‘Doctor Who’ season 10 release date: Peter Capaldi says show will start early

Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie as the Doctor and new companion Bill in "Doctor Who" BBC.co.uk

“Doctor Who” season 10 is coming earlier than expected. Star Peter Capaldi has been heard telling a fan that the British sci-fi show would return in April.

BBC previously said “Doctor Who” would return sometime in the spring, which is from mid-March to June in the UK. However, in the clip recorded by fan Lucy Crewe, Capaldi is heard telling her about the show’s return.

“We’ll be on at Christmas, and then it starts again in April, I think,” Capaldi told her while posing for pictures with other fans. Click here for the link.

When “Doctor Who” had been revived in 2005, the show started in the spring as well. That has been the case until season 7, during Matt Smith’s time as the Doctor, when the series began in September. The winter schedule apparently hasn’t helped the show’s declining ratings.

And with season 10 starting in April, BBC appears to be taking advantage of the new schedule. But as Radio Times notes, BBC might have just picked April because it’s the most convenient time to introduce the Doctor’s new companion Bill (Pearl Mackie) to the world.

As for Bill, the teaser trailer in which she has been introduced as the new companion may not be canon at all. The two-minute clip shows Bill and the Doctor running away from the Daleks, with Bill asking the Gallifreyan Time Lord what those things were. It ends in a cliffhanger, ensuring fans would want to know what would happen next for Bill and the Doctor.

However, there might not even be a resolution to that. Showrunner Steven Moffat has admitted that he would most likely not include the scene in a real episode in season 10.

Watch new companion Bill’s introduction in ‘Doctor Who’