tennant’s Doctor back (having resolved the metacrisis which forced her to have her memories wiped the last time we saw her) and going for one more trip in the Tardis, only to spill coffee on the time machine’s console, causing it to malfunction.

Russell T Davies’ secret words

Showrunner Davies, who is back for these 60th anniversary specials and for future series with incoming Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, previously told Doctor Who Magazine that “once you unravel Fenslaw, Collis, Brate then the whole thing clicks into place”, and Whovians have already got to work trying to figure out exactly who – or what – these names refer to.

Davies reposted the words on Saturday morning, along with a picture of him and a metallic robot which has previously been associated with the episode.

These three words run alongside five other words associated with the special: Southampton, vegetable, bean, starlight and flux – more on the last one later…

The episode description

Most TV guides are running with the incredibly brief summary that “an out-of-control Tardis takes the Doctor and Donna to the furthest edge of adventure”.

Helpful…

HADS

In a preview clip of the episode, we’re reintroduced to a Tardis setting known as the Hads, and given further context behind Donna calling on the pair of them to find out what is “so bad” on the spaceship and “go and kick its arse”.

We’ve missed you, Donna.

The snippet sees Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor explain: “A mechanism onboard the Tardis called the Hads – Hostile Action Displacement System. If the Tardis is in danger, it goes away … and it only comes back once the danger is gone.

“If the Tardis is rebuilding itself, maybe it clicked back on.”

We are also shown the viewpoint of something watching from the grates nearby…

‘Next time…’

More ambiguity comes in the ‘next time’ trailer released not long after “The Star Beast” aired, in which we see the Doctor get intrigued by “life signs”, bang his hands against a wall in anger and ask “what are they”…

At this stage, we don’t know. Even back when the titles were revealed, episode two had broken up clips, distorted audio and a great big ‘redacted’ label over it all:

Doctor Who 2023 - Titles Revealed! | 60th Anniversary Specials Trailer | Doctor Whowww.youtube.com

We do hear the Doctor say “I’m sorry, Donna”, though, and numerical code in one of the text boxes translates to "binary, binary, binary, I don't want to go" backwards.

The plot “isn’t a secret because there are any surprise returning actors or villains”

That’s according to director Tom Kingsley on Twitter/X:

It’s already been confirmed that Coronation Street actress Susan Twist will star, but according to Den of Geek, the episode preview for “Wild Blue Yonder” in Doctor Who Magazine lists three redacted actors’ names in the ‘starring’ section.

And Tennant previously told Total TV Guide: “I don’t want to give too much away, but I was always aware of the casting that was going to be part of the episode. That was something Russell was very specific about.

“I just didn’t imagine it would… manifest itself in the way that it does.”

Flux and The Timeless Child mentioned “very slightly”

Back when Davies’ predecessor Chris Chibnall was showrunner, we had the special series “Flux” and the controversial episode “The Timeless Children”.

The former revealed the Doctor was part of a shadowy organisation on Gallifrey known as The Division, while the latter rewrote Doctor Who lore to say the Doctor wasn’t actually a native Gallifreyan but rather someone from another “realm” with regenerative abilities the Shobogans (native Gallifreyans) took and gave to their own race.

It’s been teased by Davies that these two episodes will be alluded to in “Wild Blue Yonder”.

“The history of the Flux and the Timeless Child is dealt with very slightly in this episode to acknowledge the brilliant work Chris did and to say that’s absolutely part of our history as well,” he told Doctor Who Magazine.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait until 6:30pm on BBC One tonight for answers…

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